Tencent makes more money than EA or Activision as global spending embraces PC, mobile over consoles

The biggest game publisher in the world isn’t responsible for Call of Duty or FIFA — it’s the Chinese company that owns League of Legends.

Blockbuster games still make for a lucrative business model, but free-to-play has turned Tencent into the biggest publisher in terms of game revenues, according to a report from market-research firm NewZoo. That Chinese company holds a majority stake in League of Legends developer Riot and a minority share of Gears of War studio Epic Games. Those subsidiaries’ games, along with Tencent’s Chinese releases, helped the company generate $3.48 billion in the first half of 2014. That’s 50 percent more than the next closest publisher, Electronic Arts, whose games have made $2.34 billion during the same period.