3 giants, 1 city: SG gaming entities rake in billions

Singapore has become a hub for some of the largest gaming companies in the world. The setting of Varsapura, the newest title from HoYoverse – the company behind Genshin Impact, one of the most popular games globally – is even inspired by the city-state.

The country serves as the international base for HoYoverse’s Cognosphere and Tencent’s Proxima Beta. It’s also the Asia-Pacific headquarters of Riot Games, which Tencent fully acquired in 2015.

HoYoverse’s Singapore office / Photo credit: HoYoverse

Titles like Proxima Beta’s Honor of Kings and Cognosphere’s Honkai: Star Rail are some of the highest-grossing games worldwide year to date, according to Statista. Honor of Kings topped the list, grossing over US$895 million in the first half of 2025.

According to audited financial filings for Cognosphere Pte. Ltd., HoYoverse’s Singapore entity, the company logged US$2.7 billion in revenue for 2024, an 11.6% increase year on year.

Proxima Beta, which rebranded to Level Infinite in 2021, recorded revenue of US$2.6 billion in 2024. It grew at a similar pace year on year with Riot Games Services Pte. Ltd. – Riot Games’ Singapore entity – at around 24%.

At S$521 million (US$401 million), Riot Games Services’ mobile titles do not pull in the same kind of money that Level Infinite’s games do. Still, League of Legends: Wild Rift, the mobile version of Riot Games’ hit PC game, hit US$1 billion in global revenue about three years after its launch.

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Chenyu Cui, senior analyst in the games team of intelligence firm Omdia, tells Tech in Asia that Riot Games focuses more on the Western market with its titles. This could indicate that it pulls in more revenue from the US and Europe compared to Asia Pacific.

Likewise, Wild Rift has also performed better in Western countries, Darang Candra, director at video game market research firm Niko Partners, notes.

While HoYoverse, Level Infinite, and Riot Games all have major bases in the city-state, they are executing different strategies.

Tech in Asia reached out to HoYoverse and Level Infinite for this story but did not receive a response. A Riot Games representative declined to comment on the entity’s financials.

Cognosphere’s walled garden

Cognosphere operates as a walled garden, publishing only free-to-play games developed by its parent HoYoverse, such as Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, and Zenless Zone Zero. Its newest title, Varsapura, is also fully developed by HoYoverse.

This approach gives Cognosphere more control over the genres of games it distributes than if it were to publish games of other developers.

Riot’s taking control

Strength in numbers