Bilibili’s most recent earnings are something of a rollercoaster. The video-sharing giant reported a 17 percent drop in its gaming revenue for the third quarter, about 1.5 billion yuan (about $212 million). Considering that their blockbuster strategy game, San Guo: Mou Ding Tian Xia, just printed them money last year, that’s a tough nut to crack.
Yet the company’s total revenue actually increased by 5% to 7.7 billion yuan, and, get this, it also swung a profit of 469.4 million yuan ($66 million or so). That’s just their third profitable quarter since going public in 2018. Not too shabby given they were bleeding red ink a year ago with a 79.8 million yuan loss.
So, what’s propping them up? Ads are the killer business here, up 23 per cent to 2.6 billion yuan, while value-added services like memberships rose 7 per cent to 3 billion yuan. Even the odds and ends of IP deals and merch totalled 582 million RMB, up 3%.
$BILI beats on the big three: revenue, adjusted net income and adjusted EPS. Turn to profitability really kicking in as adjusted net income +233% YoY. Healthy buyback as well! pic.twitter.com/3N9GJPB51s
— Brendan Ahern (@ahern_brendan) November 13, 2025
Gaming’s the weak suit these days, but Bilibili isn’t just twiddling its thumbs; they’re making big bets on a quirky new title called Escape From Duckov. It is a top-down shooter in which you get to be cute little ducks attempting to bust out of some dystopian nightmare. It was released Oct. 16 and has sold well so far, across platforms and around the world, with over 3 million copies sold. CEO Chen Rui cited it during the earnings call as potentially the second-largest Chinese single-player hit ever, with peak Steam player numbers exceeding 300,000.
To put things into perspective, the unquestioned king is Game Science’s Black Myth: Wukong, which has sold 28 million copies and brought in over 9 billion yuan since August. The best part? Duckov is currently PC-only, but ports to consoles and mobile devices are planned. If it continues to quack in this manner, it might be the San Guo sequel they so desire.
Looking back, Bilibili’s profitability has been choppy. They eked out their first-ever profit in Q4 2018 with net income of 88.9 million yuan, thanks to San Guo, but fell into a slight loss of 10.7 million yuan in Q1 this year before returning to the black with net income of 218.3 million yuan in Q2. Steady as she goes? Maybe, if the ducks deliver. Wall Street is not entirely sold on it yet, however. Shares in Hong Kongfell 1.8% to HKD209 today, and the NASDAQ listing was hit even harder, down 4.8% to $25.89 yesterday.
Still, in a market where gaming is volatile as heck, turning a profit amid the chaos feels like a win.
