BEIJING, November 16 (TMTPOST)—Driven by video game releases including a popular one taking place in the Harry Potter universe, NetEase made a killing in gaming in a quarter even when game curbs for minors came into effect in home market China.

Source: Harry Potter: Magic Awakened

In the third quarter of the year, NetEase posted online game services net revenue of RMB15.9 billion (US$2.5 billion) with 14.7% increase year-over-year (YoY), beating Wall Street firms’ estimate YoY growth of 11%. And the gross profit for online game services was RMB10.26 billion (US$1.59 billion), better than the analysts’ expectation of RMB9.87 billion.

The chief executive William Ding attributed 18.9% YoY increase of the total quarterly revenue to “strong and steady contributions from our online game services”, especially “several new successful hits for PC and mobile platforms” such as Naraka: Bladepoint and Harry Potter: Magic Awakened.

Harry Potter: Magic Awakened earned US$138.2 million in its first month and became one of the world’s largest mobile game launches this year as well as the most success mobile launch ever for a title utilizing the Harry Potter license, according to Sensor Tower. The mobile app store market intelligence firm ranked the game developed by NetEase the fourth in its mobile game list by worldwide revenue in September, when all the Chinese online gaming firms began to impose new time limits for gamers under age 18 that can only play games one hour in the evening on Fridays, weekends and public holidays in accordance with the government’s new regulation. The firm earlier this month noted the game has generated about US$228 million across the App Store and Google Play since it launched in China on September 9th.

Harry Potter: Magic Awakened could gross RMB1.1 billion, accounting for 6% of NetEase’s total quarterly game grossing, Longbridge Securities estimated based on data of Chinese online data services provider Qimai. Given the major holidays in fourth quarter that enables diversified marketing activities, the online brokerage expects the game to accumulate up to RMB2 billion the quarter. With about 94% of monthly revenue from China in September, the game is expected to have outstanding results overseas when it is set to launch in international markets in 2022.