IDREAMSKY (01119) released its 2026 interim financial report on August 27, revealing first-half revenue of RMB 720 million and a net profit of RMB 21.2 million. Operating cash flow turned positive at RMB 36.57 million, marking a substantial 289% quarter-on-quarter increase, reflecting continued enhancement in operational quality driven by a sharp focus on its core gaming business, improved operational efficiency, and a leaner cost structure.
During the period, the company executed its "premium overseas publishing plus self-developed games" dual-engine strategy, with core business segments advancing steadily. Its long-standing game portfolio remained resilient, while proprietary IP Strinova entered the commercialization phase. Supported by robust long-term operations and the accumulation of proprietary IP assets, the company achieved steady revenue growth alongside continuous gains in operational efficiency. Concurrently, IDREAMSKY is methodically implementing its AI strategy, concentrating on two primary areas: efficiency agents and IP character agents. This initiative embeds AI technology deeply across the entire game development, operations, and player experience value chain, establishing a distinctive competitive edge within the industry. With multiple new game titles slated for release in the second half, the company's growth outlook remains positive.
Steady Growth in Core Game Matrix, Accelerated Release of Premium Titles Unlocks Growth Potential
The publishing of premium overseas games forms the bedrock of the company's business, continuing to generate growth momentum during the reporting period. Leveraging deep collaboration advantages with source-code partners, IDREAMSKY drove steady growth across multiple long-standing titles through regular version updates, cross-industry collaborations with leading IPs, refined user operations, and multi-platform launches. At the same time, the company accelerated the release cadence of new games, continuously enriching its product pipeline and opening up new incremental opportunities.
Subway Surfers fully unleashed its potential as a leading title. In the first half of 2026, the game completed five major version updates, including collaborations with notable IPs such as Brawl Stars and Boonie Bears. During these collaboration windows, the "Subway Surfers Sparkle" campaign achieved nearly 150 million total online impressions, with 33,000 user-generated submissions featuring the original "Sparkle" IP, enhancing both the commercial and social value of the proprietary character. The WeChat mini-game version was officially launched during the reporting period, with mini-game revenue accounting for 15% of total revenue across all platforms, serving as a key driver for user base expansion and revenue growth.
Gardenscapes continued to invigorate its lifecycle through IP tie-ins and cross-sector partnerships. In the first half, both average daily revenue per paying user (ARPU) and monthly active user days reached all-time highs. An August collaboration with the Chinese costume drama IP Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty proved highly successful, significantly boosting daily active users (DAU) and following the earlier popular partnership with Empresses in the Palace. Notably, the mini-game version of Gardenscapes is slated for imminent release, promising fresh momentum for long-term growth.
War Robots focused on deepening IP value through high-frequency content updates. In July, a China-server exclusive "Ultimate Mech Festival" was held, and with refined operations and engaging in-game events, total exposure across all platforms surpassed 300 million in the first half, with DAU rising 27% compared to the start of the year. The PC version of War Robots officially launched on August 13, aimed at broadening its user base and extending the game's lifecycle. Furthermore, the company is expanding its content ecosystem by pioneering AI-generated animated series based on mech-themed content, which launched in August to extend the IP's value into the broader entertainment sphere.
On the new products front, the release pipeline is accelerating, with multiple premium titles scheduled to launch in the second half of the year. This will further refine the product matrix and broaden revenue streams. Loud House is expected to launch on both mobile and PC platforms in Q3 2026, while several other new games, including Weapon Toss and Furry Balls, spanning genres such as management simulation, action shooter, and arcade, are poised for release in both app and mini-game formats.
Commercialization of Self-Developed Business Accelerates as Strinova Establishes Distinct Competitive Barriers
In the first half of the year, the market performance of IDREAMSKY's core self-developed title, Strinova, continued to improve, entering a rewarding commercialization phase. As the world's first anime-style shooting game, Strinova has built significant differentiation within its niche. During the first half, monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) on PC surged 41% year-on-year, while DAU increased approximately 30% year-on-year, accompanied by improvements in new user acquisition and active user retention rates. Since its mobile launch in October 2025, the game has maintained healthy organic growth, and the integrated PC-mobile operational system is continuously being refined.
Simultaneously, the game's character roster and player community ecosystem are being actively developed. The introduction of popular new characters "Xi" and "Nono" effectively drove user returns. The company continued to nurture player-generated content, with the number of platform creators growing nearly eight-fold year-on-year. In August, the second Strinova Carnival and National College Tournament were successfully held, featuring an offline black-box preview of the new "Search, Attack, Extract" gameplay mode for the PC version. The event attracted thousands of players on-site and exceeded 1.8 million live-stream views online, underscoring the game's market appeal and strong community engagement.
Looking ahead to the second half of the year, Strinova will continue to refine its core gameplay, with plans to officially launch the "Search, Attack, Extract" mode in Q4 to cater to diverse player preferences. On the globalization front, building on its full-cycle PC and mobile operations, the company is speeding up the IP's international expansion, focusing on regional localization and commercialization validation in key markets. Concurrently, AI technology is being leveraged to enhance R&D and production efficiency, with exploration into innovative IP character agent formats to further optimize the player experience.
AI Agent Business Rolls Out Steadily, Building a Differentiated Competitive Moat in the Gaming Industry
The AI initiatives at IDREAMSKY are fundamentally distinct from general-purpose AI applications. The company's AI capabilities are rooted in its unique player data, game scenarios, and IP assets, serving as a growth enabler. By deeply integrating its proprietary gaming environments and extensive accumulated user behavioral data with cutting-edge large model technologies, the company is forging a unique competitive edge.
The company's AI strategy is systematically executed across two key areas: AI for Game (empowering game production) and AI in Game (enhancing the gaming experience). Within AI for Game, IDREAMSKY has deployed three core efficiency agent products that cover the entire operational chain—from decision-making and content production to customer service—thereby empowering game teams to reduce costs, enhance efficiency, and operate more scientifically. The intelligent customer service agent now achieves a problem-resolution rate exceeding 85%, evolving from a passive responder to an active, proactive solution provider. In content production, Camena, an AI-powered platform built for the gaming industry, integrates creative planning, asset management, storyboarding, image generation, video creation, and outcome storage into a reusable and iterative intelligent workflow, having generated over 10,000 pieces of image and video game content to date. For operational decision-making, Metis, a data intelligence agent and Game Ops platform, assists teams in swiftly identifying issues from data, diagnosing causes, and generating actionable operational strategy recommendations to support long-term game growth.
Within AI in Game, the IP character agent stands out as the company's most distinctive area of exploration. Leveraging its proprietary IPs like "Sparkle" and Strinova, IDREAMSKY is evolving the connection between AI, characters, and users. The first version of the Strinova AI desktop pet assistant has been completed, aimed at building a "mutual embrace" multi-character virtual companionship ecosystem, with initial playtesting already opened during the August Carnival and a full rollout planned. The Strinova "Restroom" social space is also being iterated to provide players with novel interactive experiences. In August 2026, the "Sparkle Agent" was officially launched within Subway Surfers, enabling players to interact in real-time with the IP character and bringing the IP asset to users in a new way.
Guan Song, CTO of IDREAMSKY, stated that the company's AI investments are consistently focused on enhancing product quality and crafting superior player experiences, rather than merely pursuing cost reduction. The emphasis is on tangible efficiency gains and innovative gameplay experiences. In the second half, the company will further its deployment of efficiency agents across R&D, content creation, customer service, and user acquisition, while transitioning IP character agents from testing phases to full user availability. Additionally, by enriching interaction scenarios within its Fanbook community, the company aims to continuously convert AI capabilities into core drivers for IP value growth and business operational efficiency.
In his chairman's report, Chen Xiangyu, CEO of IDREAMSKY, remarked that navigating through market cycles does not rely on single-point breakthroughs but on the compounding of accumulated capabilities. Long-term operational strength forms the company's fundamental base, proprietary IP represents its core appreciating assets, and AI acts as the amplifier for both. Looking forward, the company will continue to deepen its focus on the gaming business, accelerate the pace of new game launches, and persistently explore the value of its character IPs. By transforming AI capabilities into drivers of IP enhancement and operational efficiency, IDREAMSKY is well-positioned to seize industry opportunities and broaden its growth horizons, advancing steadily towards a new phase of high-quality development.