Huya's relationship with AI

Question AI · How can Huya’s AI hosts improve user interaction efficiency?

On March 17, Huya released its financial report for the fourth quarter and the full year of 2025.

The report shows that in 2025, Huya’s total revenue was 6.502 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7%; under non-GAAP standards, the net profit attributable to Huya for the year was 99.5 million yuan, a 63% decline year-on-year.

In the fourth quarter, Huya’s revenue was 1.739 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.2%; under non-GAAP standards, Huya’s net loss attributable was 8.4 million yuan.

Overall, Huya has transitioned from being mired in losses in previous years to seeing revenue recover and profitability improve, marking at least a basic repair of its long-term fundamentals.

However, on one hand, there is the continuous investment driven by the transformation, and on the other hand, there are old debts still to be digested. Coupled with the uncertainties brought by AI, these factors are intertwined, and for Huya, which is focused on changing tracks, there may still be many issues to consider.

Can Huya’s new role stand firm?

Once upon a time, the banks of the Thames were lined with sails, and the old London Dock was a vital artery of the empire. Until later, the arrival of the container revolution.

This standardized iron box did not just rewrite the transportation method but also the underlying logic—shipping no longer required crowded warehouses and dense manpower; instead, it relied on deep water ports, spacious yards, and giant ships. The bustling old London Dock, due to shallow channels and narrow spaces, was forced to transform.

In a sense, Huya’s current live streaming business is somewhat similar.

In the past, the dissemination of gaming content largely depended on live streaming, but with the explosion of short videos, the centrality of game live streaming declined, especially after Tencent’s relationship with ByteDance eased. As Tencent’s “darling,” Huya inevitably struggles.

Initially, Huya tried to resist, but gradually, it realized it could no longer keep users, hosts, and content locked within its platform as in early days. So, it shifted towards an MCN model, attempting to leverage greater value.

Compared to the old dock that is gradually declining, Huya’s live streaming has not sunk; it has merely shifted from an essential path to an optional one.

The financial report shows that in 2025, Huya’s live streaming revenue was 4.594 billion yuan, a slight decrease of 3.2% year-on-year. But from partial data, its live streaming fundamentals remain stable. In the fourth quarter, Huya’s live streaming revenue was 1.146 billion yuan, a slight increase of 1.9%, with the user base maintaining around 160 million.

This indicates that Huya’s live streaming business remains solid; it no longer bears the primary responsibility for growth but has gradually become an upstream reservoir and marketing booster.

Returning to London, after the shipping logic was rewritten by containers, one of the many docks, Canary Wharf, transformed dramatically, with skyscrapers rising, turning from a shipping hub into London’s second-largest financial center.

In recent years, Huya has been doing something similar.

If once Huya’s streamers performed on stage while viewers watched below, with the platform responsible for gathering people, the business model was simple and classic; then, in the past two years, Huya has attempted to shift from a single game live streaming platform to a deeper industry ecosystem, touching on conversion, transactions, and even game publishing.

The report shows that in 2025, revenue from game-related services, advertising, and other sources was 1.908 billion yuan, a 43.1% increase year-on-year; in the fourth quarter, revenue was 593 million yuan, a 59.4% increase, accounting for over 30% of total revenue.

Fundamentally, Huya’s transformation is from a “venue” to a “node.” When attraction is no longer dominant, a venue is easily replaced; but if it can embed into the industry chain, a node becomes indispensable.

Whether a node can be established depends on whether it has several “hard assets” that others cannot bypass.

After all, only players who can connect the chains of top streamers, event copyrights, self-produced content, external platform distribution, collaborations with game developers, and item sales are qualified to access deeper value.

Recently, Huya’s actions seem more aggressive. On one side, it is recalling top streamers represented by Uzi; on the other, it continues to strengthen its copyright events.

It is reported that in the fourth quarter of last year, Huya streamed nearly 100 copyright events and launched about 40 self-produced events and PGC programs.

Among them, in the “League of Legends” core professional event “Demacia Cup,” Huya has transformed from a mere “broadcast platform” into an organizer, demonstrating its ability to gather core content resources.

But ultimately, this upgrade in identity still relies heavily on Tencent’s backing.

In fact, beyond the event system, Huya’s current transformation also depends on Tencent’s multi-dimensional support. Whether Huya can establish itself in the next phase largely depends on whether it can turn these “allocated resources” into irreplaceable capabilities.

“Goose Goose Duck” mobile game, Huya’s “proof test”

Huya’s recent biggest highlight is the rapid rise of the “Goose Goose Duck” mobile game.

Data shows that since its launch in January this year, “Goose Goose Duck” has gained over 5 million new registered users in 24 hours, surpassed 10 million in six days, and has long topped the App Store’s free charts.

For a company that has just incorporated “game publishing” into its narrative, this sample is perfectly timed—so much so that the day after the game’s public beta, Huya’s stock price surged sharply.

On the surface, the popularity of “Goose Goose Duck,” supported by its IP and precisely targeting domestic social attributes, seems natural. But Huya’s financial report brings this “sexy” story back to reality.

The report shows that in the fourth quarter of 2025, Huya’s sales and marketing expenses were 78.1 million yuan, a 24.3% increase year-on-year. This was mainly due to marketing and promotional efforts before the game’s launch.

In other words, the success of “Goose Goose Duck” was not accidental; Huya continuously fueled it through host collaborations, content slicing, community topics, and cross-platform promotion, layer by layer. During this process, Huya also spent a lot of money.

As a game launched this year, how well “Goose Goose Duck” will perform in terms of returns remains unknown, but based on its current achievements, the value realization is likely not far off.

The question is, solely considering the game IP and quality, “Goose Goose Duck” probably can achieve a decent result. But why would Huya, which is already on the brink of profitability and highly profit-sensitive, abandon the narrative of continuous profit and risk losses to keep this fire burning strongly?

The answer may lie in the role that “Goose Goose Duck” currently plays.

For Huya, what is lacking now is a benchmark example, and “Goose Goose Duck” may be just that proof test. Quarterly profit and loss are important, but they are short-term financial fluctuations; whether the transformation succeeds depends on longer-term valuation narratives. The importance of these two aspects is clearly unequal at this stage.

Moreover, in the context of Tencent’s deep involvement with Huya’s games, “Goose Goose Duck” stands out as a rare fresh stream. It is reported that the domestic agency, mobile game operation, and rights are all held by Kingsoft’s Shiyou, while Huya participates as a co-publisher.

This indicates that this is not Tencent’s targeted “feeding,” but a relatively independent value validation—if successful, it can not only prove Huya’s transformation over the past two years but also allow other industry players outside Tencent to see and recognize Huya’s value.

However, in the content industry, “hit” products are often misleading; a single successful sample does not prove the maturity of a capability system.

“Goose Goose Duck,” with its highly social gameplay, is naturally suited for live streaming, aligning well with Huya’s strengths. Its tense, dramatic, and highly theatrical gameplay also has inherent dissemination advantages.

Playing a good hand is expected, but true skill is shown when the hand is not so good, yet one can still create rhythm and pressure. In other words, if it were another game, whether Huya’s approach would still be effective remains uncertain.

Therefore, regarding game publishing, “Goose Goose Duck” is more a validated starting point. Having grasped the doorknob of a new story, Huya clearly needs more successful cases to fully open this door.

AI, an unsolved question

Recently, a new type of host has begun to appear in Huya’s live rooms.

In the corner of the screen, there is often a refined “female host.” When users enter, she welcomes them; when users send bullet comments, she responds; if someone jokingly asks, “Are you AI?” she might even seriously reply, “Of course, I am a real person.”

Behind this is Huya’s AI host.

During the earnings call, Huya mentioned that it is developing AI hosts with professional commentary abilities and human-like appearances, applying them to core game categories such as “League of Legends” and “CS:GO.”

The reason is that the business of game live streaming does not quite match current content consumption habits.

On one hand, for users, interaction needs to be “caught.” If bullet comments go unanswered, users will leave. But in reality, most live rooms lack such high responsiveness; hosts cannot keep up; and for broadcasts of foreign top players, interaction is almost impossible.

On the other hand, users are now generally “spoiled” by short videos, expecting more immediate and stimulating content, while game live streaming is a heavier format—lasting hours, hard to fast-forward, with highly linear content mixed with a lot of dull, unengaging “garbage time,” making efficient consumption difficult.

Due to manpower costs, it is hard to scale and clip past hosts’ replays into slices, so platform content often hasn’t been truly consolidated.

AI might be the antidote—catching users, warming the atmosphere, and efficiently slicing pulsed content into highlights, revitalizing long-tail content.

Data shows that AI live rooms now contribute nearly 10% of Huya’s overall DAU, with related rooms having about 40% higher average watch time and seven-day retention than similar rooms.

But from the overall content industry perspective, Huya’s current AI positioning does not seem particularly attractive.

In e-commerce live streaming, digital humans initially handled basic selling and Q&A. Huya’s logic is similar, but the scenarios differ significantly. E-commerce ultimately aims for transactions, and digital humans are at best tools; whereas game live streaming is more about companionship and “entertainment,” where humans remain irreplaceable.

Whether Huya’s AI hosts can truly produce game streaming content in the future remains to be seen, but based on current interaction scenarios, their understanding of game content and audience references still feels somewhat mechanical—they can say the necessary words but lack finesse. This makes it difficult for Huya to rely solely on efficiency to push forward like e-commerce digital humans.

However, from another angle, this mismatch may not be a bad thing.

Positively, it means that Huya, rooted in game live streaming, will at least not be easily overturned by the AI wave or by stronger models directly taking over.

It also means Huya finds it hard to produce a convincing AI narrative that would significantly boost valuation.

Huya’s management has stated that they are exploring integrating OpenClaw and multi-Agent capabilities with Huya’s digital human technology to enhance interaction in gaming scenarios.

As for the outcome, perhaps we will have to wait a little longer.