Tencent Cloud named Omdia gaming cloud leader again

Tencent Cloud has been named a Leader in Omdia's Global Cloud Platforms for Games 2026 report for the second consecutive year.

Omdia also gave Tencent Cloud its highest rating, Advanced, in four areas: game servers, multiplayer services, AI and machine learning, and live operations. The assessment highlights the company's position in gaming infrastructure and the growing role of artificial intelligence in the tools it sells to game developers.

The recognition comes as cloud providers compete for a larger share of the games market, where publishers increasingly rely on outsourced infrastructure to run online titles, manage player communities, and analyse in-game behaviour. Demand has also expanded beyond hosting and networking, with developers seeking software to assist with coding, testing, content production, and customer support.

Omdia said Tencent Cloud's position reflects a platform built on infrastructure first developed to support Tencent's own games business. That link between internal game operations and external cloud services has become a recurring theme in Tencent Cloud's pitch to studios, particularly in Asia.

AI focus

Over the past year, Tencent Cloud has put artificial intelligence at the centre of its gaming offering. It has integrated large AI models and intelligent agents across the game development pipeline, from art and design to coding, testing, live operations, and user growth.

Its two named products, CodeBuddy and WorkBuddy, are designed to support different parts of that process. The tools are being used for code generation, project management, content production, data analysis, and operational workflows across technical and non-technical teams.

Tencent Cloud said its gaming AI products supported more than 150 game developers over the previous three months. It also said use of AI agents across the gaming industry rose more than threefold year on year, underlining how quickly studios are experimenting with automation and generative tools.

Examples cited by Tencent Cloud show how those tools are being applied across the industry. At ZLONGAME, which runs the live-service strategy role-playing game Dragon Traveller across several regions, WorkBuddy was used to change how internal teams access business data.

Instead of routing requests through a dedicated data function, staff in operations, marketing, and customer service can query information directly through the tool. That shortens the gap between question and decision in a business where launch timing, updates, and user acquisition often depend on fast interpretation of player and market data.

Studio adoption

Yoozoo Games has used WorkBuddy differently, according to Tencent Cloud. More than 75% of Yoozoo's workforce now uses the tool, including planners, artists, and marketers, to turn creative briefs into finished video assets using AI agents that assemble scripts, images, video, and voiceovers.

Tencent Cloud said that process has been cut from several days to about 20 minutes. The claim reflects a broader push across the games sector to use AI not only in software engineering but also in marketing and creative production, where studios often face pressure to produce promotional materials and live-service updates quickly.

Other uses extend beyond internal workflow and into the games themselves. Yokaverse integrated Tencent Cloud's intelligent agent platform into its mobile strategy card game Game of Heroes: Three Kingdoms, where it provides hero recommendations, answers strategy questions, and delivers character introductions in real time.

Giant Network used the technology inside gameplay in another way. Tencent Cloud said the studio worked with it on AI-driven non-player characters in titles including Super Sus, allowing in-game opponents to react and make decisions in real time.

Global reach

Tencent Cloud said its broader infrastructure now spans 23 geographic regions, 66 availability zones, and more than 3,000 acceleration nodes. That network supports customers across Asia Pacific, Europe, and North America as Tencent seeks to expand beyond its home market and deepen relationships with international game studios.

It also said it serves more than 98% of China's leading game companies, including Xishanju, Perfect World Games, and Yokaverse. That level of domestic penetration matters because China remains one of the world's largest gaming markets and a major testing ground for cloud-based live-service operations.

The Omdia ranking gives Tencent Cloud external endorsement at a time when cloud providers are trying to distinguish themselves in the games business through specialist services rather than general computing capacity alone. For Tencent Cloud, that means leaning on its links to Tencent's games operation, its footprint in China, and its growing set of AI tools aimed at developers and publishers.

Omdia noted Tencent Cloud's "unique position in the gaming industry, with a cloud platform built on infrastructure originally developed to support Tencent's own game portfolio."