Douyu's full-year adjusted profit exceeds 40 million, with refined operations and the second growth curve jointly shaping a new growth logic

On March 25, Douyu released its financial report for the fourth quarter and the whole year of 2025. The report shows that in 2025, Douyu’s revenue from innovation, advertising, and other businesses increased by 37% year-on-year, with quarterly revenue accounting for over 40% throughout the year. The second growth engine has transitioned from the “exploration phase” to a stable “harvest phase.”

Facing stock competition and uncertainty in the industry, Douyu found its profitability turning point last year. According to the financial report, in the fourth quarter of 2025, Douyu’s total revenue was 919 million yuan, with a gross profit of 118 million yuan, and operating profit, net profit, and adjusted net profit all turned positive year-on-year, with the adjusted net profit being 12.62 million yuan; the total revenue for the year was 3.819 billion yuan, with a gross profit of 489 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 51.2%, a gross margin of 12.8%, and an adjusted net profit of 40.16 million yuan.

Douyu’s CEO, Ren Simin, stated that looking ahead, Douyu will always focus on user interests, improve content and service quality, continue to innovate, and constantly enhance the company’s long-term value creation capability.

Annual adjusted net profit exceeds 40 million yuan, Douyu’s profitability turning point has arrived

In the fourth quarter of last year, Douyu’s operating profit, net profit, and adjusted net profit all turned positive year-on-year. According to the financial report, in the fourth quarter of 2025, Douyu’s operating profit reached 4.7 million yuan, net profit 1.4 million yuan, and adjusted net profit 12.62 million yuan. Additionally, in the fourth quarter of last year, Douyu’s revenue was approximately 919 million yuan, with gross profit significantly increasing by 69.1% to 118 million yuan.

For the whole year, Douyu’s adjusted net profit in 2025 was approximately 40.16 million yuan, turning from loss to profit, indicating that its profitability is beginning to stabilize, and its core operational competitiveness has been validated.

This is backed by Douyu’s dual strategies of cost control and revenue structure optimization. Taking the fourth quarter of last year as an example, the financial report shows that Douyu’s revenue sharing costs and content costs in the fourth quarter decreased by 25.3% year-on-year; sales and marketing expenses decreased by 40% year-on-year, with multiple cost items achieving double-digit reductions, and some even exceeding 60%, establishing a systematic and sustainable operational efficiency improvement mechanism, rather than a short-term compression.

Currently, Douyu’s cash reserves remain substantial. As of December 31, 2025, Douyu held cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash, and bank deposits totaling approximately 2.284 billion yuan (about 327 million USD).

Revenue from innovation, advertising, and other businesses accounts for over 40% quarterly, the second growth curve continues to deliver

Strategically, Douyu insists on focusing on the gaming and esports verticals, concentrating on deep operations of high-value user groups, without blindly pursuing traffic scale, while maintaining the stability and stickiness of its core user base amidst stock competition in the industry.

In the past three years, Douyu has positioned “innovation, advertising, and other revenue” as its second growth pole. From the financial report data, Douyu has shifted to a multi-engine driven business structure of “content + advertising + membership + social,” with a continually solidifying pattern of revenue diversification.

According to the financial report, in the fourth quarter of 2025, Douyu’s revenue from innovation, advertising, and other sources was 406 million yuan, accounting for 44.2%; for the year 2025, the quarterly revenue proportion of this business remained above 40%, with annual revenue growing by 37% year-on-year.

Voice services are an important part of Douyu’s revenue diversification strategy, where Douyu has demonstrated the advantages of years of accumulated anchor and user operations, which has, to some extent, created a distance from the industry.

In the fourth quarter of last year, Douyu continued to optimize the traffic distribution and resource allocation of its voice services while effectively maintaining the healthy and stable development of the community ecosystem, further tapping into business potential: during the reporting period, Douyu’s voice business revenue reached 271 million yuan, with an average monthly active user base of 286,300 and an average monthly paying user base of 63,600.

The cost benefits released by the refined operational strategy translated into a significant improvement in gross margin. The financial report shows that Douyu’s gross profit increased by 51.2% year-on-year to 489.5 million yuan, with gross margin rising significantly to 12.8%.

This provides Douyu with certainty in development. Douyu’s Vice President, Cao Hao, stated that in the fourth quarter of 2025, against the backdrop of pressure on the live streaming business, Douyu achieved improvements in profitability and cash flow stability through continued enhancements in operational efficiency. On an annual level, Douyu’s financial efficiency and sustainability have significantly improved. “In an uncertain environment, cost reduction and efficiency enhancement, along with resource allocation optimization, have strengthened financial resilience, providing a more solid support for the company, thus maintaining stable operations and long-term sustainable development.”

Deepen vertical ecosystem, anchor user long-term value

In 2025, Douyu systematically optimized its operational strategy, actively reducing low-yield activities and concentrating resources on high-quality, highly sticky content, which is manifested in Douyu’s continued deep cultivation of the gaming and esports verticals in content supply.

In the fourth quarter of last year, Douyu broadcasted a total of 63 licensed events, self-produced or co-organized events, and PGC (professionally produced content) programs totaling 21 items, forming a complete content supply matrix.

In terms of licensed events, Douyu continued to introduce high-profile esports IPs (intellectual properties), covering categories such as MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) and FPS (First-Person Shooter), reaching both the breadth and depth of the core esports user base, with major events such as the 2025 League of Legends World Championship, 2025 KPL Annual Finals, and 2025 Budapest Major successively held.

Secondly, in the synergy between event content and commercial conversion, Douyu activates users’ willingness to pay through high-quality content, improving content operational efficiency, continuously reinforcing the bidirectional cycle of “content pull” and “commercial monetization.” The number of paying users in Q4 was 2.6 million, with the core user base remaining relatively stable.

Douyu has also extended its content to offline scenarios. In December 2025, Douyu held the “Optical Valley Esports Carnival and Douyu Fish Leap Cup” in Wuhan’s Optical Valley, inviting 16 well-known teams from Delta Force and Valorant, and 20 KOL streamer teams, to engage in eight days of intense competition. Douyu’s data shows that the online viewership for this event reached over 34 million.

Targeting core user preferences, Douyu is actively exploring new content forms such as group broadcasts and cross-platform joint events while deeply operating around DOTA2, LOL, and Delta Force. For instance, the innovative event “Douyu Street Fighter 6 Cow Cup S1” reconstructs the viewing experience of traditional hardcore fighting games with a lightweight presentation style, while enhancing content topicality and further activating community engagement on the platform. Its data indicates that total user usage duration has rebounded sequentially for two consecutive quarters, opening up greater space for subsequent commercialization.

The dual improvements in content form, quality, and community atmosphere have anchored Douyu’s long-term user value. At the end of 2025, on the occasion of its 12th anniversary, Douyu completed a brand upgrade, refreshing its brand logo and upgrading its slogan to “See Every Passion.” Evolving from a gaming live streaming platform to an “interest community,” Douyu will continue to focus on user needs, shape diverse content, and establish a clearer differentiated positioning in the live streaming competition market.

Written by Liu Chang, Images provided by the company

Edited by Yang Juanjuan

Proofread by Yang Li