TikTok parent ByteDance Ltd's gaming foray exudes promise as spending across its mobile titles grew over the past year, according to Sensor Tower.

The report highlighted TikTok owner generated $1 billion of player spending across its mobile games as of the year ended June 20, 2022, up 16% year-on-year.

ByteDance had set up a dedicated gaming business unit internally, CNBC reports. ByteDance also acquired major gaming studios Moonton and C4 to boost overseas growth.

Bang Bang from Moonton contributed 32% of the annual $1 billion figure, followed by C4′s Girls Chronicle: Idle Heroine.

China's gaming license approval list missed big names like Tencent Holding Ltd (OTC: TCEHY) and NetEase, Inc (NASDAQ: NTES), forcing the companies to grow focus on overseas expansion. Sensor Tower expects ByteDance to follow suit due to the country's unpredictable regulatory environment. ByteDance had been expanding its operations both in China and internationally. 

The player spending across Tencent mobile games totaled $7.9 billion globally, while NetEase's figure totaled $3.1 billion, versus ByteDance's $1 billion.

Asia proved to be its biggest market as Japan accounted for 34% of player spending on ByteDance's mobile titles, followed by China and the U.S.

Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) has been struggling to replicate TikTok's success as it continued to lose users to the latter.