(Yicai Global) July 27 -- Strong game revenue growth drove up the share price of Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. [HK:0700] today. The stock closed the highest it ever has at USD39.49 (HKD308.40), marking a 2.46-percent increase.

The group's market capitalization topped USD371 billion (HKD2.9 trillion), but is still a notch below Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s [NYSE:BABA] USD394.1 billion. Tencent is now the second largest public company by market cap in Asia.

The number of video game players in China totaled 507 million in the first six months of this year, up 3.6 percent annually, the latest industry data show. Sales revenues of downloaded, online, social media and mobile games rose 26.7 percent to USD14.8 billion (CNY99.8 billion) during the period. 

Realm of Valor, a multiplayer online game Tencent published about 20 months ago, has become the most popular video game in China. It has 200 million registered users, and boasts more than 80 million daily active users. Realm of Valor has become one of the biggest earners for the firm. Tencent logged sales revenue of CNY22.811 billion in the online game business in the first quarter. Mobile game revenue was CNY12.9 billion, with Realm of Valor as the top income source.