Chinese gaming and social media giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. reported a forecast-beating 65 percent rise in quarterly profit on Thursday, driven by a surge in users for its video games in the Chinese and international markets.

Tencent, the world's largest gaming firm by revenue, booked a profit of 47.77 billion yuan ($7.42 billion) for the three months through March, higher than the average analyst estimates of 35.45 billion yuan published by Refinitiv.

Revenue rose 25 percent to 135.3 billion yuan, versus market expectations of 134.39 billion yuan.

Tencent said revenue from online games grew by 17 percent.

"We are stepping up our investments in game development and, in particular, focusing on large-scale and high-production-value games that can appeal to users globally," Tencent said in a statement.

(With input from Reuters)