Chinese tech and entertainment giant Tencent Holdings reportedly had its best year ever in terms of investment in 2018.

That's according to Reuters, who has seen notes from a behind-closed-doors meeting with the company's president Martin Lau in January, in which the top bod provided a detailed review of the company's investments to date.

In the past 11 years, Tencent has invested in more than 700 companies; 63 of these are now listed, while 122 are valued at over $1bn.

Furthermore, the combined value of firms in which Tencent has a share of at least five per cent comes in at over $500bn.

It should be noted that these investments aren't limited to just the video games sector; Tencent has interests in many markets. 

Lau told those present that Tencent has no plans to slow down its investment strategy amid criticism from analysts that the Chinese tech and entertainment giant has focused too much on this side of its business.

This follows a troubling year for Tencent. In January 2018, the firm was worth more than ever before but a freeze on new games released in China from March of that year through to December caused stock to plummet 23 per cent over the course of the year, knocking $114bn from its market cap. New releases are being granted licenses to launch in the region, again, but there is a substantial backlog of games. 

China's booming economy has started to slow down, too.

Tencent's market cap now stands at $414.1bn (HK$3.25tn).

The company's recent video game company investments include five per cent of French publishing giant Ubisoft, Vermintide maker Fatshark (36 per cent), Playerunknown's Battlegrounds studio PUBG Corp, nine per cent of Frontier Developments and Liverpool's Milky Tea. The company has also joined the Netmarble consortium that is looking to snap up Korean game maker Nexon. 

Oh, and it has teamed up with Square Enix on a new studio that will focus on new triple-A IP.