QQ Pets Returns After 8-Year Hiatus, Evolving from 2D Pixels to 3D with AI

QQ Pets officially returned on July 27, 2026, eight years after its service was discontinued in 2018. The product originally launched in 2005, generating RMB 2 million in revenue in its first month and surpassing 1 million concurrent users within a year, reaching a peak of 1.6 million in 2007. In 2018, Tencent announced the shutdown due to various reasons. The returning QQ Pets is no longer in its desktop internet form. It is now exclusive to mobile QQ, with characters upgraded from 2D pixels to 3D furry designs, and new species such as dogs added. The new version integrates Tencent's Hunyuan Hy3 large model, and each pet comes with a preset personality, including Little Sun, Clingy, Little Rascal, and Little Drama Queen. Depending on their personality, pets will proactively greet users, remind them of the weather, express needs, and generate a pet diary daily based on the pet's personality, level, and that day's interactions. The new QQ Pets' monetization model differs significantly from the original. The death mechanism and paid rescue items have been removed. The worker system is self sustaining, and feeding and bathing cost nothing. Monetization is limited to pet fashion and decorations. The relaunch of QQ Pets comes against the backdrop of Tencent's old tree sprouts new buds concept, raised at the company's employee meetings in 2024 and 2026, which was also used to explain the return of QQ Farm and QQ Show. QQ classic farm began closed beta testing in September 2025, the PC version of QQ classic mode returned in December 2025, QQ Show returned in January 2026 with AI generated avatars, and the QQ classic farm officially returned in February 2026. The companion pet game genre has a long history. In the 1990s, Bandai's Tamagotchi, an electronic pet device, sold 100 million units worldwide. In 2018, the Japanese game Travel Frog became popular in China, and its low maintenance care model validated market demand for low pressure companionship. Currently, other super apps have adopted similar modules: Alipay's Ant Manor lets users raise chickens to collect love eggs for charity, while Douyin's Little Fire Person and Kuaishou's Little Fire Cub require users to share videos with each other to keep their pets active. According to public data, Douyin's Little Fire Person has surpassed 100 million daily active users, and Kuaishou's Fire Cub has 60 million users. In contrast, the new QQ Pets remains primarily focused on individual raising, with social interaction as an additional feature.