What was the net profit drop in Q1 2021 compared to the previous year 
s grown both before, during, and after COVID.
And we're seeing particular growth in emerging markets such as the ones you highlight but also in developed markets, and we're also seeing that game players are increasingly willing to form long term relationships with games that they particularly enjoy such as the League of Legends or Fortnite or in Honour of Kings, which have very high retention rates and gamers, even if they churn, they come back to and enjoy again. You know, on our side, while historically our focus was was primarily on the China market, as you know, in recent quarters we've had some hits globally that were developed in China including PUBG Mobile, including Call of Duty Mobile, all of which gives us more confidence to step up our rate of investment. And step up our rate of investment means fund bigger, better games, if necessary, for longer periods of time. It also means fund more experimental games.
It also means investing more in game marketing and game publishing capabilities. And then finally, it means investing in frontier technologies such as cloud-based gaming that will further grow the game industry in the future. So that's on your game question. With regards to your cloud question, I think that we don't necessarily see a sudden transition in the industry this year versus previous years rather our belief is that when you're in the cloud business, it is inevitable that if you're renting infrastructure to very big companies, then those big companies will use that negotiating power to protect their own economics.
And as a result, the path to long-term economic returns in the cloud is not to get big fast or infrastructure but actually to cultivate a platform as a service and software as a service, and that's something that we've been doing now for several years. Platform as a service, in particular, is a substantial percentage of our total cloud revenues now. You know, that's the simple and the underlying reason why we believe that we're able to outgrow the industry in the first quarter this year.
Martin Lau -- President
Just one point to add. On the gaming side, I think we emphasize that it's like a new creation of IP users many years before you can see even in private. I think if you look at our recent pipeline of games, which we have announced of more than 40 of them, I think, you know, it's a combination of some of our original APIs, which would take a very long time to develop. For existing APIs that we're going to take existing assets, it's pretty proven gameplay and we will add our innovation for mobile, and then we've developed it for launch.
And then there are also some smaller trial titles, right? The image titles, which would have multiple iterations, probably that there will be developed and released within a short period time and then iterated over time in order to make them bigger. So it's a combination of these different types of titles that constitute a pipeline.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from William Packer from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
William Packer -- Exane BNP Paribas -- Analyst
Hi, management. Congrats on the strong numbers and thanks for taking my questions. My first question is in your update today, you presented investment plans to exploit the growth opportunities for the future. In Q1 '21, you invested and delivered the 25% net profit drop through on your 25% revenue growth.
Should we think of Q1 as a relevant benchmark for the rest of the year? And my second question is around regulation. The news flow has continued to be intense. Last quarter, you provided a helpful update on the regulation of fintech and your minority investments. Is there any incremental update to share today? Thank you.
Martin Lau -- President
In terms of the incremental investment plan, I would not say the first quarter is the right benchmark. I think our investment plans actually stepping up from the first-quarter level. So if you look at the first-quarter results, I would say the benchmark is that our non-IFRS profit grew by 22% year on year. And what we're seeing is that we're
s grown both before, during, and after COVID.
And we're seeing particular growth in emerging markets such as the ones you highlight but also in developed markets, and we're also seeing that game players are increasingly willing to form long term relationships with games that they particularly enjoy such as the League of Legends or Fortnite or in Honour of Kings, which have very high retention rates and gamers, even if they churn, they come back to and enjoy again. You know, on our side, while historically our focus was was primarily on the China market, as you know, in recent quarters we've had some hits globally that were developed in China including PUBG Mobile, including Call of Duty Mobile, all of which gives us more confidence to step up our rate of investment. And step up our rate of investment means fund bigger, better games, if necessary, for longer periods of time. It also means fund more experimental games.
It also means investing more in game marketing and game publishing capabilities. And then finally, it means investing in frontier technologies such as cloud-based gaming that will further grow the game industry in the future. So that's on your game question. With regards to your cloud question, I think that we don't necessarily see a sudden transition in the industry this year versus previous years rather our belief is that when you're in the cloud business, it is inevitable that if you're renting infrastructure to very big companies, then those big companies will use that negotiating power to protect their own economics.
And as a result, the path to long-term economic returns in the cloud is not to get big fast or infrastructure but actually to cultivate a platform as a service and software as a service, and that's something that we've been doing now for several years. Platform as a service, in particular, is a substantial percentage of our total cloud revenues now. You know, that's the simple and the underlying reason why we believe that we're able to outgrow the industry in the first quarter this year.
Martin Lau -- President
 Just one point to add. On the gaming side, I think we emphasize that it's like a new creation of IP users many years before you can see even in private. I think if you look at our recent pipeline of games, which we have announced of more than 40 of them, I think, you know, it's a combination of some of our original APIs, which would take a very long time to develop. For existing APIs that we're going to take existing assets, it's pretty proven gameplay and we will add our innovation for mobile, and then we've developed it for launch.
And then there are also some smaller trial titles, right? The image titles, which would have multiple iterations, probably that there will be developed and released within a short period time and then iterated over time in order to make them bigger. So it's a combination of these different types of titles that constitute a pipeline.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from William Packer from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
William Packer -- Exane BNP Paribas -- Analyst
Hi, management. Congrats on the strong numbers and thanks for taking my questions. My first question is in your update today, you presented investment plans to exploit the growth opportunities for the future. In Q1 '21, you invested and delivered the 25% net profit drop through on your 25% revenue growth.
Should we think of Q1 as a relevant benchmark for the rest of the year? And my second question is around regulation. The news flow has continued to be intense. Last quarter, you provided a helpful update on the regulation of fintech and your minority investments. Is there any incremental update to share today? Thank you.
Martin Lau -- President
In terms of the incremental investment plan, I would not say the first quarter is the right benchmark. I think our investment plans actually stepping up from the first-quarter level. So if you look at the first-quarter results, I would say the benchmark is that our non-IFRS profit grew by 22% year on year. And what we're seeing is that we're