On June 20, Level Infinite and TiMi Studios — subsidiaries of Tencent — released the hit MOBA Honor of Kings outside of China. The game quickly gained popularity in new markets.
Honor of Kings
The developers reported that the global version of Honor of Kings amassed over 50 million downloads in its debut month. They thanked the community and, as a token of appreciation, added a new free skin to the game.
Let's recall that the original Honor of Kings was released in China in November 2015. It is currently one of the highest-grossing mobile games in the world. According to the data from the analytics service AppMagic, by June 1, 2024, the Chinese version of Honor of Kings had earned over $11.7 billion through IAP, which only accounts for the iOS version of the game. The revenue from Chinese Android stores would make it even higher. It is important to note that this sum excludes the App Store commission and taxes paid by Tencent.
Tencent has already attempted to introduce the western audience to Honor of Kings. In 2017, the company released a version of the game called Arena of Valor. Apparently, it did not perform as successfully as Tencent had hoped. Nonetheless, in 2023, user spending in Arena of Valor exceeded $1 billion (data by data.ai).