Honor of Kings celebrated its twelfth anniversary on Saturday, and during an event to celebrate the game’s success, Tencent announced its plans to expand the game into a fully-fledged universe, reports Technode.
Honor of Kings is a veritable juggernaut of mobile gaming, being the fourth highest-grossing mobile title of all time and generating $190 million in September alone, according to Data.ai. The game passed 100 million daily active users in 2020, cementing its success. However, the game has a relatively low profile internationally, only being released outside of China in closed beta earlier this year, although Arena of Valor exists as an international adaptation.
As part of the event, Tencent announced one new game, Honor of Kings Chess, and more details about two new titles: RPG Honor of Kings: World, which will be available on a variety of platforms, and fighting title Code: Breaking Dawn.
Additionally, Tencent released a trailer for The Brothers Baili, the first film in an upcoming series based on the game.
What does this mean for Honor of Kings?
The expansion signifies the success of the game, and Tencent’s confidence in its potential as a brand. Honor of Kings remains an undeniable juggernaut of the mobile gaming space, but it remains relatively unknown in the greater gaming world due to its unavailability in other markets. A push into other platforms and forms of media could therefore signify the company’s hopes of bringing their flagship franchise to the attention of new audiences, and Tencent to new heights.
Although mobile gaming remains the dominant sector of the industry, there’s still significant revenue to be made on other platforms, and the introduction of a film franchise also offers the potential for further revenue from non-gamers.
It’s worth noting that Tencent’s success with Honor of Kings speaks to the strength of mobile gaming in China, but that has been hampered lately by a hiatus on new game licences and the imposition of strict restrictions on playtime. With the game finally making its international debut, it could also be seen as an attempt to draw additional revenue from the brand, in addition to simply expanding it. Mobile gaming is projected to generate 50 percent of all gaming revenue in 2022 so, regardless of the success of other projects within the universe, it’s likely that Honor of Kings will remain the crown jewel of the company- and that Tencent hopes that the success of other titles within the franchise will help it maintain that status, despite the company’s recent struggles.
In August, we listed Tencet as one of the top 50 mobile game makers of 2022.
