On My Honor
Among all the mobile games in China, there’s one that’s been crowned royalty: Honor of Kings
In China, Tencent has been one of the most dominant internet-based companies, particularly for its QQ and WeChat, the latter of which is the country’s most popular communication application. Another superstar product created by Tencent Games is Honor of Kings. Launched in November 2015 for iOS and Android, this online game has been hugely successful, especially among young people. Users can play dozens of hero roles such as warriors, assassins and archers, fighting with or against each other in the game. One major reason for its massive success is that users can play it on their phones rather than on a computer or console, thus making it more readily accessible.
As the official professional league of Honor of Kings, King Pro League (KPL) is held biannually, including a spring season that starts around March and an autumn season around September. The spring season final was held on July 8 in Shanghai, with about 18,000 people packed into the Mercedes-Benz Arena as they cheered on their favorite contestants. The audience was divided into blue and red factions, each supporting one of the two competing teams, with the winner taking home a purse of 5 million yuan ($719,341).
The 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta officially added electronic gaming, or eSports, as a demonstration sport this year, with games including Arena of Valor (the international version of Honor of Kings), Clash Royale, Hearthstone, League of Legends, Pro Evolution Soccer and StarCraft II.
Discussions are also underway to make eSports an official competition event at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou. As the rapidly developing gaming industry booms, we’ll have to keep watching to see if Honor of Kings remains at the top.