Why Arena of Valor is the next big mobile game

A new mobile MOBA is competing for screen real estate on your smartphone, so move over Vainglory. The team multiplayer battle arena format is being altered and condensed in Arena of Valor, also known as Honour of Kings in China, so that it can be played in quick bursts on iPhone and Android smartphones.
The five-vs-five game is getting a modest launch in Europe and North America as Chinese internet giant Tencent looks to expand in the west. Tencent already controls the mobile industry in Asia. Even if you’ve never played Dota or understood the purpose of defending an ancient, you should be excited for the following reasons.

You may play League of Legends on your phone.

Scores of millions of players log onto League of Legends each month to engage in combat on Summoner’s Rift, but the game is primarily a desktop activity that necessitates a mouse, keyboard, and a rock-solid broadband connection. There are currently no plans to release the game on any other platforms, including mobile, tablets, or consoles.
Go into the Arena of Valor. The principle is the same even though the characters may differ—in China, a cast of historical Chinese figures is employed, whilst AoV uses new heroes including—intriguingly—Batman—and the experience was adapted to a small touchscreen with shorter game lengths, smaller areas, and simpler controls. Each side has five players, with lanes to control, towers to defend, and jungles to skulk in and ambush from. Even the cel-shaded visual aesthetic is inspired by the powerful League of Legends.
But the comparison goes deeper than meets the eye. League of Legends’ development team, Riot Games, is owned by Tencent, which also publishes Arena of Valor; both games share the developer’s expertise in luring players back again and time again.

The world’s most lucrative mobile game is already this one.

Although Pokémon Go may have swept the globe, Arena of Valor is already exceeding it in some ways, at least when playing as Honour of Kings. For Tencent, it made $875 million in the first quarter of 2017, according to Quartz. According to SuperData Research, the game made $150 million in sales in just June of this year. Not bad for a game released in 2015 without the widespread acclaim of Pikachu, Squirtle, and others.
It has 55 million players just in China.
Those numbers conceal some player base statistics that are much more astounding. The South China Morning Post estimated that 200 million people worldwide log into Honour of Kings every day, with a contingent of Chinese gamers larger than the total population of South Korea. These figures surpass even Pokémon Go, which according to some estimates peaked in the summer of 2016 with just under 45 million daily active users, and placed it on level with not only games but also some of the most well-known apps in the world.

Children in China have been forbidden from playing it because it is so addictive.

The success of Honour of Kings in China has raised significant concerns among parents and lawmakers in a nation lacking a console gaming culture. In fact, the government-run publication started to use terms like “poison” and “drug” to describe the game. Even though this doesn’t exactly imply that the game has received legal approval, it did prompt Tencent to act. The corporation established safeguards for minors, limiting their daily playing time to one or two hours depending on their age.

It’s quickly becoming an eSport.

The greatest achievement of League of Legends was the transformation of a team game into a professionalized spectator sport, and Tencent is determined to do the same with Arena of Valor. Its Honor of Kings King Pro League is currently in its second season in China, and a vibrant streamer community has developed around the game on Chinese platforms Douyu and Huya, where it is already the most streamed game. Tencent will likely introduce the LCS model to mobile devices as well if Arena of Valor gains a comparable following in the west.