Is Honor of Kings a viable option for the West? Meet the group aiming for world recognition.

Honor of Kings, a mobile MOBA game created by TiMi Studio and released by Tencent, is finally going worldwide. With its June 20th debut date, the game will be available to gamers and markets around the world.

Honor of Kings is a notable MOBA game that was first released in China in 2015. Although it hasn’t made a global debut, the game has already demonstrated its worth by earning an incredible $15.6 billion in lifetime revenue on China’s App Store, which is evidence of its popularity and the fact that three million pre-registrations were made for its global launch. In actuality, it is one of the most popular mobile games ever created, even though it was only released locally.

“When we started development, we knew there was a demand among players for a MOBA experience on mobile devices, but we never expected to achieve such sustained popularity,” said Dean Huang, chief designer of Honor of Kings [top left in our picture], in an interview with PocketGamer.biz.

Challenges in the Western market

There have been difficulties in the past when attempting to bring the game to the West. Using the same engine, Arena of Valor was published in 2016 after modifications were made to cater to Western markets. Arena of Valor has made $71 million thus far, which is a significant amount, but it is nothing compared to Honor of Kings, according to AppMagic data. This is true even though it is accessible to a much larger audience and has a number of cooperation agreements including crossovers with characters like Contra, One-Punch Man, and the DC Universe.

Now that Honor of Kings has launched globally, the two games will coexist.

Even while some MOBA games or games with related themes, like Clash Royale from Supercell, have done well in the West, it’s a difficult market to break.

The Honor of Kings team, however, is certain that MOBA is now more accepted in the West and that a protracted soft launch period has allowed them to make the required adjustments to appeal to a worldwide audience.

“We feel that our experience from the success of Honor of Kings’ launch in other regions, such as MENA and Brazil, will enable us to better serve our Western players,” Huang says, acknowledging that the mobile gaming landscape is changing in the West and that more players now see mobile as a competitive gaming platform.

With the ultimate goal of creating a game with a worldwide appeal, “the choice to launch the game in select regions via a phased rollout has allowed us to listen and react to the feedback of a diverse group of players from different cultures.”

After the worldwide debut

Henry Li, head of localization, explains that Level Infinite, their publishing partner, is in charge of “gathering player feedback from various regions globally and guiding the optimisation of Honor of Kings” while the TiMi Studio Group is working on the game [bottom in our pic]. “TiMi and Level Infinite collaborate to provide customised and refined live ops solutions for players worldwide.”

Live operations will be crucial to the game’s ongoing support because the global launch is only the start of this new journey.

A new esports partnership program that Level Infinite has introduced, in addition to its constantly changing content, reflects the game’s future ambitions for a larger presence in the esports industry, which has experienced rapid expansion in recent years.

Additionally, Honor of Kings already has a sizable esport fan base. All Gamers Global won the 2024 Honor of Kings open EMEA finals, guaranteeing them a seat at the Honor of Kings invitational season 2 on June 29.

The Honor of Kings competitive scene in China has gained popularity, but it has to be supported for future growth with a “clear path from amateur to professional,” according to Feng [top right in our picture], head of esport for Honor of Kings, who spoke with PocketGamer.biz.

“To that end, we are investing $15 million in major international events as well as grassroots tournaments,” Feng adds. While the Honor of Kings invitational series, which includes the Midseason tournament as part of this summer’s Esports World Cup, is currently in progress at the professional level, we have launched the Open Series as the gateway tournament for amateurs.

It’s unclear if Honor of Kings will succeed in the West, but it’s obvious that the development team has a plan in place to make sure the game is improved upon for a worldwide release and that all significant player input is considered, keeping in mind its new, larger audience.

Li teases a final update regarding Honor of Kings’ future, saying, “We are also in discussions about some exciting global IP collaboration opportunities, with more information to be released in the future.” Li adds, “We will design customised operational activities based on the cultures and preferences of different regions to cater to the varied tastes of players.”

On June 20th, Honor of Kings 5v5 bouts will be available to gamers worldwide on iOS and Android devices.