Honor of Kings and Arena of Valor have effectively illustrated how different esports games are in terms of their appeal to viewers outside of China.

Gamers of mobile MOBAs are currently observing an interesting occurrence. The Honor of Kings International Championship 2023 and the Arena of Valor International Championship 2023 are two significant LAN competitions taking place simultaneously in China and Vietnam. Even though there are over 20 times as many prizes in the previous competition, there are a lot more non-Chinese spectators in the latter one. Given that the games Honor of Kings and Arena of Valor are from the same creator and are essentially quite similar—some may even argue that they are the same—this discrepancy is rather unexpected.

Honor of Kings and Arena of Valor are so similar in appearance that it would be quite difficult for an outsider to tell them apart. Both games are mobile MOBAs that have gameplay elements similar to League of Legends from Riot Games. Honor of Kings, developed by TiMi Studios, came out a year ahead of Arena of Valor, and ever since, the two projects have developed separately. They are so similar that they take inspiration from one another for their heroes, relics, and map designs. In esports competitions, the resemblance between the two games is particularly apparent. For example, at the Honor of Kings championship, teams are essentially permitted to choose a few heroes from the Arena of Valor.

Even with their clear similarities, the publishers present these games as distinct endeavors. This is because the branding and development of Arena of Valor has always been more centered on Southeast Asia and other places outside of mainland China, whereas Honor of Kings is being pushed more in the Chinese market. As a result, distinct tournament series and marketing strategies have been devised for these two strikingly identical videogames. For example, athletes that participated in Arena of Valor’s regional leagues are not eligible to compete in the 2023 Honor of Kings International Championship. As a result, in order to compete in these disciplines, some clubs must field distinct teams of players.


Nearly $10 million will be awarded in prizes for the Honor of Kings International Championship in 2023. With this amount, the event will be among the biggest in 2023 and is considered a momentous figure in the esports business. But since the competition is mostly covered on Chinese websites like Douyu, Huya, and Weibo, it can be difficult to estimate viewership. HoKIC 2023’s audience reach on Western foreign streaming services is relatively low, with a peak of only 4.4 thousand concurrent watchers.




This is not the case for the 2023 Arena of Valor International Championship. Teams are fighting for ‘just’ $500k, yet Facebook, YouTube Live, TikTok, and other sites broadcast the tournament matches. Official feeds are provided by independent community casters, regional leagues in various nations, and Garena. Because of this, the tournament’s peak concurrent online viewership has already been attained by 325.7 thousand people (the event is halfway through the group stage matchups at the time of this writing).

Although it is impossible to compare the popularity of these two tournament series objectively without knowing the specific number of Chinese viewers, audience reach does not immediately correlate with prize pools. It’s important to remember that Honor of Kings developer Level Infinite declared last year that it would expand the brand outside of China and launch it alongside Arena of Valor on the international scene. After thereafter, invitations to compete in Honor of Kings events began to arrive for international teams from countries such as Brazil, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and others. Honor of Kings is one of the most played smartphone games worldwide, according the Sports Business Journal. Every day, about 80 million people (nearly all of them from China) play it online; each month, there are 145 million distinct players. The game’s designers have made almost $12 billion since its 2015 release.