The Honor of Kings title is widely recognized as the pinnacle of global mobile gaming. In 2024 alone, this multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) hit garnered nearly 1.87 billion U.S. dollars of global in-app revenues, underlining its financial prowess. Just how influential is Honor of Kings? Created by Tencent, a gaming behemoth on the global stage, Honor of Kings leverages Tencent's vast resources, including its social media platform WeChat, to promote the game and enrich player engagement. The second-most downloaded MOBA game in the world has racked up over 374 million downloads worldwide since its launch in late 2015. What sets Honor of Kings apart? Honor of Kings offers an unparalleled MOBA experience with well-designed maps, diverse heroes, and captivating gameplay. It is known in some regions as "Arena of Valor," with tailored adjustments catering to diverse audiences. Its competitive nature has spawned a vibrant esports scene, with professional leagues and tournaments attracting a substantial audience.

Honor of Kings was the top-grossing mobile multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game worldwide in December 2024, accumulating over 100 million U.S. dollars through in-app purchase revenues. Honor of Kings is only available in China, and the game's international version Arena of Valor generated approximately 73 thousand U.S. dollars during the measured period. The Chinese mainland edition of League of Legends: Wild Rift was ranked second overall with 15.38 million U.S. dollars in monthly IAP revenue.

China's mobile game market is vibrant. In January 2025, Tencent's flagship title Honor of Kings was the highest-grossing game app in the country, earning over 168 million U.S. dollars in revenue. PUBG Mobile ranked second with nearly 94 million U.S. dollars. The much anticipated Dungeon & Fighter: Origins, released in May 2024, stood at the fourth position with slightly over 50 million U.S. dollars. The long-term winners: Tencent and NetEase For many years, Tencent and NetEase have been the most successful Chinese game developers, holding the lion’s share of mobile gaming traffic. The former owns the super app WeChat and an extensive network of entertainment offerings. The mobile gaming business has been one of the profit pillars of Tencent, contributing nearly 30 percent of its annual revenue (555 billion yuan) in 2022. In comparison, NetEase was half the size of Tencent - 82 billion yuan in online game revenue in 2023. The industry challenger: miHoYo Having arrived at the gaming scene relatively late in 2011, the Chinese studio miHoYo took eight years to catch global attention. In September 2020, the company grabbed the right timing to launch Genshin Impact during the pandemic. The role-playing game achieved two billion U.S. dollars of revenue within a year of release and continues to be a lucrative title in various markets. The company announced another blockbuster game Honkai: Star Rail in April 2023.

Over the past decade, the Chinese mobile gaming market has developed by leaps and bounds, accounting for over 73 percent of China’s total gaming sales revenue in 2024. Owing to the state's online gaming crackdown, video game revenue saw its first decline in a decade in 2022. A mobile game wonderland The most populous country in the world has a huge mobile gamer base. In fact, over half of the Chinese population were playing mobile games, accounting for the majority of game users in the domestic market. This gaming community is not only massive but also more engaged compared to other markets. In general, Chinese mobile gamers played at least once per day, with an average session lasting for about ten minutes. The users were also willing to spend money on games, which was reflected by a rising average revenue per user (ARPU) according to market forecasts. Lucrative yet challenging Due to strict regulations and cultural gaming preferences in China, international gaming giants often struggle to compete with domestic rivals. In this context, Tencent remained the leading mobile game publisher in the Chinese arena. In 2022, the entertainment tycoon earned around 171 billion yuan from its gaming business. Its bestselling mobile game Honor of Kings generated on average 1.5 billion U.S. dollars in global in-app annual revenue. The enterprise had extended its footprint to the mobile eSports sector and quickly controlled a major market share.

The world of video gaming is very diverse, ranging from mobile gaming to PC gaming and console gaming. Over the past years, there has been an increase in downloads and mobile game usage among kids as well as adults which has, in turn, led to an increase in mobile gaming revenue. One of the most popular mobile games the year was Monopoly Go!, which grossed more than 1.58 billion U.S. dollars worldwide. The highest-grossing mobile game of 2024 was Chinese MOBA title Honor of Kings.

According to the Fortune China 500 ranking in 2024, which was based on company financials in 2023, JD.com, Alibaba Group, and Tencent kept their positions as the highest-earning internet enterprise based in China. With an annual revenue of over 153 billion U.S. dollars, JD.com ranked thirteen among all Chinese companies. Its close rival Alibaba Group reported about 131 billion U.S. dollars in revenue. Tencent followed with 86 million U.S. dollars. Due to censorship regulations, global internet leaders are blocked in China. JD.com: robust logistics infrastructure JD.com has a highly efficient and self-owned logistics network, which ensures rapid delivery and product authenticity. Quality and counterfeit risks are reduced by its direct sales model, which gives it greater control over quality. Using AI, big data, and an omnichannel strategy, the company has consistently improved the customer experience and optimized supply chains. Strategic partnerships with other well-established firms like Tencent, Walmart, and luxury brands, along with its fintech arm JD Digits, strengthen its ecosystem. JD.com is also recognized for outstanding customer services and sustainability initiatives, creating a reputable and innovative brand in China’s competitive e-commerce landscape. Alibaba: the architect of the shopping spree On November 11, 2009, Alibaba launched its first Singles' Day shopping event, offering big discounts on countless products on its platforms. Since then, the shopping festival has turned into a multibillion-dollar, annual celebration. Although e-commerce remains the backbone of the conglomerate, it has diversified its business in cloud computing and digital entertainment, such as acquiring the Chinese popular video-sharing site Youku Tudou. Tencent: the fortress with diversities Within China, Tencent’s products have experienced immense popularity with the likes of instant messengers WeChat and QQ, social networking service Qzone, and mobile game Honor of Kings. In comparison with its social network counterparts, Tencent adopts a different business approach - increasing customer reach before app monetization. Instead of depending on advertising income, the enterprise focused more on value-added services, such as smartphone and PC-based gaming, digital content, and membership subscriptions. Online advertising accounted for less than one-fifth of Tencent’s annual revenue.

In 2024, the League of Legends World Championship, which took place in the France, Germany, and the UK, had a prize pool of just under 2.23 million U.S. dollars. This marked a significant drop on the prize pool of 6.45 million U.S. dollars in 2018. The total winnings from the tournament in 2018 were the largest on record since the championship began in 2011, and the cumulative prize money since 2019 has totaled slightly above two million U.S. dollars annually. League of Legends is a free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game that pits opposing teams against each other to infiltrate their opponents’ base and destroy their “nexus”, a fortified structure within the base. Who are the most prominent League of Legends players worldwide? Looking at professional gamers, Sang Hyeok Lee was the highest-earning League of Legends player worldwide in 2024. Hailing from South Korea, Lee, who played under the moniker of Faker, had earned more than 1.8 million U.S. dollars competing at League of Legends tournaments throughout his eSports gaming career. Meanwhile, Caedrel was the most watched League of Legends streamer on Twitch worldwide, having accumulated more than 3.6 million viewership hours in the 30 days preceding December 2024. The British League of Legends streamer’s monthly viewership hours were about 25 percent higher than NoWay4u_Sir, who was second in the ranking. How popular are MOBA games? Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games are a widely played subgenre of strategy games which enable teams of players to compete against one another on a predetermined battlefield. Although they were not the first games within the genre, MOBA was popularized with titles such as League of Legends and Dota 2. In April 2024, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang was the most downloaded MOBA mobile gaming app worldwide, registering almost six million downloads. Meanwhile, Honor of Kings was the top-grossing mobile MOBA app worldwide, reporting an annual revenue of above 161 million U.S. dollars in April 2024.