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Tencent’s Arena of Valor takes $5m from the US as year anniversary approaches

The Chinese version, Honor of Kings, has made $3.7 billion in comparison since late-2015

Tencent’s Arena of Valor takes $5m from the US as year anniversary approaches

Tencent's MOBA Arena of Valor has taken in $5 million from US players in the 11 months it's been available on Android and iOS.

According to Sensor Tower, it makes the country the games most lucrative market in the West. The figure is around six times greater than the $820,000 made from the UK and seven times greater than the $765,000 taken from Canada.

Compared to its mobile MOBA rivals in the US, it trails behind Moonton’s Mobile Legends, which has made $10 million but launched earlier in 2016.

It is, however, ahead of Super Evil Megacorp’s mid-2015 release Vainglory and its estimated haul of $4.9 million in the country.

Home Comforts

The figures are, by comparison, dwarfed by Arena of Valor’s performance in China, where it’s known by Honor of Kings. Since launching in late 2015, the MOBA has taken in $3.7 billion on iOS alone.

In a previous interview with PocketGamer.Biz, Tencent America director of esports Ramon Hermann explained that the differing performances of the game comes down to player perception.

“The phone is often one of the first gaming experiences that they have had, so playing games and playing them competitively seems like a natural suggestion there, and I don’t think anybody has asked themselves, is this potentially an inferior experience?" said Hermann.

“Whereas in the West, I think there is a bit of a stigma where early mobile games weren’t quite as powerful and quite as compelling as what we have today.”

Tencent president of international partnerships in Europe Jurgen Post will be a speaker at Pocket Gamer Connects London 2019, which takes place on January 21st to 22nd.


Staff Writer

Iain is a freelance writer based in Scotland with a penchant for indies and all things Nintendo. Alongside PocketGamer.Biz, he has also appeared in Kotaku, Rock Paper Shotgun, PCGamesN and VG24/7.