It’s the beginning of the end for China’s beloved multiplayer PC games

Photo credit: ginnerobot.

Honor of Kings, the iOS and Android smash-hit that’s the world’s top grossing game right now, just helped Tencent, China’s social media giant, hit US$15.7 billion in revenue from April to June – that’s compared with US$10 billion the same period last year.

That resulted in a major milestone: Tencent’s mobile game revenues surpassed those from PC for the first time.

It marks a major shift in China, where PC-era multiplayer titles like World of Warcraft, League of Legends, and Crossfire, either played at home or in nicotine-stained “internet cafes”, have been popular for decades.

Honor of Kings is a multiplayer battle game in the mold of those PC classics, but it’s only playable on phones. It looks like this:

GIF by Tech in Asia, from video by Arena of Valor.

It pulled in US$828 million in the first three months of the year, according to gaming industry database CNG. Tencent did not disclose revenue specific to the game in its earnings report this afternoon.

Taking it global

Tencent, maker of WeChat, could see its revenue surge again later this year as it rumored to take the hit game to the US and Europe, where it’ll be renamed Arena of Valor.

See: WeChat is close to a billion users

Honor of Kings has proved so popular this year in China that Tencent came under attack from Chinese authorities, which branded it “harmful to the psychology of minors.” Tencent in July was forced to limit the hours underage users can access the game. The ban restricts kids under 12 to one hour of game play per day and limits users under 18 to two hours, reported Reuters at the time.

China has an estimated 503 million mobile gamers.