Tencent’s Valorant Mobile earned US$1 million in player spending on iPhones in China on its first day of release this week, according to Appfigures.

The free-to-play shooting game, co-developed by Tencent’s Riot Games and Lightspeed Studios, had about 170,000 downloads on launch day, and is currently the top-downloaded iPhone app in China.

Valorant Mobile, which offers in-app purchases for revenue, is available only in China, and no global launch date has been announced.

Appfigures said Valorant Mobile is sixth among the highest-earning games on iOS in China, while Tencent’s DnF Mobile earned about 5x more at launch.

🔗 Source: Bloomberg

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ Valorant Mobile’s modest launch signals measured expectations in competitive mobile shooter market

Valorant Mobile’s $1 million first-day revenue and 170,000 downloads represent a relatively modest performance compared to other major mobile shooter launches.

Call of Duty Mobile generated $3.1 million in a single day during its launch month and averaged 4.9 million daily downloads, peaking at nearly 24 million downloads on October 1, 20192.

Even within Tencent’s own portfolio, the comparison is stark. DnF Mobile earned roughly five times more revenue on its release day than Valorant Mobile1.

This performance suggests Tencent may be taking a more cautious approach with Valorant Mobile, especially given the technical challenges of adapting the PC game’s “unforgiving speed” gameplay to mobile touch controls.

The company’s previous attempt with Ace Force 2, which featured similar gameplay to Valorant but was shut down soon after launch, likely influenced this more conservative rollout strategy1.

2️⃣ Tencent’s expanding shooter portfolio raises questions about market saturation and cannibalization

Tencent now operates at least five major shooting franchises on mobile—PUBG Mobile, CrossFire, Delta Force, Arena Breakout, and now Valorant Mobile—creating a significant concentration of similar games under one publisher.

This strategy mirrors their success with Game for Peace, which generated $70 million in its first month and eventually became the world’s top-grossing mobile battle royale title with $860 million by July 201934.

However, the company faces the challenge of differentiating these titles while avoiding internal competition for the same player base.

Recent Tencent developments