{"id":29,"date":"2017-11-03T04:19:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-03T04:19:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2017-12-05T14:38:22","modified_gmt":"2017-12-05T22:38:22","slug":"arena-of-valor-next-big-mobile-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hthgaming.com\/aov\/news\/arena-of-valor-next-big-mobile-game-29.html","title":{"rendered":"Why Arena of Valor is the next big mobile game"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Why Arena of Valor is the next big mobile game\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"416\" data-original-width=\"740\" src=\"https:\/\/i.imgur.com\/m01RMqx.jpg\" title=\"\" \/><\/div>\n<p>We explain the hype around Tencent&#8217;s new hit mobile game and why it\u2019s poised to remove Pok\u00e9mon Go from your homescreen.<br \/><a name='more'><\/a><br \/>Move over Vainglory, there\u2019s a new mobile MOBA vying for space on your smartphone\u2019s screen. <b><a href=\"https:\/\/hthgaming.com\/aov\/\" target=\"_blank\">Arena of Valor<\/a><\/b>, also known as Honour of Kings in China, is mixing up the team multiplayer battle arena format and shrinking it down to work in short bursts on iPhone and Android smartphones.<br \/>Chinese internet giants Tencent have already cornered the mobile market in Asia, but now the company is looking to expand in the west, with a soft launch for the five-vs-five game rolling out across Europe and North America. Here\u2019s why you should be excited, even if you\u2019ve never heard of Dota before, let alone know why you\u2019re supposed to be defending an ancient.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_88 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/hthgaming.com\/aov\/news\/arena-of-valor-next-big-mobile-game-29.html\/#its-league-of-legends-on-your-mobile\" >It\u2019s League of Legends on your mobile<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/hthgaming.com\/aov\/news\/arena-of-valor-next-big-mobile-game-29.html\/#its-already-the-most-profitable-mobile-game-in-the-world\" >It\u2019s already the most profitable mobile game in the world<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/hthgaming.com\/aov\/news\/arena-of-valor-next-big-mobile-game-29.html\/#it-has-55m-players-in-china-alone\" >It has 55m players in China alone<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/hthgaming.com\/aov\/news\/arena-of-valor-next-big-mobile-game-29.html\/#its-rapidly-turning-into-an-esport\" >It\u2019s rapidly turning into an eSport<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"its-league-of-legends-on-your-mobile\"><\/span>It\u2019s League of Legends on your mobile<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>League of Legends is a phenomenon in PC gaming, with scores of millions of players logging on to do battle on Summoner\u2019s Rift each month, but it\u2019s strictly a desktop affair that requires a mouse and keyboard \u2013 not to mention a rock solid broadband connection. There are no plans to bring the game to other platforms like console, tablets or mobile, and that\u2019s unlikely to change, ever.<br \/>Enter <a href=\"https:\/\/hthgaming.com\/aov\/\" target=\"_blank\">Arena of Valor<\/a>. Though the characters may be different \u2013 in China, a cast of historical Chinese characters is used, while AoV features new heroes and, oddly, Batman \u2013 and the experience translated to a small touchscreen, with shorter game lengths, smaller maps and easier controls, the concept carries over. There are five players on each side, lanes to dominate, towers to defend, jungles to lurk and ambush from. Even the cel-shaded graphical style takes its cues from the mighty League of Legends.<br \/>The comparison is more than skin deep, however. Riot Games, the team that develop League of Legends, are owned by Tencent, which also publishes Arena of Valor \u2013 the company\u2019s understanding of how to keep players coming back again and again runs through both games.<\/p>\n<div><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wXV3zNb1vHk?modestbranding=1&amp;showinfo=0\" width=\"560\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"its-already-the-most-profitable-mobile-game-in-the-world\"><\/span>It\u2019s already the most profitable mobile game in the world<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Pok\u00e9mon Go may have taken the entire world by storm, but Arena of Valor is already outperforming it by some metrics, at least in its Honour of Kings guise. According to Quartz, in the first quarter of 2017 it generated US$875m for Tencent. SuperData Research meanwhile estimated that in June this year alone the game generated US$150m in revenue. Not bad for a game launched in 2015 and lacking the global recognition of Pikachu, Squirtle et al.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"it-has-55m-players-in-china-alone\"><\/span>It has 55m players in China alone<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Those figures belie some even more impressive player base statistics. A contingent of Chinese gamers bigger than the entire population of South Korea plays Honour of Kings daily, with a reported 200m logging in worldwide according to the South China Morning Post. Those numbers outstrip even Pok\u00e9mon Go, which at its peak in the summer of 2016 had just under 45m daily active users by some estimates, and put it on a par with not just games, but some of the world\u2019s most popular apps.<\/p>\n<div><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Fc2K1kvoSfs?modestbranding=1&amp;showinfo=0\" width=\"560\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>It\u2019s so addictive, children have been banned from playing it across China<br \/>In a country without a culture of console gaming, the popularity of Honour of Kings in China has caused serious concern among parents and lawmakers. So much so in fact that the government-run newspaper began to refer to the game as a \u201cpoison\u201d and a \u201cdrug\u201d. While this doesn\u2019t technically mean that the game has been sanctioned by law, it certainly caused Tencent to take action. The company added measures for under-18s, restricting the amount of time they can play each day to one or two hours depending on age.<\/p>\n<div><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IGWqKL7ggEA?modestbranding=1&amp;showinfo=0\" width=\"560\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"its-rapidly-turning-into-an-esport\"><\/span>It\u2019s rapidly turning into an eSport<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>League of Legends\u2019 greatest coup was turning a team game into a professionalised spectator sport, and Tencent are bent on replicating that with <a href=\"https:\/\/hthgaming.com\/aov\/\" target=\"_blank\">Arena of Valor<\/a>. Its King Pro League for Honor of Kings in China is already in its second season and a thriving community of streamers has coalesced around the game on Chinese platforms Douyu and Huya, where it&#8217;s already the most popular game being streamed. If Arena of Valor finds similar traction in the west, expect Tencent to deploy the LCS format to mobile too.<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: right;\">Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.redbull.com\/gb-en\/arena-of-valor-honour-of-kings-moba-mobile\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Redbull<\/a><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We explain the hype around Tencent\u2019s new hit mobile game and why it\u2019s poised to remove Pok\u00e9mon Go from your homescreen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hthgaming.com\/aov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hthgaming.com\/aov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hthgaming.com\/aov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hthgaming.com\/aov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hthgaming.com\/aov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hthgaming.com\/aov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hthgaming.com\/aov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hthgaming.com\/aov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hthgaming.com\/aov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hthgaming.com\/aov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}