HoK Invitational 2026 Season 4 ends among Honor of Kings' most popular events
The Honor of Kings Invitational 2026 Season 4, the game’s first major international event of 2026, concluded on February 8. The tournament, which brought together top sides from Southeast Asia and Brazil to Jakarta, continued the game's global viewership ascent, ending among its three most popular competitions.
This Honor of Kings Invitational tournament was a battle for pride, momentum and a hefty prize pool in front of a live crowd. Eight top-tier sides did battle for around ten days, giving fans glimpses of new metas and rivalries resuming, all the while setting the stage for who might dominate the global scene this season.
In the end, Nova Esports emerged as the champion, taking down Nongshim RedForce 4:0 in the Grand Final held at the GBK Basketball Hall in Indonesia's capital. The Malaysian side made it back-to-back titles at the KIS, having also beaten South Korea's Nongshim RedForce in the 2025 finals in Manila, the Philippines.
Nova Esports has been one of the best sides in Honor of Kings since the mobile MOBA's global expansion in 2024. Runner-up at the most recent Malaysian domestic league, the side has finished in the top four of every top-tier regional and global tournament over the past three years, including a second-place run at the Honor of Kings International Championship 2025.
In fact, Nova Esports went unbeaten en route to winning the Honor of Kings Invitational 2026 Season 4, winning all six of its games and dropping just three maps in the process. As a result, the winner took home $35,000, while the runner-up, Nongshim RedForce, pocketed $17,000 our of a total prize pool of $100,000.
The Grand Final was also the most popular game at this top-tier HoK event, reaching 583,789 Peak Viewers (PV). This made it the top entry in the Honor of Kings Invitational series by concurrent viewers, outperforming the previous season by over 53%.
It also entered the top three competitions in history by peak live viewers, behind the Honor of Kings World Cup 2025 and the Honor of Kings International Championship 2025. The Honor of Kings Invitational 2026 Season 4 also became just the fourth tournament in the title to surpass 3 million Hours Watched (HW).
Most popular and watched Honor of Kings tournaments
Reinforcing the game's global expansion, English reached a new Honor of Kings esports milestone for peak viewership. The language attracted 244,095 PV, which was 34.4% higher than the previous record holder, the World Championship for the 2025 Honor of Kings season.
A big factor for this viewership success, and the overall spike in livestreaming numbers for the finals, was the promotional streams the event actively used during the title-deciding game. This helped to attract a much larger audience than the rest of the tournament.
There were also other activities organized by the organizers to make this event feel special and reflective of the local culture, adding to the audience's interest. Fans were treated to a half-time live performance by Afgan, one of the most popular Indonesian artists, during the finals, as he sang three songs.
Attendees even had a chance to win exclusive Afgan merchandise and VIP tickets to the Grand Final, adding to the hype around the deciding game.
As TiMi Studios and Level Infinite look to take Honor of Kings outside its natural habitat of China to a more global audience, the game has attracted quite a lot of attention from international viewers. Thanks to the heavy promotion of its top matches, its top events have been breaking livestreaming records regularly since 2024, and this seems to be continuing in 2026.
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