Honor of Kings and Arena of Valor have vividly showcased the difference of esports games in audience reach outside China

Loading

Fans of mobile MOBAs can witness an intriguing phenomenon right now. Major LAN tournaments are happening concurrently in China and Vietnam: the Honor of Kings International Championship 2023 and the Arena of Valor International Championship 2023. The prize pool for the former is nearly 20 times larger, yet the number of non-Chinese spectators for the latter tournament is significantly higher. This disparity is quite surprising considering that Honor of Kings and Arena of Valor are essentially very similar (some may even label them as the same) games from the same developer.

Distinguishing between Honor of Kings and Arena of Valor is genuinely challenging to an external observer since they closely resemble each other visually. Both titles represent mobile MOBAs, gameplay-wise reminiscent of Riot Games' League of Legends. TiMi Studios released Honor of Kings a year before Arena of Valor, and since then, both projects have evolved independently from each other. They are so alike that they borrow heroes, artifacts, and map design elements from each other. The similarity between the two games is especially noticeable in esports tournaments. For instance, teams are practically allowed to select some heroes from Arena of Valor at Honor of Kings championship.

Despite the obvious similarity, the publishers position these games as separate projects. This is due to the emphasis on promoting Honor of Kings more in the Chinese market, while the branding and development of Arena of Valor have always been more focused on Southeast Asia and other regions outside mainland China. Consequently, these two very similar titles have developed different tournament series and marketing models. For instance, players who competed in regional leagues for Arena of Valor are not permitted to participate in the Honor of Kings International Championship 2023. Because of this, some clubs have to field different sets of players for tournaments in these disciplines.

The prize pool for the Honor of Kings International Championship 2023 amounts to nearly $10 million. This sum stands as a monumental figure within the esports industry, making the tournament one of the largest in 2023. However, the tournament is predominantly covered on Chinese platforms like Weibo, Douyu and Huya, where gauging the viewership numbers is challenging. On Western international streaming services, the audience reach for HoKIC 2023 is quite modest, peaking at only 4.4 thousand concurrent viewers.

The situation with the Arena of Valor International Championship 2023 is different. Teams are competing for 'only' $500,000, yet the tournament matches are covered on platforms like YouTube Live, TikTok, and Facebook. Official broadcasts come from Garena, as well as from regional leagues in different countries and independent community casters. As a result, the tournament's peak online viewership has already reached 325.7 thousand concurrent viewers (at the time of the article's publication, the event is halfway through the group stage matches).

The audience reach doesn't directly correlate with prize pools, although objectively comparing the popularity of these two tournament series is impossible without precise numbers of Chinese viewers. It's worth noting that the developer Level Infinite announced last year its intention to take the Honor of Kings brand to the global market and develop it alongside Arena of Valor, extending beyond China's borders. Following this, foreign teams from Brazil, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and others started receiving invitations to Honor of Kings tournaments. According to the Sports Business Journal, Honor of Kings stands as one of the most popular mobile titles globally. Around 80 million users play it daily (almost all from China), with a monthly online presence reaching 145 million unique players. Since its release in 2015, the game has generated over $12 billion for its creators.