Introduction
Honor of Kings (Chinese: 王者荣耀 / 王者榮耀; pinyin: Wángzhě Róngyào) is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game developed by TiMi Studio Group and published by Tencent Games for iOS, HarmonyOS NEXT, and Android.
The game was first released in mainland China on 26 November 2015. In October 2016, an international version called Arena of Valor was launched, using the same game engine but changing the user interface and heroes to better fit the Western market. By November 2020, Honor of Kings had more than 100 million daily active players, making it one of the most popular games in the world. It is also the highest-grossing mobile game of all time and one of the most downloaded apps globally.
In June 2022, Level Infinite, the publisher of Arena of Valor, announced that Honor of Kings would be released globally through a separate version by the end of the year. In May 2024, the worldwide launch date for the global version was confirmed as 20 June 2024, following earlier releases in Brazil, Turkey, the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Honor of Kings became the highest-grossing mobile game in the world in 2024, earning a total of 2.6 billion dollars gross.
Overview
Honor of Kings is a fast-paced mobile multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game, with most matches lasting 15–20 minutes. To play the game, users need either a Tencent QQ account or a WeChat account. After an update on 24 September 2020, players gained the ability to add friends and invite people from different platforms to join guilds. Honor of Kings was the second-highest-earning mobile game worldwide in February 2021, generating 218.5 million dollars in revenue, which marked a 57.2% increase compared to February 2020. About 95.6% of its revenue came from China, followed by 1.6% from Thailand.
Gameplay
Honor of Kings is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game where players control heroes with unique abilities and compete by defeating non-player characters and opponents to earn experience points and gold. Experience points allow players to unlock new abilities or upgrade the ones they already have. Each hero can reach a maximum level of 15, and every level gained increases the hero’s attributes, making them stronger during the match.
control but also gives them a skill point to upgrade their skills. There is a character called “Jiang Ziya” in the game who can use his unique “Fengshen” skill to remove the level limit for himself and another character. However, after level 15, he can only improve the attribute values of the character. Gold can be used to purchase items at the shop that uniquely change specific attributes of the character.
To win a game, players need to knock down the enemy’s defensive structures, called turrets. Victory is achieved by destroying the opponent’s base crystal, located within the enemy team’s base. Specific gameplay mechanics vary depending on the game mode chosen.
Experience and gold are also earned across matches and applied to player accounts. Accounts start at level 1, with level 30 being the maximum level. Upon leveling up, users receive bonus in-game awards. Leveling up also unlocks certain summoners’ abilities that can be applied to every hero the summoner uses. Gold can be used for a variety of purposes, such as purchasing new heroes.
Types of damage
Physical damage
It is the most common damage in the game and appears with damage numbers in red. Physical damage can be decreased by armor.
Magical damage
It appears with damage numbers in purple. Magical damage can be decreased by magical resistance.
True damage
It is the most powerful damage. This damage cannot be reduced by armor; it can be only decreased by damage-decrease buffs or skills.
Critical damage
It deals massive damage in crit chance (percentage %); it can be physical, magical or true damage.
Game modes
Honor of Kings has a variety of game modes, with a majority of them focused on competitive matchmaking. Without a network connection, players can play the stand-alone mode. With a network connection, players can choose a variety of battle modes, in which players can either face off against each other in player versus player matches (including 1v1, 3v3, 5v5) or participate in various player versus environment adventure modes.
In each of the player versus player modes, there are options to battle AI (computer) opponents. The AI can be set on easy, normal, or hard difficulty. Also, players can open ‘rooms’ where they can invite and battle a friend or recent battle teammate or opponent. There is also an option to open a ‘draft room’ for a 5v5 in which everybody is invited by someone else in the room.
Characters
Players may choose between a wide variety of heroes, each with special abilities, cosmetic skins and backstories. There are a total of 125 heroes, generally classified as either Tank, Fighter, Assassin, Mage, Marksman, or Support.[29] Some heroes originated from the mythical story of China (such as Pangu), while others are famous people from Chinese history (such as Guan Yu). The game also has its own heroes (such as Luban No.7) based on its original story.
When controlling a character, players can listen to famous quotations that express the character’s personality.[30]: 237 Many of these are excerpted or adapted from classical poetry or popular movies.[30]: 237
In Arena of Valor, most Chinese characters are replaced by American and Japanese heroes, including Batman, The Flash, and Jinnar.: 242 The more recognizable figures that remain, like Sun Wukong, are visually re-designed for Western audiences.: 242 Currently, there are three Arena of Valor heroes (Allain, Ata, Butterfly) which have been transferred to the global server of Honor of Kings, with Allain being transferred to the Chinese server as well. Additionally, Ata replaces Zhu Bajie from the Chinese server to avoid causing offense with the portrayal of pig characters in video games.
Collaborations and adaptations
SNK
In 2019, Timi L1 Studio collaborated with Japanese gaming company SNK to feature Mai Shiranui from the Fatal Fury and The King of Fighters series, and Charlotte, Ukyo Tachibana, and Nakoruru from the Samurai Shodown series as guest characters in Honor of Kings, with Haohmaru as a skin for Musashi. Similarly, Arli (Gongsun Li), a character from Honor of Kings, also appears as a playable guest character in Samurai Shodown (2019). They would collaborate once again in the game Metal Slug: Awakening, having Alessio, Lady Sun, and Marco Polo as the current Honor of Kings guest characters, along with Arena of Valor‘s Violet.
Messi
In 2018, the studio contracted with Lionel Messi to add a new Messi skin for the hero Pei on the opening day of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. This rare skin was only sold for a few days in a year. It temporarily only available at China Server of Honor of Kings.
Year of the Dragon
Jujutsu Kaisen
Just after the 2024 Honor of Kings Championship, there was a collaboration with Jujutsu Kaisen, an anime series based on a manga by Gege Akutami. The collaboration featured Biron as Yuji Itadori, Kongming as Satoru Gojo, and Garo as Mei Mei, under the skin name “Gloweast.” As of February 2025, the cast also includes Lady Sun as Nobara Kugisaki, Sima Yi as Megumi Fushiguro, and Guiguzi as Cathy. The collaboration also features avatars and interactive battle stickers.
to user. This collaboration will not be available in China server. the first running from 1 to 30 November 2024, and the second from 20 March to 19 April 2025. The collaboration made a highly anticipated return from 1 September to 30 September 2025.
History
After Tencent fully acquired Riot Games in 2015, Tencent asked them to make a mobile version of League of Legends, as multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games were very rare on mobile at the time, with Vainglory by Super Evil Megacorp (formed by ex-employees of Riot Games) being the only notable title. Tencent wanted to seize the opportunity to dominate the underserved mobile market.
However, Riot Games declined, as mobile was not commonly seen as a platform for competitive games; it claimed that the gameplay of League of Legends could not be replicated on smartphones. Despite the refusal, the video game development studios Lightspeed & Quantum Studios and TiMi Studios (both owned by Tencent) raced to develop a MOBA game that fit the bill, resulting in an internal competition.
By the end of May 2017, 54% of the game’s players were female; a significant difference from the general trend of esports.
The success of the MOBA genre on mobile inspired the creation of Pokémon Unite, a Pokémon spin-off game developed by TiMi Studio in partnership with The Pokémon Company.
Esports
Honor of Kings is one of the most popular esports in its home country of China. The Champion Cup was introduced in 2016 shortly after the launch of the game and became an annual event, and later renamed to the World Champion Cup. It was considered the game’s equivalent to the League of Legends World Championship. A professional league for Honor of Kings, the King Pro League (KPL), was launched later that year in China. While the
World Champion Cup brought in teams from other countries, most participants were Chinese, alongside some teams from South Korea, who had their own competition named the Korea King Pro League (KRKPL); this was mainly due to Arena of Valor and their separate esports scene in Southeast Asia, Europe and the Americas.
In 2025, Honor of Kings would start additional professional leagues outside of China. These are: the Philippines Kings League (PKL), MY Honor of Kings League (MKL), Indonesia Kings Laga (IKL), Wildcard Kings Series (WKS, for teams in Southeast Asia outside of the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia), Honor of Kings Major West League (KMW, for teams in Europe, North America and Latin America) and Honor of Kings Major East League (KME, for teams in MENA, South Asia, Korea and Japan).
Controversies
In March 2017, Honor of Kings was criticized by Guangming Daily for distorting Chinese history Guangming Daily wrote that the game characters were inconsistent with historical narratives and traditional mythological narratives, and that it was keeping teenagers from forming authentic historical views. People’s Daily republished these criticisms, including on its WeChat account and on Weibo.
On 31 October 2021, Honor of Kings updated its juvenile addiction prevention system following the requirement from National Press and Publication Administration. Under the new changes, juveniles only can log in to the game from 20:00 to 21:00 on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and legal holidays. Although the anti-addiction system is a successful feature, it has somewhat reduced the economic revenue of Honor of Kings.
In 2022, For All Time, a mobile game launched by NetEase, accused Honor of Kings of plagiarizing artwork, while in 2024, Onmyoji, also a mobile game launched by NetEase, posted a letter from its law firm warning Honor of Kings for the new skins of the characters Li Bai and Dasiming comprised copyright infringement and unfair competition. Tencent vehemently denied both accusations.
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