The developers of Honor of Kings are celebrating a new milestone. 260 million players played the Chinese alternative to LoL last month, but the game is unknown in the West.
What kind of game is it? Honor of Kings is in China what League of Legends is in the West: the most successful MOBA. Unlike LoL, the Chinese alternative is fully focused on mobile, targeting an audience in China for whom mobile games are more than just a pastime.
At first glance, Honor of Kings seems like a copy of League of Legends, and some characters resemble the perennial favorite from the West. However, the two games differ significantly in their scope.
While rounds in League of Legends can last up to three-quarters of an hour, a round in HoK is typically over much quicker, usually within 20 minutes. Additionally, the depth of entry into Honor of Kings is predominantly easier compared to League of Legends, so newcomers receive constant tips from the game on what to buy, upgrade, and improve first.
Not only LoL is working on an MMORPG, the developers of Honor of Kings are doing that as well; you can see the trailer here:
Great success for Honor of Kings
How successful is the game? Honor of Kings does not hide in the shadow of League of Legends; on the contrary: The developers are now celebrating 260 million active users in just one month. This puts the title in direct competition with Robolox, which is currently considered the largest game in the world.
It also seems that the game is doing excellently financially. According to gam3s.gg, Honor of Kings alone generated 143 million USD in June 2025, which corresponds to about 123 million euros.
Similar to the Worlds in LoL, Honor of Kings also has a large, active esports scene in China. Here, professionals compete annually in front of large audiences for prize money in the millions.
How is the game performing in the West? As a mobile MOBA, Honor of Kings had a good start in the West. With over 50 million downloads alone in the Google Play Store, many players have tried the MOBA. This is also due to a large marketing campaign by the developers, who wanted to establish themselves in the West.
However, Honor of Kings has not really taken on the major competitor League of Legends and its strong fanbase. Instead, the developers, as in China, focused on mobile and thus carved out their own audience.
Whether the title can establish itself in the long term, even if the publisher Tencent does not provide as much budget for marketing anymore, remains to be seen.
Honor of Kings celebrates a significant milestone with 260 million active players. Few other games can compete with this, which highlights its success. However, in the West, there is still a key moment missing to really count the MOBA among the major players. Meanwhile, the developers revealed their plans for the big release to MeinMMO: Honor of Kings is huge in China and is expected to become big in Germany as well – developers explain their plans
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