Players are dropping China’s most popular game

Honor of Kings and the MOBA genre are losing popularity following addiction fears and stricter regulations

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Players are dropping China’s most popular game

Masha Borak

Published: 10:35pm, 10 Apr 2019Updated: 9:01am, 20 Sep 2019

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

Honor of Kings is not just China’s most popular video game. The MOBA (Multiplayer online battle arena) mobile game has become a full-fledged phenomenon with 200 million players at its peak. But now gamers are dropping it, and it’s not just because they’re turning to even hotter games.

Known internationally as Arena of Valor, Honor of Kings lost about 34% of its monthly active users since last year, according to a report from Chinese market research company Analysys. The time spent playing the game also dropped by half.

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The game’s declining user base coincides with a drop in popularity for the MOBA genre generally. The genre fell from first to third place in the mobile gaming category over the past year, according to the report, which also notes that 98% of MOBA gamers play Honor of Kings.

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Fears of the game’s impact on children also aren’t doing it any favors.

Outside of China, Honor of Kings is mostly known as a mobile League of Legends rip off. However, inside the country, it’s known as the most vilified game. The game has been described as a “poison” that causes addiction among teenagers, not to mention claims of contributing to poor eyesight. (Officials have been less critical of another myopia culprit: excessive study hours.)

While Honor of Kings is insanely popular in China, it has also been accused of making teenagers addicted and undermining their combat readiness. (Picture: Honor of Kings)

This is why regulators called for restrictions on time children can spend playing games last year. In November, Tencent said its Honor of Kings gameplay restrictions of 1 or 2 hours per day (depending on age) would be expanded to all its games. The system relies on a real name verification system coupled with facial recognition to prevent things like stealing your grandfather’s ID card to play games.