Tencent’s answer to World of Warcraft made US$50 million in China in just one week
- Five years after launching on PC, Moonlight Blade launches on Apple’s iOS to enormous interest
- Tencent is promising a gameplay experience equal to playing an MMORPG on PC, showing how far mobile gaming has come
Tencent Holdings, the world’s largest gaming company by revenue, just set a record for the biggest mobile game launch ever in China. Moonlight Blade, the tech giant’s answer to World of Warcraft, pulled in more than US$50 million on Apple’s iOS alone in its first week of release.
Released on October 16, the new massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is currently only available in China, where the game is set. Moonlight Blade lets gamers play as swordsmen and kung fu warriors in ancient China. The game is making its millions through in-app purchases, allowing players to deck out their characters with accoutrements like additional clothing and weapons.
According to app tracking firm Sensor Tower, the previous record-holder was Perfect World, which raked in US$28.3 million on iOS the week after it launched last year.
“The high revenue level at launch is normal for an MMORPG game. The key is to look out for its performance when it reaches its stable period,” said Liao Xuhua, a gaming analyst with Beijing-based Analysys International.
“Moonlight Blade will have long-term profitability, but it is still not at the same scale as Honour of Kings and Peacekeeper Elite,” he added, referencing two of Tencent’s other immensely popular video games. Peacekeeper Elite is China’s domestic version of PUBG Mobile, which Tencent changed to appease local censors, making the game more patriotic and removing things like blood and death.
While Moonlight Blade’s large haul might be more typical of an MMORPG, it is still considerably larger than the first-week performance of other hit mobile games. The third, fourth and fifth place games pulled in about half that revenue or less.
