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Tencent’s DnF Mobile rises as new runaway hit for video gaming giant, surpassing Honour of Kings’ daily revenue on debut

  • DnF Mobile on May 22 outstripped the daily revenue of Tencent flagship games Honour of Kings and Peacekeeper Elite on Apple’s China App Store
  • As of Tuesday, DnF Mobile remained at the top of free-to-download games on the China App Store

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The strong performance of Dungeon & Fighter Mobile provides a much-needed shot in the arm for Tencent Holding’s video gaming business on the mainland. Photo: SCMP
Ann Caoin Shanghai
Tencent Holdings’ newly released game, Dungeon & Fighter (DnF) Mobile, has become a runaway hit on Apple’s mainland China App Store, surpassing the daily revenue of the internet giant’s two flagship titles, Honour of Kings and Peacekeeper Elite.
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The mobile version of Dungeon & Fighter Online, the personal computer (PC) game developed by Nexon subsidiary Neople, on May 22 outstripped the daily revenue of those two high-performing Tencent games on the China App Store in just the second day of its domestic release, according to data from Chinese app analytics platform Qimai.

DnF Mobile has already achieved US$9.86 million in weekly revenue to rank as the No 3 top-selling game on Apple’s China App Store, behind Honour of Kings and Peacekeeper Elite with revenue of US$12.96 million and US$12.15 million, respectively, according to Qimai’s estimates.

As of Tuesday, DnF Mobile remained at the top of free-to-download games on the China App Store, followed by Guangzhou-based Kuro Games’ Wuthering Waves and Honour of Kings.

A screenshot of the hit mainland game Dungeon & Fighter Mobile’s title page. Photo: SCMP
A screenshot of the hit mainland game Dungeon & Fighter Mobile’s title page. Photo: SCMP
The strong performance of DnF Mobile provides a much-needed shot in the arm for Tencent’s video gaming business on the mainland, which recorded a 2 per cent year-on-year decline in first-quarter revenue to 34.5 billion yuan (US$4.8 billion).
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The domestic release of DnF Mobile – which was supposed to launch in 2020, but was delayed by Beijing’s tightened game-licensing regulation at the time– shows Tencent’s astute strategy of generating interest from many Chinese gamers who used to play the PC version of the multiplayer beat ‘em up, action role-playing game, which was first released on the mainland in 2008.

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