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

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.

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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 alt=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).

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.

"I started playing the PC version with my roommates when I was in school, but quit after I got a job," said Tan Xun, a 33-year-old gamer based in southern Guangdong province. He has so far spent nearly 1,000 yuan purchasing items in DnF Mobile, as the game rekindled memories of his youth.

"The audience [of DnF Mobile and Honour of Kings] are different," a gamer with the handle "Zeroer" wrote on Chinese video-sharing platform Bilibili. "Many of the DnF players are middle-aged people who can spend tens of thousands of yuan every time [they play the game].

Domestic demand for DnF Mobile proved overwhelming during its debut last week, when Tencent reported a server outage on May 21 that left some gamers either unable to log in or wait in online queues.

Chinese gamers and analysts, however, have mixed views on the longevity and continued demand for DnF Mobile.

"I believe DnF Mobile's revenue will stay high at least in the next few months, as the game has yet to update many professionals [characters] from the PC game to the mobile version," said Chris Zhu, a Hangzhou-based DnF Mobile player. "These updates will entice more old players to top up."

The launch of other new titles during summer is expected to be a "a critical period" for DnF Mobile to show how well it will continue to perform on the mainland, said Zhang Shule, an analyst at CBJ Think Tank.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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