‘Honor of Kings’ Reclaims Crown as World’s Highest-Earning Mobile Game, Besting PUBG

“Honor of Kings”, a fantasy multiplayer role-playing battle game developed by Chinese internet giant Tencent, overtook “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds” (PUBG Mobile) as the world’s highest-earning mobile game in September, helped by huge popularity in its home China market.

Last month, “Honor of Kings” raked in $240 million in revenue, representing a year-on-year increase of 87%, according to research firm SensorTower.

The Chinese mainland accounted for the lion’s share 96% of “Honor of Kings” total revenue for the month, followed by Taiwan with 1.5% and Thailand with 1.2%, the statistics showed.

PUBG Mobile, a battle royale title also developed by Tencent, generated $198 million in revenue, taking the second spot, putting an end to its months-long dominance in SensorTower’s ranking lists of the world’s top mobile games by revenue.

In September, about 56.5% of PUBG Mobile’s revenue came from the Chinese mainland, where the game is known as “Game For Peace”, followed by the U.S. with 12.4%, according to SensorTower.

In September, the Indian government banned PUBG Mobile and 117 other Chinese-owned apps due to alleged national security risks, against the backdrop of mounting geopolitical tensions between the two Asian giants.

A senior Indian government official recently said the ban on PUBG Mobile was unlikely to be lifted anytime soon, according to a Reuters report.

 

– This article originally appeared on Caixin Global.