By CGTN's Yang Chengxi 

Chinese internet giant Tencent is now one of the biggest names in town in the gaming industry. It owns League of Legends, a popular game worldwide under the genre of Multiplayer Online Battle Arena or MOBA. "MOBA games are played by ten people divided into two teams of five. The objective is to use teamwork to go against the opposing force and eventually destroy the other team's base”, said Wei Zhen, a professional League of Legends player.

League of Legends is one of the most popular MOBA games worldwide with multiple international tournaments held each year. /CGTN Photo 

For many, MOBA is more than just game, it's a serious sport. "Overall China ranks number two or three in international matches. In recent years, I feel that there are many Chinese audiences with great passion for the game, not only coming to watch major global matches, but also domestic matches,” said Wei. 

Leveraging the genre's popularity in China, In 2015, Tencent released a new MOBA game, Honor of Kings. It's a game you play on your phone. Compared with League of Legends, some rules are simplified, and each round of match takes less time. As long as you have a Wechat account, which most Chinese smartphone users do, you can start playing immediately with your friends anywhere. "This means that MOBA games are getting more accessible, and the number of players is rising. Today, many people play Honor of Kings for socializing purposes,” said Liu Xiaofeng, co-founder of games developer Shidatui Studio and a gaming expert.

Honor of Kings, money maker for Tencent /CGTN Photo 

"For the first time, we have a competitive video game that's played not only by college students, but everyone from kids to adults. Honor of Kings boasts active daily user of 50 million people. According to industry experts, this means huge business. Many players want to show off to strangers or their friends. So they will invest money in buying skins in the game to make their heroes look cooler," said Liu. 

Honor of Kings contributed a whopping 3 billion yuan worth of revenue for Tencent in the first quarter this year. The money-making machine brought in 6.8 billion yuan last year. That's out-performing more than 80 percent of listed firms on the Chinese A-shares. 

X-QUEST won third place in last year's KPL. /CGTN Photo 

Tencent organizes an annual nationwide competition called KPL. X-Quest, a professional team, who won third place last year, are now training for this year's finals. "PC based MOBA games have been popular for a long time. But smartphone based games are just starting. I have high hopes for this genre," said Chen Shunji, captain of the XQ team. 

AG won second place in last year's KPL. /CGTN Photo 

They will be going head to head with AG, who won second place in 2016. The KPL tournament is a testament of just how fast Honor of Kings is rising in popularity. "For example the size of the arena this year is four to five times bigger than last year. The prize for winning also doubled to a million yuan", said Zhang Yuchen, captain of AG. 

Last year, some 350 million people watched the KPL. The number is expected to jump this year as Honor of King's fan base expands substantially. Tencent's success in the MOBA genre has helped the company become the top video game company by revenue in the world today.