Honor of Kings developers upbeat after successful maiden year

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Honor of Kings wrapped up its first global esports run with the 2024 Honor of Kings Championship held offline here over the weekend. Malaysia's Black Shrew Esport took home the trophy after sweeping Indonesia's Dominator Esports, 4-0, in the grand finals.

The event was the culmination of Honor of Kings' invitational series, which started in Season 1 held in Turkey last March; Season 2 in Malaysia last July; and the Mid-Season Invitational held during the Esports World Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

"I can say 2024 was a great year as Year 1 for Honor of Kings Esports. We had four global events and the viewership was almost near 500,000 peak — more than 270 million views by even one single tournament in mid-season. I don't think any game in their first year could reach this level on the esports side,” said James Yang, Leven Infinite's Global Esports Center senior director.

With the first year of Honor of Kings Esports done, the team is now focused on delivering a better and bigger esports year in 2025.

"We are very proud of what we've done so far. However, we are not proud enough yet because we're going to do much bigger [things] next year. Yesterday, the last tournament, the last matches, it was so great. I really jumped there, shouted there, and almost cried. So it's really amazing to see this moment in year one. So I'm very happy with Honor of Kings year one. And I have even more expectations for next year and so on,” Yang added.

Ahead of the 2025 season, Honor of Kings is set to release its first Indonesian hero, Garuda, as a response to the strong community demand.

"First of all, we pick up [feedback] from the China server. But we also think about local cultures. What kind of champions we pick up, adapt to local culture and local preferences. We will not randomly pick up one and just throw it into the global server. We also consult our co-members from the communities. I think that's important because what you learn from them is actually the best. And at the end of the day, we are Chinese. We won't be able to know what the local users will be thinking about,” said John Zhang, Leven Infinite's director of Honor of Kings Southeast Asia Publishing and Esports.

In terms of Garuda, the localized hero is just the beginning in incorporating more global content to the game.

"All the developers here are committed to bringing the best user experience as well as the culture to everyone. So Garuda is just the start. Gradually, we will bring the culture to each of the countries. So just step by step and let's expect more for 2025,” Zhang added.

Besides more localized content, the esports calendar will see a new pro-league system with the Honor of Kings Major Ear and Major West, expanding the competitive opportunities for the game worldwide.

"The main reason why we divided Major East and Major West is because of the time zone difference. If we have only one, then maybe for Western audiences, it would not be easy to watch. Maybe the time is too early or too late. So to have the best time zone fit for each region, we divided Major East to be friendly for both East audiences and then West for Western audiences,” said Yang.

But one challenge that Honor of Kings has seen is the gap between the game's Chinese server and the newly released global server.

"There is a gap. Because [China] started seven years ago and now we're just [on] Year 1. So there should be a gap. So that's the reason why we separate [the two]. But yes, we gradually [want to close the gap]. For example, hero number. At the beginning, we had around 80 heroes, but now we have more than 110 heroes. So we're continuously adding on quickly.

And also this year we didn't use a global ban, which is used in KPL. But next year, as I announced, we're going to use a global ban. So gradually we'll take this step-by-step approach to make this global esports to be competitive against the Chinese Pro League. And I think [that will be soon] because as I've seen this year, the overall competitiveness improvement of the pro teams is significant,” explained Yang.

Zhang added that on the gaming side, Honor of Kings is releasing content more frequently than usual as a means to help close this gap.

"I think we are attempting to do it. When you are looking at the games, we are releasing the heroes and skins more frequently than we normally did. The whole purpose is just to catch up on the gap. At the end of the day, what we are expecting is to make the game a global game. So the users globally can compete with each other, no matter if it's a casual play or it's a tournament esports."

Locally, the Philippines has seen its fair share of Honor of Kings activations with different collaborations as well as a nationwide community cup in partnership with McDonalds Philippines — the Tempest Cup. On the esports side, Philippine team Boom Esports qualified to the Mid-Season Invitational in the Esports World Cup and took bronze in the 2024 China-ASEAN Esports Competition under the banner of Sibol, the country's national esports team.