If you want to ask who is the "first brother" in China's game industry, I believe that many people will think of Tencent at the first time. Indeed, Tencent not only owns the two masterpieces "League of Legends" and "Honor of Kings", but also has countless well-known IP works. Whether it is the influence or profitability of games, Tencent can be said to be undoubtedly the first in China.
(Source: Tencent)
According to the 2023 mobile game revenue list released by AppMagic data, "Honor of Kings" once again topped the global iOS and Android mobile game revenue list, with revenue reaching $1.48 billion. Thanks to the strong performance of a number of games, Tencent once again ranked first in the global game industry in terms of revenue.
（图源：AppMagic）
However, with the changes in the market and the intensification of competition, Tencent also understands the truth of "if you don't advance, you will retreat", and actively seeks cooperation with other companies. Recently, "League of Legends" officially announced: from February 6, all users will be able to live broadcast "League of Legends" on the Douyin platform.
(Source: "League of Legends")
Why does Tencent, which owns live broadcast platforms such as Huya, Douyu, and Video Account, choose to open the live broadcast permissions and video permissions of "League of Legends" to Douyin?
Game promotion is inseparable from live broadcast
As an important part of online entertainment, live streaming has long become a part of the lives of countless netizens. As of June 2023, the number of live streaming users in mainland China reached 765 million, an increase of 14.74 million from December 2022, accounting for 71.0% of the total number of netizens.
(Source: CNNIC)
As an Internet giant, in addition to games, Tencent has made an extensive layout in the field of live broadcast early on, and has its own live broadcast platforms such as Penguin E-sports, NOW Live, and Channels. However, after nearly six or seven years of operation, Tencent's live broadcast platform has been tepid.
The Penguin e-sports platform, which was born in July 2016, has ceased operations on June 7, 2022, and NOW Live, which was born in the same year, has also been in a downturn in recent years, and finally announced that it will terminate operations on December 26, 2023.
(Source: NOW Live)
In addition to its own livestreaming platforms, Tencent has also made strategic investments in gaming livestreaming platforms Douyu and Huya. In 2020, Huya and Douyu jointly announced that they would officially accept the merger invitation proposed by Tencent, the largest shareholder, to carry out a strategic merger. Just when everyone thought that the game live broadcast field would usher in a "change", the State Administration for Market Regulation called off the merger.
(Source: Baidu)
Tencent, the "first brother of the Internet", which seems to be smooth sailing, has encountered twists and turns one after another in just a few years. In the field of live broadcasting, the status of Huya and Douyu has been hit by Douyin and Kuaishou one after another. Core games such as "Honor of Kings" and "League of Legends" are also facing a crisis of declining active users, and their influence in the esports field is not as good as before.
Against this backdrop, Tencent urgently needs to find new partners to expand the influence of its games in the market.
(Source: Prospective Industry Research Institute)
So Tencent found Douyin.
Relying on a strong short video platform foundation, Douyin has rapidly risen to become a dark horse in the live broadcast industry. In the field of game live streaming, Douyin has shown great ambition and potential, and has gradually become the first choice for many streamers to broadcast live games.
(Source: Guanyan Report Network)
However, since 2018, Tencent has sued ByteDance several times for copyright infringement. Since then, Douyin has no longer allowed live streaming of Tencent games such as "Honor of Kings" and "League of Legends".
And this cooperation between Tencent and Douyin is to lift these restrictions. With the help of Douyin's platform, the old games such as "Honor of Kings" and "League of Legends" will be rejuvenated. So, on January 13, 2024, "Honor of Kings" announced that from January 21, all users will be allowed to broadcast "Honor of Kings" live on Douyin.
(Source: "Glory of Kings")
The rebroadcast of Honor of Kings on Douyin is undoubtedly an unprecedented success, on the one hand, the number of related live broadcasts has skyrocketed, and the number of Douyin users who pay attention to "Honor of Kings" has also increased significantly, and this successful cooperation has also laid a solid foundation for Tencent's follow-up actions.
(Source: "Glory of Kings")
Open "League of Legends", Tengzi cooperation deepens
As a classic MOBA game, League of Legends has always occupied an important position in the global gaming market. However, this year, both the number of active users in the game and the popularity of LPL events in 2024 have declined. A few weeks ago, the news of the decline in the number of viewers of the opening game of the LPL Spring Tournament also appeared on Weibo's hot search.
(Source: Screenshot of Station B)
Objectively speaking, the decline in LOL popularity is inextricably linked to the decline in the overall strength of the LPL team this year, the poor results of LPL in the Asian Games and the World Championship last year, and the departure (rest) of the two top players Uzi and Theshy.
(Source: @TheShy)
On the other hand, LOL, as an old online game that has been in operation for thirteen years, cannot do much innovation in gameplay, and the introduction of new modes is already the limit of changes. Especially in the era of mobile Internet, traditional online games like LOL seriously lack the influx of fresh blood.
As for "League of Legends Mobile Game", although it was promoted on a large scale at the beginning of its release, the effect was not obvious. Not only did it not bring heat to the terminal game, but it even affected the original player base of "Honor of Kings".
(Source: "League of Legends Mobile Game")
In this context, the opening of Douyin live broadcast of "League of Legends" has important strategic significance. First of all, through the cooperation with ByteDance, "League of Legends" can attract more new players and returning players with the help of Douyin's huge user base and wide range of communication channels. Secondly, Douyin has a large group of young users, which is highly compatible with the target users of League of Legends.
(Source: "League of Legends")
In order to build momentum for the "return" of "League of Legends" on Douyin, the official also invited Wang Duoduo, Xiran, Baolan, Chen Ze, ICON, Sao Nan, Xiaozhi and other well-known anchors, players and commentators in the LOL circle to conduct live broadcasts, hoping to use the traffic effect of star anchors to promote "League of Legends".
(Source: "League of Legends")
On the evening of February 6th, Chen Ze, who was the test officer of the first broadcast of League of Legends Douyin, conducted the first rebroadcast of "League of Legends", and after the broadcast started at 20 o'clock, the audience in the live broadcast room exceeded 1 million in just ten minutes. After the whole live broadcast, nearly 10 million people watched this Douyin rebroadcast debut of "League of Legends".
(Source: Douyin)
Tencent Byte joins hands, a win-win situation for the platform, creators and users
It is foreseeable that through these two cooperations, Douyin will further enhance its position in the game live broadcast market, and Tencent, as a game giant, will also enhance the influence of "Honor of Kings" and "League of Legends" in China. Both parties are better able to leverage their respective strengths to respond to market competition and changes in user needs.
For Douyin users, Tencent's opening of live streaming access to these two games has brought them a better viewing experience, and users can see their favorite streamers playing these popular games on Douyin, which is a win-win situation.
(Source: "Glory of Kings")
This is even better news for content creators (and streamers). In the past few years, due to the ban on live broadcasts on Douyin and the ban on submitting content related to "League of Legends" and "Honor of Kings", a large number of video creators and anchors on Douyin are facing "unemployment".
The full lifting of the ban on the two major games this time has made many game streamers and video authors return to Douyin, and they are also expected to take this opportunity to expand their influence and income. So, it's a win-win situation.
(Source: Douyin)
In the future, we have reason to believe that cooperation between major Internet companies will become the new normal of the industry. In short, this cooperation is not only a milestone event for the live streaming industry, but its success will also lead China's Internet industry towards a more open, diversified and prosperous future.