You have never played it and you may not know it, but it is the most successful video game in history: It made 15,000 million dollars in just seven years – Arena of Valor

If we made you think about what the video game that has obtained the most income throughout history perhaps your mind would go to GTA V and its millions of copies sold. It wouldn’t be a bad answer, although you would be failing. League of Legends for having 13 years of gaming as a service behind it? Good deduction, but also incorrect. You don’t get it right with Minecraft, World of Warcraft or any installment of Super Mario. The chances are that you don’t even know the title that tops the list or that it only sounds like you have heard its name from time to time, because the two big contenders are Honor of Kings and Dungeon Fighter Online.

The game of the 15,000 million dollars

The developers of Honor of Kings confirmed in June 2022 that their mobile video game had managed to raise more than 13,000 million dollars since its launch in 2015. A record figure that is surprising in itself, but which becomes even more striking if we take into account that it has only had just over seven years to get it. Also taking into account the time that has elapsed since the report, it is estimated that the figures would already be in amounts close to 15,000 million. The election, yes, needs explanation.

If Honor of Kings does not sound familiar to you, it is because, when it was released outside of China, the company renamed it in different ways: Arena of Valor in the West, Realm of Valor in Thailand and Penta Storm in South Korea. Still, all countries had access to the same global edition, which included a few changes from the original. TiMI Studios and Tencent they didn’t think that a game so inspired by Chinese mythology could be successful enough in the rest of the world. So changed some characters and elements of the map so that it could be more easily adapted to the tastes of the players.

In fact, seven years after its premiere, Honor of Kings prepares the launch of a global version that unifies the game throughout the world. In this sense, it is uncertain what path Arena of Valor will take in the coming years. However, his future looks grey. This is probably due to the fact that the company is preparing video games related to its flagship title that would be impossible to adapt. An example is Honor of Kings: World, which will be an ARPG. Here it is not easy for them to create such a different version that is released outside of China.

To make comparisons, It is estimated that World of Warcraft has generated more than 14,000 million dollars since its launch in 2004, being one of the games that comes closest to it. However, part of this figure is due to the launch of Wow Classic, which makes the comparison more difficult. We would have to start talking about well-established franchises to find successful works in the West that surpass what Honor of Kings has obtained. mario bros, call of duty either Pokemon They have made more profit. However, it is thanks to the release of many video games and products.

Dungeon Fighter Online, the other video game that we initially considered to top the list, would be the best alternative candidate. In fact, it would be first if we only consider the money made since launch. However, a question of time also enters here. It is estimated that, by itself, the game has achieved some $18 billion, but over 18 years. In fact, in 2020, Honor of Kings surpassed Dungeon Fighter Online in revenue by about $1 billion. That is why, without being the one that has obtained the most income, if it seems to us the most successful.

An elephant in the room

An interesting answer for which we have no data is Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. This is probably the video game that has moved the most money in history. The estimate is that in February 2023 some 30 million boxes were opened in CS:GO, what have been some 75 million dollars for Valve. However, the skins here have a particularity: they can be resold in the community market. This means that the company can enter money many times for a single product.

He community market Steam allows players to sell their skins from certain games, with CS:GO being the biggest one that offers this possibility. The condition is simple, you can offer almost any cosmetic in exchange for being charged a 30% tax when you do so. This commission is distributed Valve and the developer or distributor of the title to which the cosmetic belongs. In Counter-Strike, since Valve owns both Steam and the game, Valve owns 30%. That 30 million boxes are opened means that there are 30 million new weapons likely to appear on the market.

This we would still have to add the amount obtained by external pages. In the old days, there were dozens of casino or gambling websites that offered Counter-Strike skins as rewards and generated a lot of money. Now there are still stores outside of Steam that allow you to sell the skins in exchange for real money, acting as mediators. The possibility that a cosmetic can pass through so many hands makes it a much more active market in which a large amount of money moves every day. Perhaps the total benefits for Valve with CS:GO have not reached 15,000 million Honor of Kings, but in the subsection we do not measure that, if not the total market value generated around the game.

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