Text/Wang Dan & Qiuqiu

At tonight's ninth anniversary event, "Honor of Kings" announced its latest data - more than 100 million DAUs.

More than 100 million players logged in to King's Canyon to celebrate his birthday

This is not the first time that their DAU has exceeded 100 million. As early as 2020, "Honor of Kings" officially announced 100 million DAU, which was probably surprised by many people at that time, but not surprised. However, today they mention that DAU has exceeded 100 million, and the meaning and weight behind it are much greater than 4 years ago, and I believe that many people will be surprised this time, and even feel incredible: How is this possible?

Because, from 2020 to the present, the game industry has undergone earth-shaking changes: focusing on big DAU games, you will find that the longer the timeline is stretched, the more serious the loss of players tends to be, and the more difficult it is to maintain DAU. Moreover, in recent years, the development of the game industry has become more and more mature, and the market environment and player preferences have also changed.

It's no wonder that there were more or less suspicious voices in public opinion before, discussing whether the activity of "Honor of Kings" is not as good as before - inferred from the usual product performance in the industry, this suspicion seems normal, after all, there is almost no precedent for our domestic mobile games to "live for 9 years and still be vigorous, and even after an interval of 4 years, DAU can still break 100 million".

But after the release of the data of "Honor of Kings" today, I believe everyone does not have to guess. If there is no precedent in the industry, it will be in the future. It can be said that they announced that the DAU exceeded 100 million again after 4 years, which is the second time that the industry's imagination of mobile game life has been refreshed.

Speaking of which, I think most people are more concerned: What exactly does "Honor of Kings" do? Why can it go against the regular game life cycle and still have such a strong long-term performance after 9 years? After focusing on the 9th anniversary, I found that in fact, there are many changes in the strategic direction hidden in the details of their activities.

Looking at the big picture, the strategic change of "Honor of Kings" may also provide more advanced ideas for other big DAU games, as well as games that want to evolve from products to IP: in the eyes of some practitioners, the explosion of the game basically means winning hemp, but is it possible that after the game becomes popular, there is actually a way to continue or even expand the value of its popularity?

01

In the 9th year, the king is still exceeding expectations

After visiting the live event, Grape Jun felt that his impression of "Honor of Kings" was a bit stereotypical.

After all, at first glance, the co-creation night and garden party of the 9th anniversary of "Glory of Kings" are not small, with a scale of 18,000 square meters, the help of many stars and brands, and a 3-hour music and dance performance...... The high-standard configuration, coupled with the lively atmosphere of "no ticket in seconds", no matter how you look at it, you have a feeling of showing off your muscles.

Zhou Shen sang "Flowers All the Way" on the night of co-creation

But if you think about it carefully, "Honor of Kings" has long passed the stage of showing off its muscles, and as soon as the data of DAU breaking 100 million is taken out, it is enough to prove many things. Therefore, compared with the lively skin and dazzling data, the strategic changes of this game so far are more concerning.

After all, in the past 9 years, the player base of "Honor of Kings" has gradually become complex and changing, which can be observed from the anniversary celebration site:

Many young people in their 20s have become the main force of the garden party, and they will cosplay into their favorite characters, queue up to buy goods, and support the team...... The composition of the players alone is quite rich, covering different ages, occupations, regions, genders, and so on.

Many players gathered in front of the "Infinite Kings Group" booth

There are also players who bring babies to the scene

To this end, the anniversary of "Honor of Kings" is also trying to meet the needs of as many users as possible. For example, they use "growth" as the core concept of the 9th anniversary event, and emphasize the theme of "thank you for every indispensable you" every year - after becoming a national game, "Honor of Kings" may cherish the concept of the national more than we imagined.

More practically, compared to the past, this year's anniversary garden party has a stronger feeling of "playing together", taking into account the emotions of various types of players.

For example, the number of interactive games, life brands, and experience content has increased, the star lineup of music and dance performances has become larger and longer, and a special session of "Planning Open Microphone" and the first offline trial of "Glory of Kings World" have also been opened...... Such a large-scale event may be hoping to heat up the atmosphere and turn the game's 9th anniversary into a commemorative day for every player.

"Glory of Kings World" trial scene

Of course, the 9th anniversary is just a slice of the huge ecology and strategy of "Honor of Kings". For a long time in the past, I found that Honor of Kings has been looking for a strategy to stabilize its long-term operation, such as how they continue to iterate on the way they communicate with players:

In the early days of the game, they tried to plan to open an account to communicate face-to-face with players, but as the user base increased and became more complex, this form of communication was no longer suitable...... Today, these operational strategies are difficult to summarize in a sentence or two, but they are still trying and have the support of many players.

The official content of the whole event "Ya! Don't make a fuss" has been updated for 3 years,

The cumulative number of views is 100 million

In response to the matchmaking problem, plan to publicly communicate with players and apologize

For example, at the event venue, Grape Jun saw many players carrying a rice gift box, which was planted by doing farm work when "Honor of Kings" planned to communicate with players some time ago, which not only homonymized "millet", but also reflected their importance to players' opinions.

The seedlings planned to be planted this summer are now in the hands of players

In addition, "Honor of Kings" is a national game after all, and the public's expectations and scrutiny continue to stimulate them to go further: how to maintain the ecology and value of national games and continue to exceed expectations?

So at that time in 2020, we saw the IP territory that "Glory of Kings" set out to build: the new IP game "Glory of Kings: Dawn of the Star", "Glory of Kings World", and the film and television drama "You Are My Glory...... The diversified IP content covers various experience methods of users, and also ignites their enthusiasm for creation - to this day, the related content of "Honor of Kings", the second creation of the same people, and the peripheral content have penetrated the clothing, food, housing and transportation of users, forming a huge ecology.

Derivative animation "Glory of Kings: Chapter of Glory Shattered Moon"

Interactive exhibition on the theme of Glory of Kings at Taikoo Li Sanlitun in Beijing

Making content and IP on the basis of competitive games may be the first step for "Honor of Kings" to exceed expectations.

What is easier to break stereotypes and exceed everyone's expectations is the maintenance of the IP image of "Honor of Kings", including enhancing public awareness and guiding positive social values.

In the past few years, "Honor of Kings" has been actively or passively brushing its face in recent years:

Cooperating with celebrities, cross-border linkage with brands, creating important hot spots such as the May Five-Year Friends Festival, and influencing the development of the industry through e-sports events have changed the impression of people who don't play games...... After this whole set, many people may not have been on the Internet, and they have also heard the words "glory of kings".

Honor of Kings × Hello Kitty

At the same time, "Glory of Kings" is also making efforts in cultural and creative public welfare, social value and other aspects. Launched some skins with both traditional culture and public welfare nature, realized the popular expression of cultural and creative public welfare, guided players to pay attention to and protect little-known content, or ran on the front line of the protection of minors, took the lead in launching a relatively complete anti-addiction system, or relied on influence to guide everyone to pay attention to every worker who works hard for life...... These things not only affected the public, but also maintained the IP image from the side, so that "Honor of Kings" can achieve evergreen with a more positive attitude.

Sang Qi Anniversary Skin "Naruno Artemisia",

Artemisia annua/artemisinin, which means healing and saving people

"Glory of Kings" cooperates with Xinhua News Agency New Media Center,

Tell the story of the laborer

02

An unprecedented conundrum

Four years ago, we said that the IP territory of "Honor of Kings" surfaced; Two years ago, we talked about the possibility of it becoming a super IP; This year, the topic of "Honor of Kings" to the industry is also more advanced: how to maintain its peak position and become a long-lasting and evergreen national game IP?

In the past two years, you may have occasionally heard some industry debates about "Honor of Kings": some people feel that they have peaked now, and it is difficult for the old methods to stimulate new growth; Others feel that they still have a lot to do, and there is still room for stimulation and growth...... To some extent, these controversies reflect the concerns of industry peers about the future performance of Honor of Kings.

After all, there are not many products that can stand at the peak of "Honor of Kings", and naturally no one can accurately assert what to do next if the product reaches such a height. How to maintain its long-term vitality at the peak of "Glory of Kings" is a challenge for TiMi, and it is an unknown and unprecedented problem in the industry.

First understand the special situation of "Honor of Kings", and then look back at the new actions mentioned above that exceed expectations, you will find that their cracking ideas are not difficult to understand:

One is to put the player first and adjust yourself for the sake of the player. After all, the existing national-level DAU of "Honor of Kings" is the "chassis" for them to become the national game. Since the preferences of old players are changing, and new players also have other needs, changing the way of communication and feedback with users is an inevitable choice for "Honor of Kings".

The second is to maintain an evergreen state, keep up with market changes, and continue to produce popular and fresh content, highlighting the fresh vitality of "not only 9 years of accumulation and precipitation, but also keeping pace with the times".

"Honor of Kings" unites Amazon,

The main creative team of "Love, Death and Robots" creates IP animation

The third is to broaden the value of IP. On the one hand, through derivative works, King IP can attract more users in different fields, and it can also deepen the emotional connection between itself and old fans, so that the gold content of IP exceeds the value of a single product of "Honor of Kings"; On the other hand, they jumped out of the user portrait restrictions in the game circle, not only entertaining players, but also impressing the public, and laying the foundation for passers-by to convert users.

Looking at the big picture, the move of "Honor of Kings" can be regarded as bringing greater hope to the domestic game industry:

If this method works, it confirms that "becoming a national game IP is not the pinnacle of game products, and DAU breaking 100 million is not the apex of big DAU mobile games", the product actually has the opportunity to go further to maintain peak performance, and can even expand the value of IP on this basis and tap the upside, and the specific measures of "Honor of Kings" are ready-made solutions that peers can refer to when they encounter similar bottlenecks;

In addition, "Honor of Kings" conveys the message of "games are more than entertainment and leisure" at the public level, which has improved the public's awareness and acceptance of games to a certain extent, so that more people are willing to contact and understand games, and the overall scale of the game market has been expanded in disguise, which is certainly not a bad thing for peers.

It can be said that "Honor of Kings" now carries not only the high expectations of players and Tencent Games, but also a lot of expectations from peers.

Today they released an unexpected DAU data, indicating that the game of chess played by Tianmei for 9 years has achieved initial results. And after that? In the next few years, will "Honor of Kings" still exceed expectations, once again break the ceiling of the industry, and refresh everyone's understanding of the peak performance of big DAU games? From this strategic height, every move of "Honor of Kings" in the future, as well as the evolution of the IP form, are worthy of everyone's attention in the industry.

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