The Clash of Chinese MOBAs: Honor of Kings vs. Onmyoji Arena

The mobile Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) market in China is dominated by Tencent’s Honor of Kings, which has maintained a top-grossing position since its 2015 launch. In contrast, NetEase’s 2017 entry, Onmyoji Arena, has struggled to gain significant market share, with its top-grossing rank fluctuating between 100 and 200 as of mid-2018. This disparity highlights the challenges of competing against an established market leader that benefits from a significant first-mover advantage and a highly optimized feature set.

A comparative analysis of the two titles reveals that Honor of Kings excels through superior social integration and diverse monetization strategies. Honor of Kings utilizes a dual-tier guild system—Legions and Squads—that incentivizes active participation through social currency rewards and guild battles. Conversely, Onmyoji Arena’s clan system remains limited to a basic milestone-based reward structure. Furthermore, Honor of Kings employs sophisticated monetization tactics, including multi-tiered subscription plans, a VIP system, and gacha mechanics linked to a rune-based character progression system, whereas Onmyoji Arena relies primarily on direct purchases of skins and characters.

Beyond core MOBA gameplay, Honor of Kings has successfully expanded its appeal by incorporating additional modes, such as action-RPG elements and a Battle Royale-style feature. Onmyoji Arena has failed to match this breadth of content, limiting its ability to retain a broader player base. The findings suggest that while Onmyoji Arena leveraged a strong existing brand, its inability to iterate on its feature set or match the depth of its competitor has prevented it from challenging the market leader. The analysis relies on feature-set comparisons and market performance data to illustrate how structural design choices directly influence long-term commercial success in the Chinese mobile gaming sector.