68: Chapter 68 is just one chance away from going viral.

The second day of open beta.

Inspur Technology, Riot Games.

IceFrog stood in front of the large screen in the conference room, which displayed the backend data panel for the first day of the league of legends open beta.

He looked at the data behind him, his expression quite excited.

“Average player playtime: two and a half hours.”

IceFrog's voice was trembling.

As he spoke, he pulled up all the curves on the data panel.

“On the first day of the open beta, logged-in players played an average of nearly five games per person.”

“Of course, today happens to be the weekend, so part of the reason is the weekend effect.”

“But dota 2 and Storm, which also had their open betas on weekends, released this data as well.”

He paused and pulled out another set of comparative data.

“On the first day of dota 2's open beta, the average time per person barely touched one hour.”

“On the first day of heroes of the storm's open beta, the average time per person was less than twenty minutes.”

“And our data is more than double that of dota 2, the best among them!”

“This is enough to prove the potential of league of legends; it's by no means comparable to dota 2 or Storm!”

In the conference room, everyone stared at the panel on the screen, their expressions showing a hint of emotion.

They naturally understood the significance of a newly launched game reaching these figures on its first day.

You have to know.

Generally, when a new game starts its open beta, as long as the promotion is sufficient, a large number of players will log in with a trial mindset; many just log in and don't even play much.

Therefore, the average playtime per person in the first few days of a game's open beta is bound to be lower than the duration after the game stabilizes.

Under these circumstances, league of legends still had an average playtime of two and a half hours, which was indeed quite exaggerated.

This indicated that many of those players with a trial mindset had stayed.

However, among everyone present.

Only Qin Mo leaned back in his chair, coffee in hand, his expression unchanged.

“This is the performance this game should have.”

He set down his coffee cup and looked at IceFrog.

“What about the first day's Daily Active Users (DAU)?”

IceFrog pulled up another data report, his fingers tapping a few times on the keyboard.

“With the help of Douyin's comprehensive promotion, we pushed the open beta information precisely to potential game users.”

“On the day of the open beta, the DAU broke one million in the final hour.”

IceFrog paused.

“Although this figure cannot compare with dota 2's three million on its first day, and even less so with Storm's three point two million on its first day.”

“But—”

He changed the subject and pulled up another comparison chart.

“If we calculate the total playtime.”

“Then the total playtime of league of legends players on the first day isn't much worse than dota 2.”

“And it completely crushes heroes of the storm, which had three point two million players on its first day.”

“What does this show? It shows that the people who entered our game basically stayed.”

Meanwhile, as IceFrog finished speaking.

Lin Xiao, sitting in the corner, pushed up his glasses and turned his laptop toward Qin Mo.

“There's another even more critical set of data.”

His voice was as steady as ever.

“I just looked at the real-time data from this morning.”

“As of 11:00 AM today, over 800,000 players have already logged into the game.”

“Ninety percent of them are yesterday's first-day players.”

“In other words, our next-day retention rate is ridiculously high.”

“Moreover, our player count today will definitely exceed yesterday's, with an increase of at least 100,000 or several hundred thousand.”

“We might even add several hundred thousand new players today.”

After speaking, Lin Xiao paused and gave his prediction.

“At this rate, doubling the DAU within a week won't be a problem.”

“In a month at most, our DAU will be able to surpass dota 2!”

Everyone's expressions were a bit excited.

But the next moment, Qin Mo shook his head and said slowly.

“A month? Too slow.”

“The results I want in a month aren't just some three million DAU.”

The conference room went silent for a beat.

IceFrog turned to look at him, and Lin Xiao also looked up.

And Qin Mo's voice continued to ring out.

“The retention and average playtime of league of legends have already proven its potential.”

“So this game currently has only one flaw.”

He paused.

“That is, how to attract new players to try it.”

“As long as they try it, we can keep them; this pattern has never changed from the closed beta until now.”

“But the problem is, dota 2's momentum is too great right now, and it has already secured its position in the market after more than two months of open beta.”

“Although heroes of the storm has cooled off, it still occupies a lot of the discussion.”

“Most ordinary players won't actively download a MOBA game they aren't interested in.”

“Without getting their hands on it, they naturally won't be attracted to league of legends.”

IceFrog nodded.

“That is indeed the problem.”

“Although our closed beta reputation was good, the scale was too small; the voices of a few thousand people can't travel very far.”

“Now that it's in open beta, one million players on the first day isn't enough either.”

“dota 2's player base is several times ours.”

“We need a catalyst, an opportunity that allows more people to see exactly where the fun in this game lies.”

The conference room fell silent for a moment as everyone pondered a solution.

Qin Mo looked toward Zheng Yue, who hadn't spoken much.

“What would make you try a new game?”

Zheng Yue was stunned for a moment and thought about it.

“Besides friend recommendations and reputation, it's gameplay videos.”

“The kind of highlight reels that make people think, 'So this game can actually be played like this,' after watching them.”

“Previously, a streamer in dota 1 pulled off a double kill combo with sliver of health, and the recording was trending on Bilibili for several days straight.”

“I didn't play dota at the time, but after watching that video, I went and downloaded it.”

Currently, Zhao Lei was mainly responsible for Douyin and was no longer involved in Riot matters; Zheng Yue was now primarily responsible for league of legends.

Hearing the answer, Qin Mo nodded.

“dota 2 has a lot of momentum right now; it's hard for us to spread the reputation of league of legends across the entire internet in a short time.”

“So the only path we can take is the second one.”

He looked at IceFrog.

“The built-in video recording software, is it okay?”

IceFrog pushed up his glasses.

“No problem, we've already built recording and editing functions into the open beta version.”

“Players can record their own highlight clips with one click and export video files directly.”

“This feature was already working during the closed beta, and the open beta version has been further optimized.”

Qin Mo stood up.

“Then put this feature to use.”

“Use pop-ups to tell all players they can record their own highlight videos, upload them to Douyin and major platforms, and participate in official events.”

“Based on video popularity, settle cash and skin rewards directly.”

“Those whose views reach a certain level will be rewarded with skins; those reaching higher levels will get limited skins plus cash.”

“Push this event to all regional servers globally.”

After speaking, Qin Mo paused, as if thinking about something.

“You can also contact creators on major platforms and have them make some fan content for league of legends, even authorizing them to make some silly animations.”

“This is a long-term event that can maintain good, long-lasting relationships with some creators.”

Everyone nodded, and Lin Xiao quickly started typing on the keyboard.

“I'll go draft the event rules now, and the interfaces and hashtags on the Douyin side will be prepared simultaneously.”

“The preliminary rules can be divided into several levels: how many likes for an Epic skin, how many for a Legendary skin, and finally, even cash rewards.”

“As for the fan content event, I'll find someone to coordinate with creators on major platforms.”

IceFrog also stood up.

“I'll go have the programming team make the entry point for the recording function more prominent, and add a one-click share to Douyin button for the Great Xia version.”

Everyone quickly sprang into action.

Meanwhile, Qin Mo closed his eyes and recalled the various times league of legends broke through in his past life. Before esports events exploded in popularity, the highlight clips of major game streamers and fan content were the keys to league of legends breaking into the mainstream in its early stages.

Meanwhile.

Half an hour later.

The official league of legends Weibo also announced the data for the first day of the open beta.