81: Chapter 81 The Spending Potential of League of Legends!

Meanwhile.

The news of league of legends hitting twenty million daily active users completely shocked the global player community within just a few hours.

This number was simply too exaggerated.

It was so exaggerated that official television stations in many countries around the world reported on it in their news segments.

The headline on CNN's gaming section read: "A MOBA game has created history."

The BBC's technology channel used an entire report to introduce league of legends and Battle Night.

Japan and South Korea even reported on league of legends' record-breaking, terrifying daily active user statistics on their evening news that night.

Domestically.

On Weibo, the number one trending topic was, without a doubt, occupied by "league of legends hits 20 million daily active users," followed by a deep red "Explosive" tag.

The subsequent trending topics were all closely related to it.

The second trending topic was the Global Game Impact Awards, and the third entry was "Tencent Regrets It."

Clicking into the second and third entries, both were talking about the same thing, and the comments were filled with countless mockeries directed at Tencent and dota 2.

The Global Game Impact Awards is the most heavyweight award in the gaming circle, not limited to online games; single-player games, console games, and mobile games all have the possibility of taking home the Game of the Year.

This award has always been held overseas in previous years. This year, in order to build momentum for dota 2, Tencent spent a significant price to have the awards ceremony held in Great Xia for the first time.

According to the original plan, this grand event was tailor-made for dota 2; after all, this year, dota 2 taking the Most Influential Game award was almost a certainty.

It wasn't just within Tencent.

Before league of legends came out, countless players worldwide had basically defaulted to the idea that the champion of this award this year would be dota 2.

But now it seems.

There is no longer any suspense that this award will be given to league of legends.

If.

If league of legends only had six million daily active users, then Tencent could have maneuvered things to give dota 2 a chance to win the award, but twenty million daily active users was simply too exaggerated; dota 2 could not compare at all.

And under these two entries.

The comment sections were filled with nothing but mockery.

"Tencent spent hundreds of millions to move the awards ceremony to the country, only for league of legends to reap the benefits."

"This move is too slick; they've shot themselves in the foot."

"But you can't blame dota 2; before league of legends came out, the whole world defaulted to dota 2 being the Game of the Year."

"At this year's awards ceremony, watching Little Ma sit in the audience while IceFrog goes on stage to accept the award—just thinking about that scene is satisfying. But come to think of it, the investors behind Riot Games should be revealed soon, right?"

...

Because the twenty million daily active users was simply too exaggerated, the discussion heat in the global player community remained high for the following week.

dota 2 was naturally also constantly being brought up and mocked.

But just one week later, an announcement from Anli Group instantly flipped the status of the two games, and league of legends instead became the object of mockery for many players worldwide.

That morning.

The official Weibo account of Anli Group's Alipay released a routine data announcement.

The content of the announcement itself was very ordinary, just publishing the transaction data for Alipay's previous quarter.

But someone discovered that in the attachment of this announcement, some numbers that shouldn't have appeared were accidentally leaked, namely, the Alipay recharge records for various major games in the country!

You have to know.

Although league of legends and dota 2 belong to different companies, in Great Xia, 99% of players from both sides would use Alipay if they wanted to top up.

And what shocked netizens the most wasn't that Alipay accidentally leaked this data, but the content of the data itself.

Although Alipay quickly deleted this announcement, screenshots were already spreading wildly on major gaming forums.

The screenshots showed.

In the past three-plus months, dota 2's national server monthly recharge revenue was around 50 million Great Xia currency.

And Tencent had previously released financial reports stating that dota 2's overseas revenue was about the same as domestic.

In other words, with three million daily active users, dota 2 could generate over 100 million in total monthly revenue.

And what about league of legends?

Since the open beta started over a month ago, the total national server recharge amount was 10 million; even if you count overseas, doubling this number would only be 20 million!

Far lower than dota 2's 100 million monthly revenue.

You have to know, league of legends' daily active users surpassed dota 2's after half a month of open beta, and now it even has twenty million daily active users, but its monthly revenue couldn't even compare to dota 2's three million daily active users.

The revenue from the past week couldn't even compare to a few days of dota 2's three million.

After this data was exposed, dota 2 players almost jumped up instantly; sure enough, casual players plus league of legends' habit of giving away skins resulted in this game not being able to make much money at all.

"Twenty million daily active users with a monthly income of twenty million? On average, each player only spent one yuan?"

"Although the twenty million daily active users has only been for this past week, in this past week, the revenue from dota 2's three million daily active users was still several times that of league of legends."

"No wonder league of legends was giving away skins like crazy before; if they didn't, nobody would buy them."

Anyone with a discerning eye could see that this was Old Ma's deliberate manipulation; the "accidental leak" was just to help Little Ma and help dota 2 regain some say.

But this.

Did not prevent league of legends from becoming an object of mass mockery.

In global gaming communities, players of other games also joined in the mockery; after all, the recharge amount of twenty million players taking several months to equal the one-month recharge of three million players—this comparison was simply too exaggerated.

It made countless trolls start mocking league of legends.

"I spend thousands a year playing single-player games, while league of legends players spend one yuan a month."

"Twenty million players' revenue can't beat three million? Is this game running a charity?"

"Have Riot Games and IceFrog forgotten that game companies need to make money?"

Under Tencent's secret promotion, the mockery regarding league of legends' payment rate spread across major platforms, and smear articles emerged one after another.

...

Inspur Technology.

Zhao Lei slammed his phone onto the table; the trending topic on the screen was still lit up.

"Old Ma has gone too far!"

His voice carried uncontrollable anger.

"What 'accidental leak'? It was intentional; he must have coordinated it with Little Ma."

Zheng Yue pushed up his glasses from the side, his tone carrying a hint of worry.

"These negative comments might affect the enthusiasm of league of legends players. Although there won't be any problems in the short term, there might be hidden dangers in the long run."

Although both of them knew things couldn't go on like this, they truly had no solution in the short term.

After all, league of legends' payment rate was indeed very low; they were aware of this point as well.

The numbers exposed online were about right; in the first month of open beta, league of legends' revenue was indeed only over 10 million, far behind dota 2.

After all.

dota 2 players' payment habits had already been successfully cultivated in dota 1, but most league of legends players were casual players playing a MOBA for the first time.

But on the other side.

Qin Mo leaned back in his chair, gently twirling his phone in his hand, his eyes devoid of any ripples.

And on the computer screen in front of him was the latest trending topic: "league of legends payment rate," which was hanging at number six on the trending list.

Looking at this trending topic.

Qin Mo chuckled, then muttered.

"To be able to find a foothold for a counterattack even in this situation—as expected of Tencent, as expected of Little Ma. I underestimated you all before."

"And Old Ma, I actually forgot about you."

He put his phone on the table.

"But do you really think I have no preparations?"

Qin Mo looked at Zhao Lei.

"Call IceFrog up here."

A few minutes later, IceFrog pushed the door open and entered, his eyes filled with a bit of confusion, not knowing why Qin Mo had called him.

Zhao Lei and Zheng Yue also didn't understand Qin Mo's intention at this moment.

Qin Mo leaned back in his chair and got straight to the point.

"How is the completion status of that hero and that skin I previously led the design of?"

IceFrog pushed up his glasses.

"They are all completed; according to the original plan, they will be released successively over the next few months."

Qin Mo shook his head.

"No more waiting."

He stood up and walked to the front of the desk.

"Launch this hero and that skin, along with the event I designed, all at once."

He turned around to look at everyone in the office.

"Since the outside world is mocking league of legends players for their low payment rate, then I will let them see."

"The consumption potential of league of legends players!"

Zhao Lei asked.

"What kind of event is it?"

Qin Mo looked at IceFrog and nodded at him.

IceFrog hurriedly came to Qin Mo's computer, clicked a few times, and then turned the screen toward everyone.

On the screen was an internal event preview page.

On it was a brand new hero, a brand new skin for Lee Sin, and an event format that had never appeared in this world before: the Battle Pass.

And that hero was named the Unforgiven, Yasuo.

As for that skin, it was called Dragon Fist!