Dungeon & Fighter Mobile’s first month of iOS revenue was twice that of Honor of Kings

• Dungeon & Fighter Mobile earned $270 million in China on iOS in its first month
• The title contributed to a 12% rise in mobile games revenue for Tencent last month

Nexon and Tencent’s Dungeon & Fighter Mobile has had a strong first month in China, raking in $270 million on iOS - more than twice that of Honor of Kings’ earnings in the same period.

The new release was China’s most-downloaded game and top revenue earner over its first 30 days, according to Sensor Tower data reported by Bloomberg. It also surpassed its first $100 million in only 10 days, topping revenue growth charts at the time.

As a result of this early success, the mobile RPG was partially responsible for Tencent’s 12% rise in mobile games revenue last month.

Revenue rise

Dungeon & Fighter Mobile is, as its name suggests, a mobile spinoff of Nexon’s 2005 beat ‘em up series Dungeon & Fighter. It released in South Korea in 2022 and Tencent landed the publishing rights for its release in China, but was delayed in doing so by Chinese governmental restrictions.

Tencent has since removed Dungeon & Fighter Mobile from Android app stores due to the licence agreement expiring, but even so, the game has seen huge success in the region so far, driven by spending on iOS.

It’s good news for Nexon, as only days before launch in China, president and CEO Junghun Lee shared his hopes for Dungeon & Fighter Mobile’s "profoundly positive impact on Nexon’s revenue and profit profile".

This was after the company’s revenue declined 32% YoY in China this Q1.

With Nexon’s situation looking brighter now, Sensor Tower senior director of Asia-Pacific marketing Nan Lu commented: "Since its release, DnF Mobile has been occupying the top positions for the iOS charts in all categories. This is a very impressive start, and it has been stable as well. The future performance will depend on Tencent’s operations and continuous updates to the game.

"Since DnF Mobile can leverage a substantial amount of content already used in its Korean version, we expect the decrease in revenue to be gradual, helping to maintain player interest and prolong popularity."

In total, 15 more overseas licences were granted approval for Chinese launch this May, including Valorant, Mario, and Pokémon games.