Tencent $1 Billion Game Shows Global Hunt for Mobile Hits
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Tencent Holdings Ltd. wants to conquer half a billion Chinese smartphones. The online game CrossFire shows how the company plans to do it.
Lacking enough homegrown titles to satisfy the appetites of China’s players, Tencent imported the combat survival game from South Korea in 2008. Last year, CrossFire raked in $957 million, making it the world’s top-grossing free-to-play video game, according to SuperData Research Inc. It’s one of several foreign-made games, including League of Legends and Dungeon Fighter Online, that have helped make Tencent Asia’s largest Internet company.