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China's hit mobile game launches in US with DC heroes

Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman are appearing in Arena of Valor, the English version of the Chinese's favourite game, which launches in the Americas today.

Zoey Chong Reporter
Zoey is CNET's Asia News Reporter based in Singapore. She prefers variety to monotony and owns an Android mobile device, a Windows PC and Apple's MacBook Pro all at the same time. Outside of the office, she can be found binging on Korean variety shows, if not chilling out with a book at a café recommended by a friend.
Zoey Chong
2 min read
arenaofvalor

Arena of Valor will feature superheroes such as Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman.

Screenshot by Zoey Chong/CNET

Remember when we told you about a pair of Chinese parents naming their daughter after a game? Well, maybe now we'll finally understand why.

The game's creator, Tencent -- also Asia's first tech company to cross $500 billion in valuation -- is bringing a localised version to North and South America today, it announced in a broadcast on Twitch. Rebranded as Arena of Valor, the game will be made available on the App Store and Google Play.

Arena of Valor is a multiplayer online battle arena game (MOBA) featuring five-versus-five battles, where players form teams and control heroes such as Batman , Superman  and Wonder Woman and try to destroy bases belonging to the opposing team.

Games like this have proven to be a hit, with analysts expecting the market to grow to $48 billion by 2020. Traditional MOBA games include the likes of League of Legends (also owned by Tencent), which has its own show and drew 14 million viewers at its World Championship finals last year.

Arena of Valor's Chinese counterpart, Honor of Kings, is massively popular too. More than 200 million players are registered on the game and fans have gotten so crazy about it that a child has been named after the game, and authorities have pressured Tencent into restricting playtime for children under 12. Honor of Kings also held top spot on the Chinese App Store for nearly a year.

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