In the first half of September, three new pet-catching games—Tata Adventure Team, IMA, and Lumi Master—went head-to-head with Honor of Kings: Chess. The latter broke through with more than RMB 40 million in revenue in 10 days, but whether its launch heat can translate into long-term retention will depend on differentiated gameplay and the supply of follow-up content.

In a recent article, 'Legacy MMOs Lower the Barrier to Return: How Perfect World Reworked the Zhu Xian IP Through Burden Reduction, and How Did Dream New Zhu Xian: Light Play Perform at Launch?', Diandian Overseas noted that the end of the summer season had not cooled the September new-game market. Major products arrived one after another, and clashes between genres became even more concentrated.

If we temporarily set aside Dream New Zhu Xian: Light Play, which entered public beta at the beginning of the month, the first-half competition among new releases can almost be summarized as a 'pet battle against auto chess': Lilith Games, FunPlus, and Bilibili successively brought three pet-catching products with very different approaches, while Tencent officially put Honor of Kings: Chess on the table after years of preparation.

The former group is competing to see who can make players like and keep collecting a new cast of characters. The latter faces a tougher question: with Teamfight Tactics already occupying the auto-chess market, where can a new strategy-battle game find incremental growth?

01

Pet-Themed Releases Arrive in Clusters, Each Taking a Different Route

Tata's China iOS Version Earns Nearly $6 Million in 16 Days, the Strongest Performance

Among the three new pet-catching games, the first to launch was Lilith Games' Tata Adventure Team, which entered public beta on September 4. It combines pachinko-style resource generation, pet collection and progression, tower-defense combat, camp construction, and co-op play in a lighter gameplay loop.

On its first day in China, the iOS version generated only $43,000 in revenue (approximately RMB 285,000), but it grew rapidly. Daily revenue reached a peak of $661,000 (approximately RMB 4.43 million) on Day 4 and stayed around that level for three days before gradually declining. Daily revenue is currently about $300,000 (approximately RMB 2 million). As of now, the China public beta has lasted 16 days, with approximately 898,000 cumulative iOS downloads and $5.883 million in cumulative iOS revenue (approximately RMB 41.77 million; first-week iOS revenue was about $2.97 million, or RMB 19.9 million).

However, China was not the starting point for Tata Adventure Team. Its international version, Clash of Critters, underwent multiple tests, soft-launched in April, expanded into Europe and the United States in May, and reached Japan, South Korea, and Asian markets including Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, China, and Macao, China in August. As its release footprint expanded, international revenue rose from $10.42 million in June (approximately RMB 70.1 million) to $15.755 million in August (approximately RMB 106 million). Daily revenue is currently about $900,000 (approximately RMB 6.1 million). As of September 19, overseas cumulative downloads were approximately 15.17 million and total revenue was about $56.95 million (approximately RMB 383 million), with the United States, Japan, and Taiwan, China ranking as the top three markets at 36.06%, 13.06%, and 9.26%, respectively.

By contrast, IMA, which launched on PC and consoles on September 16, takes a higher-production-value open-world approach. Developed by FunPlus' Pawprint Studio, it lets players capture and raise IMA creatures across an open map, then move, explore, and solve puzzles by forming bonds with their pets. Combat, home-building, and multiplayer features are also planned.

After the game was revealed in June 2025, it underwent three large-scale tests in July 2025, January this year, and July this year. On the first day of its PC public beta, concurrent players on Steam surpassed 120,000. Market attention was strong, but player feedback was mixed on gameplay depth, servers, anti-cheat, UI experience, and content pacing.

Notably, the mobile version will enter public beta on September 23. Considering the game's cross-platform design, the scale of reservations, and the strategic significance of FunPlus expanding from SLG into original cross-platform products, its true performance will only be possible to assess more fully after the mobile version enters the market.

Bilibili's self-developed Lumi Master, which entered public beta on September 17, takes a different approach. It makes pet-catching more lightweight: built around vertical-screen, one-handed operation, the game combines random exploration, Lumi capture, turn-based combat, and home management into a more fragmented and casual rhythm.

Public information shows that the project was conceived in 2024, began testing and iteration last year, and underwent monetization tests in China and overseas this year. Its international version, Lumi Master, generated measurable market data from April. After September 17, downloads and revenue expanded notably; to date, overseas cumulative downloads are approximately 524,000 and revenue is about $753,000 (approximately RMB 5.35 million).

In China, the game has been in public beta for three days. Total iOS downloads were approximately 372,000 and total iOS revenue was about $936,000 (approximately RMB 6.65 million). Current daily iOS downloads and revenue are around 90,000 and $380,000, respectively (approximately RMB 2.6 million).

2026 is undoubtedly a year in which pet-themed games have arrived in clusters. Based on the results released so far, however, Tencent's Honor of Kings: World, launched at the beginning of the year, remains the strongest performer in this direction. Its first-month iOS revenue was approximately $38.5 million (about RMB 260 million). Although it has gradually declined, it still generates about $7.3 million (approximately RMB 49 million) today.

Returning to September's new releases, Tata Adventure Team has the support of overseas revenue, while IMA and Lumi Master have each generated launch attention. Yet in terms of the short-term ability to surge on China iOS, Honor of Kings: Chess, which entered public beta on September 10, has taken the competition to another level.

So how exactly did the latter perform during its public beta? What kind of development and testing cycle did it go through, and how does its gameplay work? Diandian Overseas now provides a detailed breakdown and analysis.

02

$6 Million on iOS in 10 Days of Public Beta

Honor of Kings: Chess Breaks the IP Curse and Dominates September's New-Game Market

As everyone knows, Honor of Kings has a huge user base, but that does not mean every spin-off can successfully leave the MOBA arena.

Honor of Kings: World issued an apology letter just six days after launch, publicly responding to player concerns about servers, content, and gameplay experience (its August iOS revenue was only $390,000, approximately RMB 2.6 million). Starbreak stopped operating on its advance-test server and has yet to enter an official public beta. Their problems differ, but both remind the market that familiar heroes can attract players to try a new product, yet cannot replace the new gameplay itself in retaining them.

Honor of Kings: Chess, however, appears to be breaking the assumption that the Honor of Kings IP cannot work outside the MOBA genre.

The game officially entered public beta on September 10. During pre-download, it reached No. 1 on the iOS free-game chart and stayed at the top for 13 days. On launch day, it entered the iOS grossing chart at No. 9, rose to No. 5 the next day, and currently ranks No. 2 on the iOS free-game chart and has spent 11 days on the grossing chart.

On the market-data side, iOS downloads reached 226,000 on the pre-download day and 222,000 on the first day of public beta. Downloads then continued to grow slightly, reaching a phase peak of approximately 226,000 on September 13. Daily downloads are currently around 190,000.

On iOS revenue, the game generated approximately $586,000 (about RMB 4.16 million) on Day 1, quickly rising to a phase peak of $1.15 million (about RMB 8.17 million) the next day before gradually declining. Current daily revenue is about $296,000 (approximately RMB 2.1 million).

As of now, the game has been in public beta for 10 days, with cumulative iOS downloads of approximately 2.291 million (about 1.516 million in the first week) and total iOS revenue of approximately $5.956 million (about RMB 42.29 million; first-week revenue was about $4.912 million, or RMB 34.88 million), 1.55 times Tata Adventure Team's figure over the same period.

This is already the strongest launch among September's new games, but the result was not achieved overnight.

Public information shows that the producer, Donny, previously worked on Honor of Kings and its built-in mode, 'King's Glory Chess.' Honor of Kings: Chess was first revealed publicly in 2022 and initially followed the conventional auto-chess model. Although it had obtained a mobile-game license by 2023, the team believed the original design still encouraged formulaic faction combinations, while strategic expression and the experience of Honor of Kings characters were not fully connected. It therefore chose to rebuild the game.

The new gameplay was first tested publicly in April 2024, after which the team iterated roughly once every three months. Producer Donny disclosed that the project underwent three tests in 2024. In October 2025, he released an open letter confirming the project's progress and new gameplay, after which promotion officially began; the project underwent another four tests that year. It obtained a PC license in February 2026, then confirmed PC-mobile interoperability, launched its final test in mid-to-late March, opened an experience server in July supporting PC and Android without confidentiality requirements, announced its release date in early August, and surpassed 70 million reservations before public beta.

In other words, Honor of Kings: Chess's current launch results did not come solely from one-time traffic diversion by the Honor of Kings IP. They rest on at least three foundations: first, gameplay reconstruction after a long testing cycle; second, user warm-up generated by intensive reservations, tournaments, livestreams, offline events, and IP collaborations before public beta; and third, the Honor of Kings ecosystem's enormous character assets, user awareness, and social graph.

03

Without Making a 'Honor of Kings Version of Teamfight Tactics,' How Can It Capture Incremental Users?

The IP Is Only the Entry Point; Lowering the Barrier and Differentiating the Gameplay Are Key

Returning to the product itself, auto chess is not a new genre.

In 2019, the breakout of Dota Auto Chess ignited the entire category. Titles such as Auto Chess, Arena of Evolution: Red Tides, and Art of War: Legions then entered the market, while PC, mobile, and cross-platform products all tried to seize the opportunity. But because auto chess has substantially higher costs for understanding the rules, learning compositions, coping with version updates, and maintaining long-term balance than ordinary casual competitive products, few titles truly established themselves after the boom.

Today, Tencent still largely controls China's auto-chess market. League of Legends spin-off Teamfight Tactics has established a continuously updated seasonal system on PC, while the mobile version, TFT: Magic & Mayhem, has become China's leading auto-chess mobile game.

The latter still maintains a fairly high revenue level. Diandian data shows that its China iOS revenue was approximately $23.23 million in August this year (about RMB 165 million), while cumulative China iOS revenue since its launch in 2021 was approximately $1.388 billion (about RMB 9.856 billion).

This raises an unavoidable question: since Tencent already has TFT: Magic & Mayhem, why make Honor of Kings: Chess? The answer is not to create a 'Honor of Kings version of Teamfight Tactics,' but that the two products have different positioning and do not overlap.

The core users of TFT: Magic & Mayhem are closer to traditional auto-chess players. They understand economy management, win and loss streaks, interest, leveling, shop odds, composition transitions, and the optimal strategies of each patch, and are willing to keep learning around seasonal changes. Its fun comes from calculating optimal solutions within a complex system. Honor of Kings: Chess clearly aims to lower this barrier and attract more IP users and broad audiences through a differentiated experience.

At the basic-rule level, Honor of Kings: Chess deliberately reduces the high economic-management barrier of traditional auto chess. It removes the interest mechanic and no longer emphasizes the economic difference created by win and loss streaks, allowing players to focus more on rolling, progression, and card synergies so they can receive combat feedback more quickly.

For composition building, the game does not use traditional faction synergies. Instead, it centers on keyword interactions. Hero cards have different effects such as 'Entry,' 'Prepare,' 'Clash,' 'Sacrifice,' 'Flash,' 'Soul Capture,' 'Exit,' 'Defeat,' and 'Synthesis.' Players must not simply complete a faction; they must understand the triggering relationships among keywords and form as many consecutive chains as possible.

Hero growth is another point of difference. Playing duplicate hero cards raises a hero's level, and some heroes receive skill changes at Levels 10, 40, and 100, while the maximum level reaches 999. The team summarizes this feedback loop as 'roll, raise, and explode': roll for the cards you need, raise your core heroes, and then cash in their upgraded skills and effects in battle.

This shifts Honor of Kings: Chess's strategic focus from traditional auto chess's 'economy + synergies + positioning' to 'card effects + level growth + keyword chains.' It is still auto chess, but the experience is closer to a lightweight competitive game with card-building and Roguelike progression elements.

The chess-player system reinforces this difference. Chess players are not merely cosmetic units; they have active or passive abilities that influence the tempo and direction of a match, giving players a clear strategic inclination before the game begins. For the Honor of Kings IP, this also means heroes are no longer just pieces on the board: they function simultaneously as in-match abilities and gateways into the gameplay.

The game also adds mechanics such as auctions, a marketplace, effect cards, and talent cards. These increase resource competition, temporary decisions, and in-match variation, meaning players must continuously process new cards, special effects, and random opportunities rather than simply wait for a composition to come together. However, while lowering the economic barrier, this design also raises the cost of understanding card text and effects. Randomness and explosive in-match swings may affect players' judgments of fairness and strategic depth. These issues still need to be addressed through later versions and balance adjustments.

To reduce early churn, Honor of Kings: Chess also adds Lingbao, composition recommendations, in-match prompts, and AI-assisted features similar to a 'private coach' to help players decide which cards to choose and identify key cards. For an auto-chess game with a high learning cost, these systems do more than provide convenience: they reduce early churn caused by 'not knowing how to play, not understanding what is happening, and not knowing why you lost.'

Art and live operations mainly serve to carry the Honor of Kings IP. The game does not fully copy TFT: Magic & Mayhem's board-oriented competitive presentation, instead strengthening the 3D, card-like, and stage-like presentation of Honor of Kings heroes and raising the display value of characters through chess players, boards, skins, and effects. Socially, it connects to the Honor of Kings friend system and lowers the barrier to playing with acquaintances through team rankings and shared maximum-score bonuses, addressing the traditionally weak social ties of auto chess.

Overall, Honor of Kings: Chess uses the Honor of Kings IP to broaden the entry point into auto chess while attempting to differentiate itself from TFT: Magic & Mayhem by lowering the economic barrier, emphasizing keyword chains, and adding AI assistance. Its main challenges are randomness, the pressure of understanding cards, AI recommendation accuracy, long-term balance, and seasonal content updates. Whether it can prove it is more than a short-term IP-dividend product will depend on whether it can retain users who differ from those of TFT: Magic & Mayhem. At launch, it has completed the first step from attracting users to establishing a differentiated experience.

04 Conclusion

If we look only at short-term China iOS performance, Honor of Kings: Chess is undoubtedly the strongest new release in the first half of this month. Its launch heat and user conversion were clearly higher than those of the three contemporary pet-catching products. More importantly, it did not stop at IP-driven traffic: through gameplay reconstruction, rule simplification, keyword chains, and AI assistance, it established a strategic experience genuinely distinct from TFT: Magic & Mayhem.

This gives Honor of Kings: Chess a foundation for becoming a long-term product. It can serve veteran Honor of Kings players while also attracting broad users unfamiliar with auto chess, adding a new product layer for Tencent in this category. However, launch data still mainly reflects concentrated attention during the release period. Revenue has already fallen from its peak, and the next question is whether players can move from 'following Lingbao' to actively studying compositions, and whether seasonal updates can continue to provide enough freshness. Randomness, card-comprehension pressure, and competitive balance will also become more visible as players go deeper.

Meanwhile, September's three pet-catching products are taking completely different routes to expand their audiences. Tata Adventure Team has built a relatively mature global revenue curve through a lightweight loop and an overseas-first rollout. IMA is attempting to turn pet collection into a long-term cross-platform content experience through a high-production-value open world and its 'bond' mechanic. Lumi Master compresses pet-catching into a vertical-screen, one-handed, Coin Master-style loop, testing the potential of a lightweight approach. All three are still in their early launch stages, but they share one trait: pets are no longer merely thematic packaging; they serve different functions in collection, exploration, combat, social interaction, and monetization.

Therefore, September's 'pet battle against auto chess' has not reached a final outcome. In the short term, Honor of Kings: Chess has won the most eye-catching opening among China's new releases. In the long term, it is equally worth watching whether pet-catching products can retain players through pet ecosystems, content updates, and social relationships.