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Honour of Kings
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Tencent cuts kids’ playing time on flagship game Honour of Kings to appease Beijing

  • Gamers under the age of 18 will have their playing time limited to one hour on regular days and two hours on public holidays
  • Honour of Kings was the first video game in the world, on any platform, to average more than 100 million users a day

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Gamers under the age of 18 will limit their playing time on Honour of Kings to one hour on regular days and two hours on public holidays, according to new measures announced by Tencent Holdings. Photo: Reuters
Josh Ye
Tencent Holdings, which runs the world’s largest video gaming business by revenue, has significantly cut down playing time for minors under 18 on its flagship game Honour of Kings in a bid to appease Beijing’s concerns about gaming addiction among young people in China.

Gamers under the age of 18 will have their playing time limited to one hour on regular days and two hours on public holidays, according to new rules announced by Tencent that come into effect from Wednesday. These minors were previously allowed to play Honour of Kings up to 1.5 hours on a regular day and three hours on holidays, which followed a government directive issued in late 2019.

Teenagers will also be prohibited from playing the game between 10pm and 8am, a move that goes beyond the central government’s mandatory limits for minors to engage in gaming.

Tencent’s new measures also ban players under the age of 12 from spending money to top up in the game, according to the company’s statement posted on its official WeChat account on Wednesday. Gamers between 12 and 16 are only allowed to spend up to 200 yuan (US$31) per month, with a single charge capped at 50 yuan, while those between 16 and 18 are limited to 400 yuan per month, with a single charge capped at 100 yuan.

Tencent said the new measures are designed to “further enhance protection of minors”.

02:28

Tencent narrows kids’ playing time on video games labelled ‘spiritual opium’ by Chinese state media

Tencent narrows kids’ playing time on video games labelled ‘spiritual opium’ by Chinese state media

“We hope we can help children develop a healthy gaming habit, and we are doing our best to reduce family problems stemming from kids’ gaming activities,” the Shenzhen-based internet giant said.

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