Livestreaming Tracker April 2026 Highlights: Tencent’s New Honor of Kings: World Rises into April’s Top 10 RPG Viewership Rankings
RPG games took center stage in China’s livestreaming scene this April 2026, ranking among the most-watched content of the month. Honor of Kings: World rose as a key driver of the genre.
RPG titles dominated China’s livestreaming landscape in April 2026, standing out as some of the month’s most-watched content. Niko Partners China Games & Livestreaming Tracker reveals that RPG games remained one of the most-watched genres in China’s livestreaming market in April 2026, with new launched title Honor of Kings: World emerging as the latest driver of the genre’s overall performance.
Notably, this marks the second Tencent RPG title in two consecutive months to significantly lift RPG viewership, following the strong performance of Roco Kingdom World in March. Read our quick take on the standout title from this month’s top 10 shooter games, based on the Niko Index, our proprietary metric for estimating total viewership across games, streamers, and categories.
Tencent’s Honor of Kings: World ranked as the #15 most-viewed game on our Niko Index chart, and at #4 when isolating the RPG genre, amassing a total of 36.6 million viewers across Huya, Douyu, and Bilibili in April. The F2P cross-platform mobile/PC game was launched across Tencent’s official website and WeGame, a domestic game distribution platform, on April 10. A week later, its mobile version was released on iOS and Android, while closed beta tests continued on HarmonyOS. This marks a major expansion of its flagship Honor of Kings IP into the open world action RPG genre.
Honor of Kings: World leverages the strength of the Honor of Kings IP, one of China’s largest gaming franchises, to convert existing MOBA players into RPG viewers and drive stronger cross-platform engagement. Meanwhile, Honor of Kings also recorded an 11% MoM increase in viewership, reaching 324 million in April.
Unlike new IP-driven open world titles, this title leverages over a decade of ecosystem development, including esports, animation, virtual idols, and merchandising. The game focuses on deepening narrative engagement, bringing established characters into a more immersive, story-driven format.
The game monetizes through cosmetics only, avoiding character or power sales to preserve skill-based, fair gameplay. Early player feedback has highlighted strong reception to character storytelling and world-building.
Post-launch momentum continues in May with plans to release battle passes, monthly cards, shop updates, creator incentives, and seasonal content to sustain viewership.
The above is an extract from our China Games & Livestreaming Tracker April 2026 summary. See the free sample here.
Niko Partners’ China Games & Livestreaming Tracker views all current and historical data in our dashboard, updated every 24 hours. Niko’s Analysts write and post monthly analysis of key trends and data observed in the Tracker to help our clients with important insights. Learn more about the platform here. Book your free demo!