The World's Most Popular Game Was Causing Crippling Addiction, So Publisher Imposes Hard Limits on Play Time

Tencent is far and away the biggest and the wealthiest gaming company in the world. The Chinese multimedia giant owns Riot Games, the developer behind League of Legends. Tencent developed and published a free MOBA for mobile called Honor of Kings, which is technically the most popular game in the world with over 200 million registered players. The game is called Strike of Kings here in the West. It's a straight-up mobile version of League of Legends, and young people in China can't get enough of it. In fact, it's becoming a huge problem.

Reports from the Financial Times and Reuters are stating that parents and teachers have been starting to complain in greater numbers about crippling addiction to Honor of Kings. Kids are playing this game nonstop, and Tencent has been making a killing. It was estimated that Honor of Kings raked in roughly $810 MILLION in the first financial quarter. If you're wondering why everyone seems eager to make a mobile game these days -- that's why.

At any rate, reports started flooding in of extreme cases of addiction. One player reportedly played the game for 40 hours straight and suffered a stroke, while another kid, after being grounded from playing the game, broke his legs jumping from a third-story balcony (either out of spite or to try to get access to his phone, we don't know). That's not great for business, and so Tencent has decided to impose pretty hard limitations on play time.

All players below the age of 12 will now be limited to one hour of play time per day. Players between the ages of 12 and 18 will be limited to two hours per day. If you're an adult, you're obviously still free to waste your life away playing matches and buying skins.

The limitations have spooked the market, though, and Tencent's market value has plummeted as a result of the recent limitations. When we say plummeted, we mean to the tune of a roughly $15 billion decrease. Obviously youngsters won't be able to spend money on the game if their play time is cut drastically short from what it used to be, to revenue is expected to dip considerably. By how much, only time will tell.