Tencent and Yoozoo Games on Friday announced plans to launch mobile game studio Supercell’s hit 3V3 battle royale title Brawl Stars in China on June 9, according to a post on Tencent Games’ official WeChat account.
Tencent said it would partner with Yoozoo Games to distribute Brawl Stars in the Chinese market in March 2019, but neither company revealed exact launch dates at the time.
Soft-launched in June 2017 and launched globally in December 2018, Brawl Stars is one of Supercell’s most popular titles, topping the most-downloaded chart of 85 countries and regions, according to statistics from researcher App Annie.
The title is also one of the Finnish mobile developer’s highest-grossing titles, generating more than $422 million in revenue in 2019, according to analytics firm Sensor Tower.
Despite lagging Supercell’s Clash of Clans and Clash Royale in terms of global revenue, Brawl Stars was Supercell’s most profitable title in the Asian market, which does not include China, raking in $143 million in the region last year and representing 38% of the company’s revenue in Asia for the period.
Possibly due to the backlog created by the nine-month licensing freeze in 2018 and the stricter game approval standards implemented in April 2019, Brawl Stars did not acquire a license for monetization until March 2020.
While both Tencent and Yoozoo Games will distribute the same version of Brawl Stars, Tencent said it would enable WeChat and QQ registrations for the game, which would make it easier for players to find their friends for premade teams.
In June 2016, Tencent acquired 81.4% of Supercell via a wholly-owned consortium, according to a report from Forbes. The Finnish mobile developer was valued at $10.2 billion at the time, making the sale one of the biggest gaming deals.
In October 2019, Tencent increased its take in the consortium from 50% to 51.2%, giving the gaming giant a majority stake in Supercell.
(Photo: Twitter @BrawlStars)
