Is ByteDance’s “Kingdom Dream” Coming to an End at Moonton?

Is ByteDance’s “Kingdom Dream” Coming to an End with Moonton?

According to Bloomberg, ByteDance is in talks with Savvy Games Group of Saudi Arabia to explore the possible sale of its gaming studio Moonton Technology.

This immediately brings back memories of ByteDance’s 2021 acquisition of Moonton at a valuation of around $4 billion.

The Strategy Began with MOBA

Many ByteDance executives—especially Yan Shou—have a strong preference for MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) games.
This mindset was one of the driving forces behind the acquisition.

Strategic consultants also love the MOBA category because it’s the most consistently profitable genre in gaming worldwide.

For years, the No.1 position in global game revenue has been held by one game:
Honor of Kings, a MOBA.

Historically, DOTA and League of Legends also dominated their eras.

So some people thought:
“MOBA is profitable → Let’s invest all-in on MOBA!”

But this logic is similar to:
AI chips earn the most money → So everyone should build chips.

The real questions are:

• Do you have the capability?
• Do you have differentiating advantages?

Moonton did help fill ByteDance’s weakness in MOBA development,
but if the starting point is “the market’s most profitable genre,”
it often leads to strategic misalignment.

The Challenges of Cultural Adaptation

Before being acquired, Moonton’s MLBB (Mobile Legends: Bang Bang) dominated Southeast Asia.

ByteDance aimed not only to secure Southeast Asia,
but also to expand MLBB into Europe, the US and Japan leveraging TikTok’s global network.

Very soon they realized:

Games do not globalize like platforms do.

Success in one cultural environment does not guarantee success elsewhere.

MLBB’s top-performing countries today remain largely developing markets, except Singapore.

The case mirrors Free Fire:

• Low hardware requirements = success in Southeast Asia
• Same characteristics = “too simple” for East Asia / Western players

And MOBA has a strong Matthew Effect:
Low DAU → long matchmaking → poor gameplay → user churn.

Ultimately, MLBB did not break into the crucial markets of Japan, Korea, or the US.

This is likely why ByteDance considered selling Moonton.

A Common Mistake: Treating Games Like Platforms

ByteDance often applies TikTok logic to gaming:

TikTok → globally identical platform, locally tailored content
MOBA → the product itself is the content, and culturally sensitive

Trying to push MLBB globally with TikTok’s logic
is like trying to promote Chinese crosstalk to Western users.
It won’t work.

For ByteDance, which excels in building platforms, a casual gaming platform like GameTop may actually be more aligned with its DNA.

When MLBB Entered China and Honor of Kings Went Abroad, Traffic Logic Failed

People once believed Tencent always won because of its traffic.

But Pinduoduo founder Huang Zheng debunked this:
“Traffic × conversion logic cannot succeed today.
If it could, Tencent would’ve dominated e-commerce.”

And indeed, Tencent failed to beat NetEase’s Eggy Party with its own party game.

The same logic hit ByteDance:

They wanted MOBA streamers to promote MLBB,
but those streamers had exclusive contracts with Honor of Kings.

Traffic means nothing if the key nodes are locked.

MLBB did not gain traction in China.
Likewise, Honor of Kings’ attempt to disrupt MLBB in Southeast Asia also failed.

Again:
Money alone doesn’t win.