Tencent gets respite from crackdown with ‘League Of Legends’ hits

Tencent’s successes come after Beijing has imposed a broad crackdown on the country’s games industry, hurting the stocks of Tencent and other companies. — Reuters

Tencent Holdings Ltd pulled off a pair of successes for its League Of Legends franchise over the weekend, with a raucous eSports tournament that drew more viewers than ever before and the strong debut for a new video series on Netflix.

Arcane, an anime series based on the League fantasy universe, premiered to an overwhelmingly positive response, garnering 130 million views in China within a few hours and becoming the most searched show on Tencent’s streaming site. Globally, the show – co-created by the Tencent-owned game maker Riot Games Inc – is streamed on Netflix Inc’s service as well as Amazon.com Inc’s Twitch.