The impending conclusion of December means the 2018 finish line is finally within sight. While that may mean any number of things across the world, for Arena of Valor players, it means we’re now officially one year into the launch of the game in the US, Canada, and Latin America.
There’s nothing too fancy going on for that first year anniversary, but the timing of this milestone at least allows us to reminisce about the early days of Arena of Valor and just how much the game has grown over the last 12 months.
This is your 32nd Arena of Valor weekly roundup!
AIC 2018 Winners Crowned!
Taking place throughout the course of last weekend, it was impossible for us to include the results of the Arena of Valor International Championship grand final in last week’s roundup without digging out the old time machine (it’s frowned upon by the cosmos, apparently).
But for those who didn’t manage to check out the action live or through VODs from the likes of YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook, we’re here to fill you in on the more important details.
Simply put, Taiwan’s own J Team managed to scoop the cup and its massive $250,000 prize pool. It wasn’t quite the deadlock 3-4 finale spectator’s love to see in these kinds of competitions, but the sweet tale of revenge from J Team was nothing short of inspirational.
The team probably wasn’t the favorite of the figurative betting agency after being knocked into the loser’s bracket of the semi-final by eventual finalists Team Flash, yet J Team managed to crawl out of the pits of despair to challenge Team Flash to most important rematch of the whole competition, making the eventual 4-0 victory over the team that initially threatened to send them home that much more satisfying. GG, J Team!
While the conclusion of the 2018 AIC may spell the end of this year’s Arena of Valor Esports circuit, things will continue next year with the Arena of Valor World Cup in the Summer. Expect qualifiers to kick off in the first few months of the year.
Last Call for Ranked and Xeniel’s Codex Rewards
This is basically your reminder to double-check all the rewards available through Xeniel’s Codex and Ranked, as they’re set to go the way of the dodo real soon. With Xeniel’s Code Chapter 2 set to end at the turn of the week, now’s the time to buckle down and finish any outstanding Valor or Daily Quests whether you’re on a Free or Paid version of the relatively new glorified activity sheet.
While free players won’t really miss out on much as we switch from Chapter 2 to Chapter 3 rewards, players plodding through the premium version will automatically lose out on any unclaimed codex rewards once the chapter 2 codex comes to an end on Sunday night – that means not only will hero/skins, magic crystal, and Evo crystal rewards become unreachable, even the lucrative Mirage Liliana skin that likely tempted players into unlocking the feature in the first place will be sent kicking and screaming back into the AoV vault.
If you know you won’t make it to Rank 80 in time for the cut-off through the usual quests, you can actually spend vouchers to level it up. This would usually cost 100 Vouchers per level, but in true Codex tradition, you can get a slight discount through the in-game store right now with Tribute boxes granting individual levels for around 80 vouchers a pop.
As for Ranked rewards, it’s time to climb as high as you can to not only grab the skins and crystals awarded for ascending the ladder, but to slot yourself in for a tidy Gem reward based on your highest position once the current ranked season comes to a close on New Year’s Day. Rewards vary between regions, but end of season rewards typically offer some of the most generous Gem giveaway rates in the game. Perfect for “investing” back into the Lucky Draw.
Forget New Year’s Resolutions, I’m wishing for a Pendant!
The Chill of Christmas Finally Embraces Athenor!
Though it’s hard to say that Arena of Valor wasn’t already looking fairly festive with classic Christmas skins making a comeback and two of the game’s lovebirds donning their winter outfits for the log-in screen, things took a sudden twist this week with the surprise addition of more Christmas-inspired game elements. While you might not notice upon logging in, the queue system and initial match accept notification has undergone a little festive update.
Likewise, even the Recall effect used to teleport back to base in the middle of a match has been universally tweaked to have everyone freeze the ground beneath them with an adorable snowflake motif as they dart back to heal up after a brutal battle. It’s the little things!
Arena of Valor’s First Year Statistics
Though this particular topic is something the game industry would laud over a group like Microsoft of Sony for filling their customer-facing E3 presentations with, taking a look at Arena of Valor’s first-year statistics is useful for players and investors alike (for typically very different reasons). If you’ve been clamoring for better Arena of Valor servers all year at this point, some would argue that some of these stats explain why not much has changed on that front just yet.
Thanks to the blog of app economy tracker Sensor Tower, we now have a rough idea of just how much progress Tencent has made in its plans to dominate the mobile scene with Arena of Valor.
Released around this time last year in America, server months before across Europe, and officially launching in other territories like Australia, Japan, and India over the course of 2018, Arena of Valor is now basically available worldwide in one form or another. According to Sensor Tower statistics, that means Arena of Valor has now managed 100,000,000 (that’s one-hundred million) downloads across the world, with the number jumping to a staggering 287,000,000 once the Chinese version is factored into the sum.
Diving deeper into the data shows that Vietnam is by far the largest install base outside of China 33% of that 100,000,000 initial total, with Thailand close by at 25%. America, on the other hand, only made up 2% of the game’s install base as it stands.
Despite the slight install base difference, Thailand happens to be the slice of the market tossing the most money back into the game, with Vietnam not even appearing in the top 3 in terms of player spending, with the US coming in at 5th place having only poured around $5 million back into the game over the last 12 months.
As a whole, Arena of Valor (in its various forms) has pulled in more than $4 BILLION across the world.
While you won’t see Arena of Valor in the top grossing chart of either major mobile app store, its Chinese counterpart “Honor of Kings” placed #2 in overall worldwide revenue last month, only losing out to Monster Strike (which struck out in the West last year).
