On March 10th, the Honor of Kings Invitational Series 2024 in Istanbul came to a close. Marking the inaugural international tournament for Honor of Kings organized outside of Asia. The event attracted over 46,000 peak viewers across Western streaming platforms and within the in-game player. Setting a new record for the title following its global release.
The Honor of Kings Invitational Series 2024 in Istanbul featured eight teams from Turkey, Brazil, Kazakhstan, and various MENA countries. All of which had the opportunity to try the game first during its Early Release stage. Among the participants were established and well-known esports organizations such as FUT Esports, Twisted Minds, Keyd Stars, and Beşiktaş Esports.
During the group stage, none of the participants were eliminated; this stage solely determined seeding for the playoffs. In the decisive match, the Brazilian teams Alpha7 Esports and Keyd Stars faced off, with the latter emerging victorious with a score of 3:0, earning $100,000 and a slot in the Honor of Kings Invitational Series 2024: Season 2.
The matches of the Honor of Kings Invitational Series 2024 in Istanbul generated 390,000 hours watched, with an average viewership of nearly 12,000 spectators.
The most popular match was the grand final between Keyd Stars and Alpha7 Esports, which was simultaneously watched by over 46,700 viewers.
KIS 2024 in Istanbul was covered across several dozen channels on platforms such as Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, Kick, and TikTok, as well as within the in-game player of Honor of Kings. The largest audience coverage was observed in the official regional broadcasts in Chinese, Turkish, Portuguese, and Arabic.
The Honor of Kings Invitational Series 2024 in Istanbul emerged as the most popular tournament of the game outside of China. In terms of watch time, it surpassed the Honor of Kings Brazil Championship 2023 by 125% and outperformed it by 250% in peak viewership metrics. Excluding statistics from Chinese streaming services, the peak online viewership of KIS 2024 in Istanbul surpassed that of any other Honor of Kings tournament.
The next international tournament, Honor of Kings Invitational Series 2024: Season 2, will take place in June. The winner of this event qualifies for the Honor of Kings Mid-Season Invitational 2024, with a prize pool of $3 million, scheduled to be held in Saudi Arabia in August.