Honor of Kings KPL Grand Finals 2025 is officially the largest esports tournament in history

The Grand Finals for the Honor of Kings Kings Pro League was a special night for not just Chinese esports — but esports as a whole. 

What started as a humble esports scene 10 years ago has become one of the largest in the world. With more fans than ever before, the Grand Finals against All Gamers and Wolves Esports took place at the Bird's Nest over the weekend. 

The Bird's Nest is one of China's most iconic stadiums — it's where the Beijing Olympics 2022 took place. On November 8th, it was where two Honor of Kings teams duked it out on mobile phones on stage. 

Tencent wanted to celebrate the growth over the last decade in a grand way. The opening ceremony included eye-popping visuals, live performances, and dramatic videos that showed off the true scale of the Honor of Kings scene in China. It was an experience that felt even more intense than the Half Time Show at the Super Bowl — and it had the crowd to match. 

Honor of Kings sets Guiness World Record for esports

During the opening ceremony ahead of the Grand Finals action, the Guiness World Records presented the Honor of Kings with an official plaque recognizing it as the most-attended esports tournament in history. 

There were over 62,000 fans in attendance — and even more would have packed into the Bird's Nest if the sales hadn't been cut off to those particular seats. 

For insight, a little over 65,700 people attended the Super Bowl in 2025, putting Honor of Kings at the same popularity and mainstream appeal as football for Chinese fans. 

League of Legends' World Championship 2025 was happening in Chengdu, China simultaneously to the KPL Grand Finals. While more well-known throughout the world, with millions of peak viewers online, it only had 18,000 live viewers. This speaks to HoK's goals of appealing to offline audiences as well, something most esports scenes haven't grasped as well. 

Said Head of KPL Huang Cheng: "The audience who bought the ticket for Bird’s Nest match — 85% of the tickets were sold outside of Beijing. That means local fans only make up 15% of spectators.

"I saw posts all across social media that fans were very excited before the final match. Many comments from all different places and countries. They came to Beijing — even taking connecting flights — to come here and watch the game.

"We must have created esports games as an offline event that is well-received by fans."

According to Cheng, part of that offline success comes from support from the government and the game's in-game community-oriented activations.