As what doesn’t come as much of a surprise, it appears that Netmarble has ranked in the top 5 parent companies for combined global consumer spend on iOS and Google Play in 2018. This news comes courtesy of App Annie, who tracks various statistics on the App Store and Google Play. Also on the top 5 list in no particular order is Tencent, NetEase, Activision Blizzard and BANDAI NAMCO.

Also worth noting, Netmarble was included in the top 10 positions for mobile games in 21 countries, including the US/Canada (6th place), Mexico, Brazil and the UK (4th), France (5th), Korea, Thailand and Indonesia (2nd), and Hong Kong and Singapore (1st). Games that attributed success in 2018 includes MMORPG Lineage 2 Revolution and Marvel Contest of Champions.

Looking towards 2019 there’s sure plenty in store for Netmarble as there’s a lot more in the pipeline for fresh new games and content updates to their existing titles.

Arena of Valor, Tencent‘s popular MOBA, has been a huge success since its release and attracted a huge player base. The game has become so popular that even has its own eSports gaming competition called the “Valor Series” where players compete for prizes.

Most recently the regular season of Valor Series has concluded leaving four U.S. teams — Allegiance, Immortals, Dino Riders and Team Upsla — advancing to the final round. As part this final round of competition will be hosted at E3 later this year.

After the six week season, these four teams will have a chance to compete to head the Arena of Valor World Cup set for this July in Los Angeles. At the World Cup the prize pool has amassed more than $500,000, a pretty impressive number, to be split amongst the winners. Those following the Valor Series closely can see the team rankings here. Arena of Valor is available for free on the App Store, however, there are in-app purchases.

We’ve all heard about Marvel’s widely popular movie Avengers: Infinity War, but let’s not forget about DC Comics for a second. Iconic DC superhero, The Flash, has recently made his way to Tencent‘s popular MOBA Arena of Valor. For those that don’t know, Arena of Valor is a 5v5 MOBA with matches taking place for 10 to 15 minutes at a time. As such, there’s over 40 different heroes to play as with The Flash being recently added.

As part of consistent content updates, The Flash joins other DC Universe characters like Wonder Woman, The Joker, and Superman with more to be added later on down the road. Players who choose to fight as The Flash can deal damage with special moves like sonic boom, super speed, mach punch and cyclone.

From the folks at comicbook.com, here’s a more in-depth look at The Flash’s abilities:

• Sonic Boom – Passive
  • Every time The Flash moves 4 units, he will receive one stack of speed force. Upon reaching 10 stacks, The Flash will activate the speed force, strengthening his next normal attack while dashing forward. He also temporarily reduces his target’s movement speed by 50% and deals magic damage. When he hits his target, he gains a shield.
• Super Speed
  • After a short charge up, The Flash dashes forward, dealing magic damage to all enemies in his path. The Flash cannot be controlled while dashing and can cancel the dash by using another ability. When The Flash reaches his destination, he can activate the skill again to return to where he started, dealing magic damage. Enemies damaged by the initial dash are dealt an additional magic damage.

• Mach Punch
  • The Flash channels the speed force and punches an enemy 5 times within 0.8 seconds, dealing magic damage every time. The last punch deals double damage and when it hits an enemy, grants The Flash an 40% movement speed increase that weakens over 2 seconds.
• Cyclone
  • The Flash takes off in a circle and creates a cyclone, dealing magic damage to surrounding enemies for 2 seconds. While he is generating the cyclone, The Flash cannot be targeted by abilities and can move the cyclone’s position at 40% of his movement speed. 2 seconds later when The Flash stops, the vacuum from the cyclone pulls in surrounding enemies, dealing magic damage.

Those interested can pick up Arena of Valor on the App Store for free, however, there are in-app purchases.

Tencent and PUBG Corp. have announced that PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile, the mobile version of the massively popular Battle Royale game is now available for iOS. PUBG has been a very popular success on PC, and because of that the developers have joined with Tencent to create the mobile version.

“We are very excited to launch PUBG Mobile on iOS and Android internationally,” said Chen Jerry, Corporate Vice President of Tencent & President of Lightspeed & Quantum Studios Group. “We are working hard to create an authentic PUBG mobile experience that players new and old will love. A lot of went into controls and optimization to give players a smooth and intuitive experience.”

After a beta launch in Canada, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile is slowly rolling out globally to cope with the demand. The game is an adaptation of the PC version with a few minor changes (like controls) and offers the same multiplayer fun. With PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is a battle royale-style game that pits the player against 99 others to search for weapons and fight to be the last standing.

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile is available for free on the App Store by clicking here and requires iOS 9 or later.

Tencent Games has recently revealed plans for a series of global mobile esports tournaments, starting with the Arena of Valor World Cup. Set to take place this July in Los Angeles, the tournament is offering a prize pool of more than $500,000 USD to those who participate and win. For those that don’t know, Arena of Valor is Tencent popular fast-paced 5v5 MOBA with gameplay optimized for mobile devices.

Arena of Valor World Cup will serve as the North American premiere international tournament for the world’s top players, however, that is just the start. We’ve been told that Tencent plans to roll out a schedule for localized and collegiate-level tournaments later this season across the country. Overtime Tencent plans to develop a esports ecosystem around the game, with last year featuring the Arena of Valor International Championship that took place in South Korea.

Right now this is all the information made available to us at the moment, however, additional event details like ticket sales, location, and registration will be available soon.