League of Legends and Twitch Streamers Fuel Latest Netflix Hit

Tencent Holdings Ltd. $Tencent(TCEHY.US)$ pulled off a pair of successes for its League of Legends franchise over the weekend, with a raucous e-sports tournament that drew more viewers than ever before and the strong debut for a new video series on Netflix. $Netflix(NFLX.US)$

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 item 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 $Amazon(AMZN.US)$ Twitch.

A hit video-game show and the success of the e-sports tournament are a boost for Tencent, which is among companies trying to cope with Beijing’s crackdown on the industry. In August, Chinese authorities said children could play video games just three hours a week in most cases, hurting the stocks of Tencent and other companies.

Chinese e-sports stocks surged after the event, with the tournament’s topic of the home team winning viewed more than 3 billion times on the microblogging site Weibo Corp. Dalian Zeus Entertainment and Hangzhou Electric Soul both rose by the 10% daily limit.

Key to the strategy is the mutually reinforcing effects of shows like Arcane benefiting from a huge built-in audience to gain notice and then using that notoriety to introduce more people to the game. League of Legends has more than 100 million players globally. Riot Games is also making clips from Arcane available for people to remix and create fresh online content with, effectively harnessing the game’s fan base to extend the promotional reach. $TENCENT HOLDINGS LIMITED(TCTZF.US)$ $Bilibili(BILI.US)$