The archive · Consumer Apps · Strategic decision · 2025–2026
Kingshot: Century Games bets Whiteout's formula repeats — $500M+ net in 11 months
After near-fatal losses, Century Games bet its casualized 4X playbook could repeat; Kingshot earned $500M+ net in 11 months.
Century Games (点点互动 / Century Games Pte. Ltd.)
What the business is
Kingshot is a free-to-play mobile strategy game from Century Games that blends 4X base-building, hero collection, alliances and PvP with a tower-defense opening; Century Games publishes it globally alongside its earlier hit Whiteout Survival.
Starting capital：No external round for Kingshot: Century Games is wholly owned by Zhejiang Century Huatong, which paid RMB 6.939B (~$1B) in December 2014 to acquire it from FunPlus under a roughly RMB 2B cumulative net-profit performance pledge.
How it started
Century Games (DianDian Interactive) began in the early 2010s as a casual-games team under FunPlus, launching Facebook farming hit Family Farm (2011) and Family Farm Seaside (2012), then moved into strategy publishing. Century Huatong acquired it in December 2014 for RMB 6.939B with a performance pledge, and King of Avalon (2016) became the first Chinese game to top the US iOS grossing chart while Guns of Glory generated $250M in its first year — building Century Games' early 4X publishing muscle.
What happened
After hitting its performance targets, Century Games slumped: licensing contracts expired and profits collapsed, with roughly RMB 1B in cumulative losses across 2021–2022. It pivoted from pure publishing to self-developed games, and Whiteout Survival — launched February 2023 — turned the company around, passing $2.25B in cumulative revenue by March 2024 and making Century Games' 2024 revenue RMB 15B, up 155% year over year. Kingshot launched at the end of February 2025 on the same 4X foundation with a medieval-war theme and tower-defense onboarding; it earned over $100M in gross revenue within 117 days, became the company's largest user-acquisition focus between April and July 2025 (peaking at 43% of total ad spend), and by December 2025 was earning roughly $66M net per month.
How it ended up
Still scaling as of 2026-09-02: Kingshot passed $500M in net revenue within 11 months of its February 2025 launch, and Century Games ran the No. 1 and No. 2 titles in Sensor Tower's overseas revenue rankings with Whiteout Survival and Kingshot during 2025, with the US contributing roughly 40% of Kingshot's revenue, followed by Japan, South Korea, Germany and the UK.
Background
Kingshot is Century Games' follow-up to Whiteout Survival, one of the biggest mobile strategy launches of the 2020s. It combines the 4X foundation — base building, resource management, hero collection, alliances and PvP — with a medieval-war skin and a tower-defense opening that gives new players a satisfying first win before heavier systems appear. Century Games launched it globally at the end of February 2025.
The company behind it nearly died first. Century Games began as a casual-games team under FunPlus, was acquired by Zhejiang Century Huatong in December 2014 for RMB 6.939B under a performance pledge, then lost its publishing contracts and posted roughly RMB 1B in cumulative losses across 2021–2022. Its pivot to self-development produced Whiteout Survival in February 2023, which passed $2.25B in cumulative revenue by March 2024 and pushed Century Games' 2024 revenue to RMB 15B, up 155%.
Kingshot proved the turnaround was repeatable. It passed $100M in gross revenue within 117 days of launch, was Century Games' largest UA focus between April and July 2025 at up to 43% of total ad spend, and by December 2025 was earning roughly $66M net per month. In Sensor Tower's July 2025 overseas revenue ranking, Whiteout Survival and Kingshot held the No. 1 and No. 2 slots for the same publisher, and Appfigures estimates Kingshot passed $500M in net revenue within 11 months — faster than Whiteout's 14 months to that milestone.
As of September 2026 Kingshot is still scaling, with the US contributing about 40% of its revenue and Japan, South Korea, Germany and the UK behind it. The larger open question is genre saturation: with two near-identical 4X titles from the same studio earning roughly $140M net per month together in January 2026, Century Games' next test is whether it can keep compounding the formula without cannibalizing its own audience.
What has to be true
- Reusing the proven 4X core removed the biggest product risk; the innovation was limited to a tower-defense opening that made the first session winnable.
- A second title let Century Games apply the same data-driven UA machine — thousands of localized ad creatives daily — to a validated market instead of betting marketing on an unknown genre.
- The performance pledge from the 2014 acquisition had already forced a profit discipline that the company re-applied when it pivoted to self-development after its 2021–2022 losses.
- Launching Kingshot while Whiteout was still peaking gave the studio two engines, smoothing revenue risk and making the combined publisher the No. 1 mobile game company in Pocket Gamer's 2025 ranking.
What can be applied
A proven playbook compounds faster when the wedge is an execution change — here, tower-defense onboarding — rather than a genre gamble; repeat hits need the same full-strength marketing machine.
Aftermath
As of 2026-09-02, Kingshot is scaling as Century Games' second pillar: it passed $500M net within 11 months, and Whiteout plus Kingshot earned about $140M net together in January 2026, putting the publisher in Scopely-and-King territory. Sensor Tower's 2025 overseas data had both at No. 1 and No. 2; Pocket Gamer's 2025 top-50 ranked Century Games first. The US is Kingshot's biggest market at about 40%. The risk is self-competition: both hits share the same casualized 4X skeleton, so growth depends on differentiating content as UA costs climb.
Sources
- Century Games Did It Again — Kingshot Hit $500M in Under a Year
- Century Games' Global Breakthrough: From Acquisition Gamble to Industry Kingmaker
- 全球登顶，点点互动凭什么打败腾讯、米哈游？
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe what you are building, and see who is betting on the same thing.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card