The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences has announced that the Honor of Kings Pro League (KPL) 2025 Grand Finals Opening Ceremony has won the People’s Voice Award for Best Use of Immersive in the Video & Film category at the 2026 Webby Awards.
Organised by Hero Esports and hosted by Tencent, the digital production triumphed over competing nominations from international entertainment and tech corporations including Disney and productions for Activision Blizzard and Samsung. The recognition marks a significant mainstream milestone for mobile competitive gaming, validating the technical and artistic production scale of mobile esports on a global entertainment stage.
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The award-winning opening ceremony served as the prelude to a historic competitive iteration for the franchise: Held on 8 November 2025 at the Beijing National Stadium (“Bird’s Nest”), the tournament officially secured a Guinness World Record for the largest live attendance at an esports match, drawing a crowd of 62,196 spectators.
The live event demonstrated a strong appetite by the audience prior to the broadcast launch. Admission tickets for the grand finals sold out entirely within 12 seconds of online release, with 85 percent of the stadium attendance traveling from outside Beijing, including international fans from Malaysia and Australia. To accommodate the crowd and create the immersive showcase that captured the Webby Award, Hero Esports deployed a 3,663.75 square-meter LED floor screen, 10 movable stage screens, and a 128-meter-wide stage footprint.
The visual broadcast narrative integrated advanced digital stagecraft with traditional Chinese embroidery, valuing the national cultural heritage. It featured a synchronised performance by 124 dancers collaborating with Chinese vocalist Han Hong, along with an augmented reality golden loong dragon. Later in the evening, award-winning singer Zhou Shen maintained the momentum with a halftime performance.
This technical execution represents a core operational triumph for Hero Esports along developer TiMi Studio and publisher Tencent Games in expanding the cultural influence of Honor of Kings. The title remains the world’s most-played mobile MOBA with 139 million daily active users in China and over 260 million global monthly active users.
“Nominees like the KPL 2025 Grand Finals Opening Ceremony are raising the bar for creativity and innovation on the Internet,” said Nick Borenstein, General Manager of The Webby Awards in a press release issued by the time of nomination. “At the 30th Annual Webby Awards, this recognition feels especially meaningful. It’s no small feat to stand out among nearly 13,000 entries, and this year’s work reflects the energy, originality, and ambition shaping the Internet right now.”
The recognition at the Webby Awards highlights an evolving tendency where mobile esports ecosystems are progressively outgrowing their regional boundaries to claim international media validation. Historically, Western awards and mainstream accolades have heavily favored legacy PC and console-centric titles. By combining high-density stadium attendance with prestigious digital art honors, major mobile leagues are shifting the industry equilibrium, progressively proving that handheld competitive titles possess the demographic scale, corporate backing, and cultural prestige necessary to compete with traditional western entertainment mediums.
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