China's young gamers face 'King of Glory' playing time limits

Beijing : All-night gaming marathons will soon end for some Chinese kids: internet giant Tencent began limiting daily playing times on its smartphone smash hit "King of Glory" on Tuesday to "ensure children's healthy development".

Young players will be restricted to one or two hours on the mobile online multiplayer battle game, which boasts 80 million daily users, as concerns grow in China that long periods online are posing a serious threat to the country's youth.

But investors are not playing around: Shares in Tencent, which ranks first in the world for gaming revenue, slumped 4.13 percent on Tuesday -- its biggest single-day drop since February 2016.

"The limits on the game King of Glory is part of the reason for the (shares slump) today," Sam Chi Yung, a Hong Kong-based senior strategist for South China Research Limited, told AFP.

"This will affect Tencent's earnings eventually as players would buy equipment and stuff when they played the game."

King of Glory became the world's highest grossing game this year, with an estimated first-quarter revenue of around 6 billion yuan ($883 million), according to Xinhua state news agency.