China-based ByteDance has appointed a new CEO for Moonton Games, the developer behind the popular MOBA game, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, according to a report from South China Morning Post on Thursday.
According to “people familiar with the matter” who spoke with the publication, former Perfect World executive Zhang Yunfan (who reportedly joined the company in April) will take on the top role at the company, replacing Moonton co-founder Justin Yuan Jing.
If true, it is unclear what Yuan’s role would be going forward, whether that might be a new executive position within the company, an advisory role, or if he will leave the company altogether. The Esports Advocate has reached out to Moonton for confirmation and will update this story should additional details become available.
ByteDance is best known as the owner of short-form video platforms TikTok and the Chinese equivalent Douyin. At the end of 2023, reports surfaced that ByteDance was going to divest its gaming-related operations; since that time it has sold several gaming-related operations to Tencent, but when ByteDance announced plans to layoff some staff and shut down video game projects in November, Yuan assured employees that Moonton would remain independent and continue conducting business.
Indeed, Yuan conducted plenty of business on behalf of his company and its most popular game, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. His efforts in Saudi Arabia in October have put the game center stage at the upcoming Esports World Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia this summer, with both a men’s and women’s competition offering a collective prize pool of over $4M USD.
Given the success of its acquisition of Scopely—the makers of Monopoly Go, which hit $2B in revenue 10 months after the game’s launch—-there has been speculation that Savvy Games Group might be considering an acquisition of Moonton. With the game’s popularity (over 1.465B installs worldwide and 110 million active monthly users as of March) and its established esports circuit (which is also tied to Savvy-owned ESL FACEIT Group and its Snapdragon Pro Series mobile esports competitions), it isn’t outside the realm of possibility, assuming that ByteDance still wants to sell it.