GKART

GKART
Developer(s)TiMi Studio Group
Publisher(s)
EnginePhysX
Platform(s)
ReleaseMicrosoft Windows
  • WW: October 1, 2010
Android, iOS
  • CHN: December 29, 2017
  • WW: January 16, 2019
  • VIE: December 18,2018
Genre(s)Racing
Mode(s)Multiplayer

GKART, also known as QQ Speed or Speed Drifters,Zing Speed, is a massively multiplayer online kart racing game developed by TiMi Studio Group and published by Tencent Games and Garena. The game was originally released in China as QQ Speed in 2010 and gained enormous popularity in China, with a record number of 2 million players online at the same time in 2011.[1] The game was heavily inspired by Nintendo's Mario Kart franchise.[2]

Garena introduced GKART to 13 countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and the United States in 2011. GKART was selected into the World Cyber Games (WCG) at Singapore and China the same year.[3] The game was shut down on 31 March 2012, before it was later re-released. The mobile game version was launched on 29 December 2017 as QQ Speed: Mobile in China, on 16 January 2019 as Garena Speed Drifters for markets outside mainland China,and on 18 December 18, 2018Zing Speed for only Vietnam.

As of January 2020, QQ Speed has 700 million players worldwide, including 200 million mobile players.[4] The mobile version grossed $799 million during 2017–2018.[5]

  1. ^ "QQ Speed Intro". Retrieved 2011-06-10.
  2. ^ Nakamura, Yuji; Amano, Takashi (23 May 2019). "Mario Kart Tour Shows Promise of Mobile Hit for Nintendo". Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on 2019-05-23. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  3. ^ "WCG China". Retrieved 2011-06-29.
  4. ^ Forde, Matthew (January 16, 2020). "Tencent's TiMi Studios discuss Call of Duty: Mobile, Pokémon partnership, and 2020 trends". Pocket Gamer. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  5. ^ Special Report: Evolution of Mobile Esports for the Mass Market (PDF). Niko Partners. August 2019. p. 19. Retrieved 30 January 2021.