TENCENT Holdings is relying on one-time bitter rival ByteDance to promote its most important video game release in years, in a sign of warming relations as well as intensifying competition as China’s gaming industry returns to growth.

Tencent released Friday mobile party game “DreamStar” that it hopes to challenge “Eggy Party,” a similar offering from NetEase which has become a surprise hit this year with 100 million monthly active users.

Analysts expect “DreamStar” to earn up to 6 billion yuan (US$842 million) in its first year, while they forecast “Eggy Party,” which owes much of its success to advertising on ByteDance platforms, to earn 8 billion yuan for NetEase this year.

In a battle to defend its status as China’s biggest gaming firm, Tencent has chosen to promote “DreamStar” on ByteDance’s popular advertising platform despite the two’s rancorous history in barring one another from their platforms.

About 38% of Tencent ads for “DreamStar” were put on ByteDance’s online ad service Pangolin in the last 30 days, making it the top ad service Tencent has spent on for the game, according to data tracking firm DataEye. (SD-Agencies)