Far Beyond League of Legends: The Most Popular MOBA Games

The strength of League of Legends in the current video game scene is undeniable. The Riot Games title is not only a reference in the MOBA (Massive Online Battle Arena) genre, it is also one of the most popular games today, among players, streamers and audience.

But when it comes to developing your gaming channel, be it livestreaming or scripted videos, we can warn you: there is a huge world of MOBAs waiting for you, which goes far beyond League of Legends.

And exploring these other MOBA options could be just what your channel needs to stand out in today’s highly competitive streamer scene, be it on Twitch, YouTube or any other platform.

What is a MOBA?

MOBA is the abbreviation for Massive Online Battle Arena and its concept is very simple: two groups of 5 players that face each other with the objective of destroying the enemy base.

Each character in a MOBA is different, with unique looks and skills and advantages and disadvantages that can be decisive in a match.

The first known MOBA was released in 2003, as a mod (an unofficially made modification) of Warcraft III. The name of this game? Defense of the Ancients or DotA.

DotA was acquired by Valve in 2009, after the huge success among gamers that spawned a whole new wave of similar titles, including League of Legends, released by Riot Games in 2009 and which quickly became the king of MOBA games and is today the game most popular on Twitch.

Is Valorant a MOBA?

Another very popular game nowadays is Valorant, another title from Riot Games. Valorant is an FPS (first-person shooter) that pits two groups of 5 players against each other. But would it be a MOBA?

If we take the MOBA concept to the letter, then Valorant fits perfectly. After all, there are two teams of 5 players disputing a base (here would be the spike, which has to be activated or destroyed). Also, many livestreaming database systems consider Valorant a MOBA.

But for our text, we will discard it from this category, leaving it just as an FPS, keeping the selected titles only those with gameplay similar to League of Legends and DotA 2.

League of Legends: Wild Rift

Basically known as a “mobile version” of League of Legends, Wild Rift is actually a separate game from its desktop version.

There is no crossplay with PC version players and no shared progress between the two versions and your characters and upgrades may be slightly different.

The gameplay, however, remains the same and Wild Rift is very popular in streaming, with an audience of over 1.1 million hours watched in May, only on Twitch.

DotA 2

League of Legends’ main rival has been DotA 2 for years. The first version of Defense of the Ancients was released in 2003 and was acquired by Valve in 2009. The company then released DotA 2 in 2013 as a way to strengthen its competition with League of Legends, released by Riot Games in 2009.

DotA 2 and League of Legends are quite similar, with many players putting Valve’s title as a little harder to learn how to play, as it can be a little slower than the Riot Games title.

Widely popular with players, streamers and viewers, DotA 2 had an audience of more than 45 million hours watched in the month of May, according to data from the website StreamCharts. The competition for the audience can be strong, but even less compared to League of Legends.

Twitch

Audience: 45 million hours

Peak audience: 382,705 users

Average viewers: 64,660

Average viewers per channel: 221

Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

Officially launched in 2016, four years before the mobile version of League of Legends was made available, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang came to supply this growing market, which clamored for a mobile MOBA along the lines of LoL.

Considered a “direct copy” of League of Legends, Mobile Legends is quite popular on streaming platforms, especially on YouTube, where it has its largest audience share.

On Google’s video platform, Mobile Legends live streams can reach over 2.8 million hours watched, while on Twitch the number is 5 times less.

Twitch

Audience: 510,167 hours

Peak audience: 4,975 users

Average viewers: 837

Average viewers per channel: 33

Arena of Valor

Arena of Valor was initially developed for mobile devices (iOS and Android), later arriving for the Nintendo Switch, as an international version of Honor of Kings, a MOBA that was very popular in China.

As in Mobile Legends, Arena of Valor has gameplay very similar to League of Legends and offers several game modes that go beyond the traditional 5v5, whether in casual or competitive mode.

Despite the similarities, Arena of Valor is not just a “mobile copy” of League of Legends and the more it is played, the more these differences between the two titles can be observed. Matches in Arena of Valor, for example, are shorter than in League of Legends, and can last between 5 and 20 minutes each, as opposed to the more than 30 minutes that a match can last in LoL.

In Arena of Valor, the player can also meet some familiar characters from other media and franchises, such as Batman and Superman, from DC Comics.

Twitch

Audience: 60,751 hours

Peak audience: 4,602 users

Average viewers: 104

Average viewers per channel: 112

Smite

Swimming against the current trend of mobile gaming, Smite, available for PC and consoles, is one of the most popular MOBAs on streaming platforms. And it’s one of the most different too.

Using characters easily recognizable by the public, which are deities from several different cultures, and even characters from current Pop culture, Smite takes a different game view to the MOBA style: instead of the top view, in Smite, the player controls his character around the map in a third-person view, with the character directly in front of the screen.

With several different game modes, Smite also has a very strong professional competitive scene, with multi-million dollar prize pools.

Twitch

Audience: 4.9 million hours

Peak audience: 31,823 users

Average viewers: 7,000

Average viewers per channel: 74

Pokémon Unite

Pokémon Unite is, without a doubt, the most charismatic of the MOBAs currently. After all, who doesn’t like Pokémon, right?

In addition to the characters already known and loved by the public, Pokémon Unite is also one of the most dynamic MOBAs available today. Its matches have a predetermined duration, with a maximum of 10 minutes, in its traditional or competitive mode, and 5 minutes in quick matches. That is, the player already enters the game knowing when it ends.

Despite being one of the most recent releases in the world of MOBAs, Pokémon Unite, available for mobile devices and Nintendo Switch, has been receiving constant character updates and pleases both MOBA and Pokémon fans. It’s the best of both worlds.

Twitch

Audience: 846,217 hours

Peak audience: 5,676 users

Average viewers: 1,386

Average viewers per channel: 28

Heroes of the Storm

After seeing a whole generation of MOBAs created from inspiration in its Warcraft III game, Blizzard decided to launch its own game of the genre and thus, in 2015, Heroes of the Storm was born.

Featuring characters from popular Blizzard franchises, Heroes of the Storm sets itself apart from other MOBAs by offering different goals and metagames in each of the battle arenas.

While still quite popular, Blizzard halted major developments on the game and placed it in maintenance mode in July 2022.

Twitch

Audience: 603,375 hours

Peak audience: 4,431 users

Average viewers: 988

Average viewers per channel: 45

Gamohol