In a recent report, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang was declared the unequivocal victor in the viewership stakes in Q1 2026. In the esports space, the game absolutely dominated all comers to reign supreme after the M7 World Championship pulled in a peak viewer count of more than 5.68 million users, dwarfing every other esports title during Q1.
The game-defining tournament set a new bar for what it means to be a top-tier mobile esports game, and all others, including the biggest esports titles in the business, sat firmly within ML:BB’s shadow.
Take Mobile Esports Seriously
Folks often bag on mobile gaming and declare it ‘fake gaming’ or palm it off as simply sitting there playing Candy Crush every so often. But it’s so much more than that. By numbers, mobile gaming is the most popular gaming vertical in the world, and it’s also the most valuable.
In the esports space, mobile gaming has long dominated when it comes to viewership and player counts, and ML:BB proved that yet again earlier this year. In January, the $1 million M7 World Championship unfolded in Indonesia, and at one point, more than 5.68 million fans were tuned into the action.
To put that into perspective, here’s how the next most popular titles fared in the viewership stakes in Q1 2026:
- League of Legends: 1.5 million peak
- Counter-Strike: 1.4 million peak
- VALORANT: 883,000 peak
- Rocket League: 625,000 peak
League of Legends, the second-placed game in Q1 2026 in the viewership market, came in a whopping 73% lower than Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.
Counter-Strike’s IEM Krakow pulled in some great numbers, as did the RLCS Boston Major, but nothing came close to the awe-inspiring power and popularity of the M7 World Championship.
The full report is available to view on Esports Charts.
Did you watch the M7 World Championship? Let us know what you think about mobile esports on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that a German CS player’s sucker slap earned them a 10-year ban
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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