Popularity Rankings at Esports World Cup 2025 — Mobile Games Dominate

Popularity Rankings at Esports World Cup 2025 — Mobile Games Dominate

Host City & Timeline
The 2025 Esports World Cup (EWC), held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from July 8 to August 24, featured 26 tournaments across 25 disciplines. It marked the second edition of the series and boasted a record-breaking over $70 million in total prize pool.

Mobile Titles Top the Charts
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) emerged as the most-watched game, peaking at approximately 3.07 million simultaneous viewers. Its Mid-Season Cup event attracted over 50 million hours of viewing time, a staggering number that underscored the dominance of mobile esports.

PUBG Mobile secured the second spot with about 1.39 million peak viewers, while League of Legends lagged behind in third place, drawing roughly 1.20 million live viewers. Other PC staples like Counter‑Strike 2 and Dota 2 also featured in the top ten but with notably lower peaks—around 740 K for CS2 and 430 K for Dota 2 (Riyadh Masters), placing them ninth in viewer rankings.

Full Top 10 by Peak Viewership:

1. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang – 3,067,670

2. PUBG Mobile – 1,389,269

3. League of Legends – 1,203,155

4. Counter‑Strike 2 – 739,992

5. Honor of Kings – 653,309

6. Free Fire – 555,966

7. MLBB Women’s Invitational – 496,954

8. Valorant – 451,943

9. Dota 2 (Riyadh Masters) – 429,568

10. Call of Duty: Warzone – 312,793 

Viewing Hours Tally
MLBB once again led the hours watched metric with around 50.32 million hours. League of Legends followed at 18.11 million, then PUBG Mobile at 17.15 million. Dota 2, Counter‑Strike, and Valorant recorded 15.2M, 14.41M, and 8.32M hours respectively.

Additional Standouts

Street Fighter 6 registered nearly 259,000 peak viewers and over 5.1 million hours watched, more than doubling its figures from the previous year.

According to Esports Charts, nearly every title experienced viewership growth at EWC, with notable gains in PUBG Mobile, Rainbow Six, and Rocket League.

Summing Up
The 2025 Esports World Cup in Riyadh demonstrated a clear shift in viewer preferences toward mobile esports, especially MLBB and PUBG Mobile. While traditional PC titles like LoL and CS2 remained strong performers, the real narrative was mobile’s surging dominance — a trend reinforced by expanding global access to mobile gaming.