Esports in Asia entered 2025 from a position of strength, but not without pressure. The region remains the global center of gravity for competitive gaming, yet few things in esports remain stable. Despite shifting viewerships, tournaments, and competitors, 2025 can be marked down as a major success for Asia in esports, thanks to the innovation and evolution of the region.
While some regions in esports are suffering from decreasing viewerships or fragmented audiences, this was not the case in Asia. Despite 5,000 fewer broadcasting hours from events hosted in the region this year, the continent recorded over 1.65B Hours Watched from esports events for 2025, matching the viewership of 2024.
Viewership in Asia continues to be driven and dominated by MOBA games, especially League of Legends for PC gamers and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang for those more geared towards mobile gaming. While these passionate audiences remain strong, tournament organizers are constantly experimenting and innovating to grab a stronger hold of their viewers’ attention and grow their brand.
Esports in Asia can truly be understood as the pace-setter for the rest of the world. While mobile esports remain a dominant structure in the region, especially in South Asia, PC viewers from Korea, Vietnam, and more are often breaking esports records through League of Legends tournaments. The diversity of the Asian esports scene makes it an ideal scene for strong year-on-year growth.
Constant esports innovation: new esports & continental competitions
Throughout the year, many new tournaments and even an entirely new esports title were tested in Asia. Magic Chess: Go Go was first introduced as a side-mode for Mobile Legends: Bang Bang in 2020. The auto-battler quickly found attention among fans, and it rapidly built up enough of a following to earn its own esports try.
In 2025, Magic Chess was released as a stand-alone title; now separate from the main MLBB game, Magic Chess could begin finding its own feet within the highly competitive esports scene, and it has already found potential with its first few esports events. At the 33rd SEA Games, Magic Chess: Go Go held a demonstration match, which received just shy of 160,000 Peak Viewers; while modest compared to the main MLBB title, this is a promising first step for this entry to the auto-battler genre.
Beyond Go Go Chess, 2025 saw Asia lean further into multi-title regional events. The Esports Champions Asia 2025, hosted by the Vietnam Recreational & Electronic Sports Association, marked a significant expansion for the series: previously known as the Esports Champions East Asia, the competition now serves the entire continent.
Also, 2025 hosted the inaugural Asian Champions League, a new event series created by Chinese esports organizer Hero Esports. The ACL 2025 was held in Shanghai, China, the home of Hero Esports, and boasted a $2,000,000 multi-discipline prize pool. The event spanned popular titles like League of Legends, Counter-Strike 2, Valorant, as well as smaller but locally popular titles like Teamfight Tactics and Honor of Kings, and even a brand-new esports title, Delta Force.
While these inaugural, multi-discipline events did not immediately top the viewership charts for the year, they reflect a growing interest in esports in Asia. Event organizers are finding esports fans hungry for action, and it's no wonder that established Western esports games are trying out tournaments in Asia. Counter-Strike 2 held its first-ever Major in Asia last year, the Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024, and PGL recently announced it will host the second Major of 2026 in Singapore.
"Singapore has been host to exciting esports events such as The International, [...], and we look forward with much anticipation to hosting our first Counter Strike Major in 2026, which will reinforce Singapore as a world-class events destination," Jean Ng, Assistant Chief Executive of the Singapore Tourism Board.
Of course, the continent was also home to other events, such as the PUBG Mobile Global Championship 2025 — which is often hosted in mobile-primed Asia — as well as other LANs in popular games like League of Legends and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. These MOBA esports games hosted the matches which fuelled the globally dominant viewership for esports in Asia this year.
MLBB and LoL continue to dominate global rankings with Asian viewerships
Despite this influx of new formats, the hierarchy at the top remained largely unchanged. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and League of Legends once again defined the ceiling of esports viewership in Asia in 2025.
MLBB’s strength continued to lie in its regional density. Southeast Asia delivered consistent high-volume viewership across domestic leagues and international invitationals. League of Legends, meanwhile, maintained its position as Asia’s premier PC esports. The Korean LCK league remained the primary engine of global viewership in terms of regional events, with international tournaments acting as amplification points for massive waves of viewership.
The LCK Season 2025 was the most-watched Asian esports tournament of the year. Riot Games experimented with a new system for this year of LCK, replacing the previous three-Split season with a singular event for the year. In total, the new LCK Season 2025 generated 161.76M Hours Watched; it became the first-ever League of Legends tournament to breach 100M HW — excluding Worlds — and received 64.9% more watch time than the second-most-watched tournament: the LCK Spring 2024.
The League of Legends World Championship 2025 was also highly popular, although it could not match the record-breaking heights of last year. Despite this, the yearly world championship for LoL esports remains a central part of the global esports calendar.
On the mobile gaming side with MLBB, the MPL Indonesia Season 15 was the most popular iteration of the league ever, setting new records in both Hours Watched and Peak Viewers. As MLBB esports has grown, the MPL Indonesia has led the industry as the game’s foremost regional event, and 2025 saw the regional event set a new bar for the esports industry.
Following on from the record-breaking MPL ID events of 2024, Season 15 of the MPL Indonesia became the third-most-watched MLBB tournament ever, falling only behind world championship events for the mobile title. In other words, the MPL Indonesia Season 15 was the most popular, regional mobile gaming esports event ever.
The ESL Snapdragon Pro Series: Mobile Masters 2025 was able to snatch the final spot on this ranking, coming out ahead of other MLBB events like the Mid-Season Cup. The offline event generated 2.77M Peak Viewers, a new record for the event series, which has long been a well-recognized name within the game’s ecosystem.
In an increasingly crowded market, these two titles reigned supreme at the top of the esports scene for Asia, and indeed, the world.
China opening up its sizeable esports markets to global collaborations
One of the clearest expressions of China’s growing global role in 2025 was its position as a premier host for international esports events. The country has held a dominant position in esports for years, but it can be a bit of a black box. However, the tides seem to be changing, with China opening up to collaborations and partnerships more this year.
Perhaps one of the most obvious global moves from within China was the establishment of the aforementioned Asian Champions League. The new multi-title championship is one of the most ambitious multi-title esports projects to come from Asia, ever, and crucially, it marked significant collaborations between China's Hero Esports and other international gaming brands.
Working together with one of the most recognisable brands in esports, the ACL acted as an official qualification pathway for events at the Esports World Cup. With $2,000,000 in prizes and EWC spots on offer, the ACL positioned itself as both a top-tier regional championship and a gateway to global competition.
On top of this, the ACL also allowed China to integrate seamlessly with other international ecosystems and work with established brands across the globe. DreamHack Shanghai was one example of these exciting new collaborations in 2025 as the first-ever Chinese edition of the global gaming festival. BLAST's Dota 2 Slam series also expanded into China in 2025, a year after CS2 made the plunge with the Shanghai Major. For global organizers, China has evolved from a difficult-to-access market to a strategically necessary stop on international tours.
"DreamHack Shanghai is an opportunity for us to build something totally new in the market. As we have done with DreamHack in North America, Europe, and now in China, we want to create a place where gamers can play, compete, and connect in an entirely new environment than what they're used to. Alongside the Asian Champions League, we're excited to take over Shanghai in a celebration of the region's gaming community." Shahin Zarrabi, Vice President of Festivals at ESL FACEIT Group.
China also hosted the League of Legends World Championship 2025, welcoming teams from all corners of the world. Although the event was not record-breaking, as some pundits predicted, it was still one of the most popular esports events ever. Hosting the most prestigious LoL Worlds reaffirmed China’s capacity to deliver large-scale, multi-city productions that meet global broadcast and operational standards. For Riot Games and its partners, the tournament served as a reminder that China remains foundational to the commercial viability of top-tier PC esports.
China's esports growth and globalization are unlikely to slow down. Whether it's global spectacles like the League of Legends World Championship or the hugely popular mobile gaming circuits like the King Pro League, China continued to host globally relevant tournaments this year. For publishers, tournament organizers, sponsors, and investors, China increasingly represents both a benchmark and a strategic partner in the next phase of global esports growth. Looking towards the future, international collaborations with Chinese esports operators will likely become a financial must for esports organizers.
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