Esports Charts returns with its series of monthly rankings this time identifying the most-watched esports team of January 2026. If December 2025 was a stellar month for Counter-Strike 2, thanks to the StarLadder Budapest, the second Major of the season, the first month of the new year belonged to the biggest mobile esports title.
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang fans were treated to some history at the M7 World Championship, which became the most-watched and most popular mobile esports event of all time. The competition set a new benchmark for the genre's competitive segment, while also demonstrating that it has as much staying power as top PC titles, such as League of Legends, in terms of audience engagement.
As a result, the rankings for the top esports teams by watch time in January 2026 were dominated by sides from Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. And the name to emerge as the most-watched side last month was Alter Ego, which reached quite a few records of its own at the latest MLBB World Championship.
Across January 2026, the Indonesian side accrued 52.68 million Hours Watched (HW), at least 64.76% more than any other team. Syauki Fauzan "Nino" Sumarno & Co were able to accumulate much higher watch hours than even the eventual champion, Aurora Gaming PH, mainly because the side averaged over 2.5 million viewers per match.
Only the other Indonesian side, ONIC Esports, attracted over 2 million Average Viewers (AV). Once again, the interest generated among Indonesian fans in their teams — with only Korean LoL viewers comparable to them in terms of the support they show their sides — shone through.
The MPL Indonesia Season 16 runner-up got its world championship journey to the best possible start, topping the Group Stage with a perfect 3:0 record. Then came a clash against struggling countrymen and reigning Indonesian champion, ONIC Esports, who just about made the playoffs, in the Upper Bracket Quarterfinals.
Alter Ego eased to a 2:0 win in this all-Indonesian face-off before losing 1:3 to Aurora Gaming PH in the Upper Bracket Semifinals. The team then beat Team Spirit, Team Liquid PH and Selangor Red Giants in the Lower Bracket Quarterfinals, Semifinals and Final, respectively, to set up another clash with Aurora Gaming PH. This time, there was history on the line.
Unfortunately, the Filipino side eased to a 4:0 victory to ensure the world title remained in the Philippines, while Indonesia's own drought at the M Series stretched half a dozen years. Luckily, the series itself delivered historic viewership numbers, bookended by it peaking at 5,680,511 concurrent viewers, a record for mobile esports, and ending as MLBB's second most-watched match ever.
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