Could VALORANT Mobile topple Mobile Legends: Bang Bang?

VALORANT Mobile is gaining momentum, with more information arriving and a lot of anticipation building as it moves past its first closed beta test and presses on with pre-registrations in China. The future mobile version of a desktop classic is causing quite a stir. But how big will it, or can it, be? And can it deliver a seismic shift in gaming and esports?

In this article, we’re going to look at just that and consider if the yet-to-arrive title will have the firepower and support to outmanoeuvre Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, a titan of the mobile gaming industry and esports, with a huge following and player base that looks insurmountable.

VALORANT Mobile will be a mobile-only version of the existing VALORANT IP, a similarly free-to-play 5v5 first-person tactical shooter. It’s also clear that it’s been core to the wider VALORANT project since fairly early on in VALORANT’s popularity. VALORANT was released in 2020, and in June 2021, Riot Games made its original announcement about VALORANT Mobile. However, it took nearly four years for news of a playtest and a new trailer to arrive in April 2025.

In all intents and purposes, a classic VALORANT experience is expected, but VALORANT Mobile won’t be identical, owing to the restrictions that lower hardware capabilities. While necessarily less demanding to cater to those devices, Mobile will also offer a more streamlined experience in terms of content. Of VALORANT’s 28 agents, just 16 are believed to be featured in VALORANT Mobile. The included agents will seemingly be:

Additionally, eight maps are expected to be available, compared to 17 for the initial release. The maps that are reported to be included are the following six from the PC version:

Plus, two mobile-exclusive maps are expected:

While VALORANT Mobile’s release date is the subject of much conjecture, the reason for the mobile version is clear. Mobile gaming is a huge and growing industry. Currently worth around $146 billion globally, compared to PC gaming’s $47.5 billion, projections show subsequent increases in the coming years, while mobile esports is also thriving. So, tapping into mobile with an existing, well-established, and well-supported IP is a savvy business move.

Where there’s interest, there’s a potential opportunity, but mobile gaming has an incumbent global leader in the space, the 2016 5v5 MOBA, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. Mobile Legends is a phenomenon and the most played mobile game in the world, with up to around 40 million monthly players across Android and iOS. So, how could VALORANT Mobile take the top spot in gaming and esports? 

The early signs are encouraging. As reported on the official Weibo account on July 4, the game surpassed 40 million pre-registrations in China, the only place where pre-registrations are currently available. That’s a truly staggering figure to be achieved in just 10 weeks in China alone. 

For context, it is almost as large as the 45 million worldwide pre-registrations of HoYoverse’s hugely anticipated RPG, Zenless Zone Zero, which launched on July 4. Alternatively, we can think of VALORANT Mobile pre-registrations in China as matching… the entire population of Canada.

With that amount of interest and excitement, it seems VALORANT Mobile is in with a chance of capturing the attention of millions of active players worldwide, becoming the new star of mobile gaming at the same time. After all, a mobile version of a title that already has 18-20 million monthly players on desktop (source: Tracker.gg) could well do incredible things in the larger mobile market.

As well as being a hugely supported game, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang is also the most popular esports title in the world. As data from Esports Charts shows (at the time of writing), MLBB is first by a clear distance when it comes to the 2025 peak viewerships of esports tournaments. It’s well ahead of League of Legends in second, Counter-Strike in third, and VALORANT in fourth.

Although it is fourth, VALORANT is still a massively popular esports title. Yet VALORANT Mobile will have its own competitive esports scene. The first VALORANT Mobile esports tournament in China, was announced earlier this year, and (as reported by Esports News), a job listing by Tencent – whose Lightspeed Studios will be managing VALORANT Mobile – refers to “promoting VALORANT Mobile and its esport”, alongside duties including creating and promoting events and more.

This all feels like an impressive move from Riot Games, targeting a larger mobile gaming sector and mobile esports with an established IP that already has millions of players. All considered, it may be enough to push Mobile Legends from its top spots, and at the very least, surely it will see VALORANT Mobile overtake VALORANT for active players and esports views. 

As you’d expect, there are some potential reasons why VALORANT Mobile may struggle to become both the king of gaming and esports. To be clear, it seems unlikely to suggest VALORANT mobile will struggle in general, knowing what we know about the massive interest. But the first consideration in not being able to topple Mobile Legends is about the type of game it is.

The top FPS title in esports is currently Counter-Strike, which is the third biggest esports title overall. The second FPS esports title in the world is VALORANT (fourth overall). Meanwhile, the top mobile FPS title in the world is PUBG: Mobile. PUBG Mobile is the sixth biggest esports title overall, behind fifth-placed Arena of Valor (a MOBA). 

So, as an FPS and a mobile one at that, VALORANT Mobile would need to be a standout success story to climb to the number one ranking, not least because the top two (and three of the top five) esports titles in the world are massively supported MOBAs. Plus, there’s PUBG Mobile, VALORANT, and Counter-Strike in there.

For an FPS title to topple either of MLBB and LoL would be something, and the same goes for topping their monthly player numbers. Although we can see, based on VALORANT’s esports and player count performance, there’s plenty of potential for VM in a larger mobile market, it is only potential. Meanwhile, MLBB has up to 40 million actual monthly players, and LoL has a reported 11 million (source: Activeplayer.io). Those are serious figures. 

The other consideration is a hypothetical but related: Chinese pre-registrations are astronomical, but an active VALORANT Mobile player base may not exist to the level that is expected. While we’re sure Riot Games’ market insights and research will have been extensively combed through, it may be that there are too many eyes elsewhere, perhaps on MOBA titles, for VALORANT Mobile to reach the very pinnacle in a way that can be envisioned.

The mobile gaming industry is growing, yes, but is it growing at a rate for VM to quickly position itself as the dominant global title and esports title? It remains to be seen. Either way, I feel fairly sure VALORANT mobile will be a success. Of course, it is also a possibility that where there seems to be a gap, there may just be a vacuum. Or to put it another way, no game has yet toppled Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, and maybe none can. 

Ultimately, VALORANT Mobile is shaping up to be a huge mobile title, drawing on an existing awareness and hugely supportive fan and player base for VALORANT (desktop). If all aligns, and the huge pre-registrations in China are a sign of things to come, VALORANT Mobile may shoot for the moon and hit. 

It has the backing, it has the excitement, and it has the all-out enjoyable action to (hopefully) translate into an epic mobile game. Could we be sitting here in a year looking at the dethroning of MLBB? Possibly, but in the meantime, we’re keen on future regional roll-outs.