THAILAND, 30 October – Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) has been unveiled as the headline esports event at the 33rd Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Thailand. The world's most popular mobile esports game will have men's and women's medalled competitions at the 33rd SEA Games, marking the fourth consecutive time that MLBB is a medalled sport at the biennial multi-sporting event. MLBB holds the records as the most-watched esports event in SEA Games history for both the men's and women's categories; at the 32nd SEA Games in Cambodia, the men's category had 1,462,871 Peak Concurrent Viewers (PCV) and the women's category had 1,367,274 PCV, according to Esports Charts.
The 33rd SEA Games will take place from 9 to 20 December, 2025 with Bangkok Metropolitan Region, Chonburi, and Songkhla as their main host cities. The Games will feature participants from the current 11 countries of Southeast Asia – Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, East Timor, and Vietnam.
Ray Ng, Head of Esports Ecosystem at MOONTON Games, said: "One of the core success factors for MLBB has been our deliberate strategy to make the competitive esports ecosystem accessible and inclusive to aspiring esports athletes. International sporting events like the SEA Games empowers esports players, organisations, and federations by giving them a globally-recognised competitive platform to bring glory to their respective nations. MLBB's return as a medalled event is another positive step forward for esports, which has become increasingly accepted by the Thai and wider global sporting community as a competitive sport."
MOONTON Games, the developer and publisher of MLBB, also announced that it has teamed up with the Thailand E-Sports Federation (TESF) to unlock economic and tourism opportunities for the Kingdom. Both organisations will explore collaboration opportunities through marketing and promotional support, player development initiatives, community engagement activities, and the sharing of insights and analytics.
Ray added: "The inclusion of MLBB as a medalled sport in the 33rd SEA Games marks a major milestone for us in Thailand; we've been seeing tremendous growth in both the quantity and competitive standard of the nation's local players, especially women players. We're delighted to collaborate with TESF again to create more opportunities to further support the flourishing Thai esports community, which builds on existing initiatives like the Asian Esports Games (AEG) in Bangkok later this year."
Santi Lothong, President of TESF, said: "Thailand is one of Southeast Asia's most mature markets for games and competitive esports, but there is still massive opportunity to grow the community further. The cooperation of game companies are a crucial part of this ambition. We are thankful for the support of MOONTON Games in helping us achieve this shared goal of creating platforms for aspiring talents to pursue their dreams of representing their countries on the international stage."
The 32nd SEA Games in Cambodia featured both men's and women's tournaments. The Philippines beat eight other teams to win gold in the men's tournament, while Indonesia outplayed five other teams to win gold in the women's tournament. The women's tournament remains the most-watched women's esports event of all time, according to Esports Charts.
More details on the competing teams and the competitive formats will be announced in due course.
