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MOBA
The top free to play MOBA games list to download. Only some MOBAs make the cut. Expect Multiplayer Online Battle Arena games like Dota 2 League of Legends or Smite.
League of Legends
No free-to-play list would be complete without League of Legends. The MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) was nothing short of a revolutionary when it first landed on PC in 2009, and it has only improved in the years since its original release. The game is free to play with a limited number of heroes, called Champions, and more can be purchased using either real money or “IP,” which is earned through normal play. Though the genre has never been particularly inviting to new players, Riot has created a more newbie-friendly multiplayer experience than some of its contemporaries, and if you’re just getting started, there is almost a 100-percent chance that one of your friends already plays League of Legends.
Dota 2
Though it’s harder to learn than League of Legends and Blizzard’s Heroes of the Storm, Dota 2 players will accept no substitute. Unlike League, all 113 heroes are available for free in Dota 2, including the melee-focused Earth Spirit, who resembles an odd mix of the Iron Giant and the Incredible Hulk, and the Invoker, whose appearance is similar to the elves seen in the Warcraft franchise. The game’s combat is hectic and you’re likely to get beaten into oblivion during your first round, but should the addiction take hold, you might not need to play another game for months to come. The highlight of the game is the massive competitive championship called The International, where players battle for millions of dollars in prize money. You could win. Well, if you spend your entire life playing the game.
Heroes of the Storm
Although not directly advertised or viewed internally as a MOBA, Blizzard’s Heroes of the Storm has all the trappings of a MOBA. It’s 5-on-5 and features a wide array of heroes (currently 80) split into four roles: Specialist, Warrior, Support, and Assassin. Heroes of the Storm hasn’t achieved the same level of notoriety as League of Legends or Dota 2, but it’s a satisfying and deep experience in its own right. With 15 maps and a slew of game modes, including ranked, unranked, and even CPU battles, Heroes of the Storm has enough content to keep you playing for the long haul. Of course, you have to have an affinity for MOBAs, but we’ve found that Heroes of the Storm is a bit easier to get into than League and Dota.
Smite
Smite has been a mainstay in the MOBA genre since 2014. It stands out for its third-person presentation, differentiating itself from League, Heroes of the Storm, and Dota 2. The change in perspective also alters the play style, changing the traditionally strategic MOBA formula to action-oriented gameplay. The game’s heroes are all gods modeled after real ones across twelve different pantheons. As of now, there are nearly 100 playable characters, each with their own abilities. Smite‘s 5-on-5 contests are always interesting, as it’s not uncommon to see CPU-controlled enemies crop up across the battlefields. Smite is available on PC, Xbox One, and PS4.
The MOBA genre has taken the world by storm. League of Legends, Dota 2, Heroes of the Storm, and more are starting to dominate gaming. They're mostly free-to-play, so they allow anyone intrigued by the games to try them out. The gameplay in MOBAs, where two teams try to destroy the other base by leading their heroes and automated creeps against defensive towers, eventually breaking through to the other side, offers tremendous depth and complexity for those who want them. While games like the original Warcraft III mod of Defense of the Ancients became popular, the genre exploded thanks to Riot's League of Legends and Valve's Dota 2, made with the original creator of Defense of the Ancients.
But it's also the competitive aspect of the games that makes them so compelling. League of Legends has a whole hierarchy of leagues surrounding it and massively popular world championships. Valve's The International for Dota quickly added legitimacy to the game by offering huge cash prizes for winning teams. And because the game has that team aspect to it, along with the compelling aspect of the various heroes and their customizations in the games, the genre has exploded into the leader of eSports. Even Heroes of the Storm by Blizzard has gotten its college championships on ESPN2. And other developers are trying to cash in on the mega-popularity of the genre with their own games. Battleborn by 2K and Gearbox adds a first-person shooter twist to the game. Epic Games is also working on their own big MOBA, Paragon.
Plenty of mobile developers are trying to make the MOBA work on mobile as well. Considering how many people around the globe have mobile devices, and the decline of PC and consoles, there's no reason why the next big MOBA hit couldn't be a mobile game. While games like Clash Royale are trying to ape elements of the MOBA for themselves, other games are going for more of a pure experience. Here are 5 of the best traditional MOBAs for Android.
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Vainglory
What We Like
- Exhilarating, fast-paced combat.
- Frequently updated with new content.
What We Don't Like
- The in-game tutorials could be more helpful.
- Massive community of players to fight with and against.
This is the leading MOBA on mobile right now, precisely because there's a ton of funding behind the developers, and the team's commitment to constantly updating the game. Ever since its big ballyhooed launch back in 2014 and eventual Android release, the game has seen several new characters, features, and tweaks added. It's pretty much the leading MOBA on mobile, and Super Evil Megacorp has put a ton of work into keeping it that way. It's still very much a deep MOBA-like experience, though it definitely treads a line between simpler MOBA games and MOBA-inspired games and full-fledged PC ones like League of Legends. Namely, the game features 3-on-3 combat and 30-minute matches. Granted, that's a long time to play a mobile game, and it hurts its portability, but it's not like people don't have tablets or use their smart devices at home.
What's particularly interesting as of late is that the team has added in a Battle Royale mode that's centered around short matches of 7-10 minutes. They're not meant to be the serious competitive matches that Vainglory's eSports scene has been centered around, but it's still a feature that could have some usefulness for casual players trying to get into the game. The growth of this game could be key to mobile's role in the future of eSports, and the constant feature updates and new characters are a huge part of that.
And if you want to watch people play Vainglory, there are plenty of ways to do that. Super Evil Megacorp themselves run several global tournaments. And players from top-tier professionals regularly stream the game on streaming services. Twitch has a big relationship with Vainglory, regularly demoing the game at events like PAX. While the game still isn't a huge money-maker yet, it has one of the most serious competitive scenes around it. Anyone looking to play MOBAs on mobile needs to try this out.
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Heroes of Order and Chaos
What We Like
- Recently received an impressive visual overhaul.
- Addictive multiplayer combat.
What We Don't Like
- Multiplayer mode suffers from connectivity issues.
- Awkward touch controls.
Gameloft's MOBA deserves to have attention paid to it as well. This was one of the first MOBAs on mobile, period. It features incredibly lengthy matches, and 5v5 gameplay, though alternate modes for smaller matches are available. The game has been around for a long time on mobile but is still getting updates: a massive overhaul over a year timespan is planned to add new heroes and revamp the look of the game. Gameloft might just figure out how to make this the longest-lasting MOBA on mobile, despite the relative lack of fanfare behind the game.
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Call of Champions
What We Like
- Ideal for playing in short spurts.
- Wide variety of unique characters to choose from.
What We Don't Like
- No built-in chat or communication tools.
- No special items to spice up gameplay.
Call of Champions is perfect for those who want a short-form experience. Matches are 5 minutes, tops. The game makes this work by streamlining the experience down to being about a points system: take down more towers than the opponent, and you can win. The creeps are replaced by orbs that can be pushed by players and do damage to the towers if nearby. It's a clever system to make this genre of game that can otherwise be incredibly dense and lengthy far more accessible to the mobile player. That's not just because the short length makes the game more palatable for on-the-go quick sessions, with the game's AI instantly replacing anyone who drops out a clever function that helps out a lot with the issues that mobile multiplayer has. No, it's also the fact that you can be a lot more open to experimenting with different characters and strategies when you have a span of 5 minutes to play with, rather than the half-hour match time that many games have. It's also a great cross-platform multiplayer game.
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Ace of Arenas
What We Like
- Multiple match modes offer gameplay variety.
- Deep character progression system.
What We Don't Like
- Poor social media integration.
- Character models are unoriginal.
This MOBA owes a significant stylistic debt to Vainglory, yes. But how it plays is quite ingenious, in that the game can be played entirely with two thumbs. You use a left virtual stick to move, and buttons on the right side of the screen to target creeps or heroes, and use your abilities. It's an inventive control scheme that other games should be adapting, perhaps not in the MOBA genre, but even just as mobile action games. This MOBA features matches that go from 1v1 all the way up to 3v3, letting players decide just how long and complex they want their experience to be.
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Heroes of SoulCraft
What We Like
- Perfect learning curve for MOBA novices.
- You can join matches in progress if someone leaves.
What We Don't Like
- Might be too easy for hardcore MOBA players.
- Contains lots of intrusive ads.
The SoulCraft games are popular action-RPGs, which made the conversion into a MOBA quite natural. What's funny in part about this game is that it has the funniest, most shameless app description ever that's a punny work of art. What's really cool about this one is that you can play it with a controller, so you can actually enjoy this game on your couch on an Android TV if you so choose. It also goes with the interesting hybrid between 3v3 5-minute matches, and 5v5 15-minute matches. Plus, the player base should be helped between the game's compatibility with Android, iOS, and PC.