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Best MOBA Games of 2022 at a Glance
What are MOBA games? Even though we’ve never really played one, we happen to be pretty familiar with them as gamers. MOBA stands for “Multiplayer Online Battle Arena.” MOBAs originally spawned from real-time strategy titles, make up a huge chunk of the gaming community. In the tale of Multiplayer Online Battle Arena games and their success, Blizzard played a major part.
The genre was originally born from player-made custom games, and MOBAs have been around for a long time. A Starcraft custom map called Aeon of Strife, which then inspired the immensely successful Warcraft III Defense of the Ancients custom game was the first Multiplayer Online Battle Arena. Modders from the original Dota went on to create Riot’s League of Legends, and Dota 2 from Valve, introducing even broader viewers to MOBA gaming. MOBAs are some of the largest esports games available, with hefty rewards to launch due to the format’s breadth of gameplay and astronomical talent ceiling; in 2019, Dota 2’s TI9 competition had a prize pool of $34,330,068. Whew.
They set the tone for a more social experience and user-based material with their legendary launches of StarCraft and WarCraft (specifically WarCraft III). Using the creator’s toolkit via game editing tools, individuals changed these games to experience it independently, exchanging only color palettes and game sprites. All that inquiring, what are the best MOBA games for PC to play this year?
Top 20 Best MOBA Games of 2020
- Vainglory
- Dota 2
- Smite
- Arena of Valour
- League of Legends
- Heroes of the Storm
- Defense of the Ancients
- Strife
- Mobile Legends: Bang Bang
- Battlerite
- Heroes of Newerth
- Awesomenauts
- Legend of Ace
- Demigod
- AirMech Strike
- Monday Night Combat
- Extraordinary Ones
- Realm of the Titans
- Bloodline Champions
- Bleeding Edge
Best MOBA Games of 2020 at a Glance
Vainglory
Ever since its release in late 2014, Vainglory has been earning its place on this best Multiplayer Online Battle Arena chart. It has the basics of MOBA game in pc that you have grown to enjoy, but there are a variety of fascinating features along the way. First off all, cross-play supported between Steam and mobile devices. This is critical because, on a smaller screen, it offers the excitement you can expect from a MOBA on PC, and the sheer diversity and possibilities for character building lead to some fascinating outcomes. Apps such as override, which allows you to unlock a skill shift after you have thoroughly leveled it up in a contest, make a difference, and both champions have their distinctive taste.
Dota 2
Dota 2 is Valve’s official successor to the Defense of the Ancients Warcraft III mod, the brainchild of one of the original WC3 modders, producer Icefrog. It may be one of the most common multiplayer games, but it does not have as many players as League of Legends anywhere near it, and it is much harder to learn. However, the challenge gives Dota 2 its charm, and each year Dota 2 pros win the highest prize pool in esports with the impressive displays of talent on offer at The International.
You start by selecting one of the best Dota 2 heroes, and 5v5 battles take place on a three-lane grid, but Valve has introduced difficulty levels. Dota 2 follows the same standard MOBA formula. For example, players can destroy their own creeps (minions) in order to avoid harvesting gold from their opponent, a technique known as ‘denying.’ Instead of having to return to their base, players can even ship items around the map using a courier.
Smite
Smite, which launched in 2014, and still going strong into 2020. The Game Smite, developed by Hi-Rez Studios, encourages the player to take on the part of a god or goddess from a third-person viewpoint and then engage in battle with other players afterward. When I heard the stakes people played in this online, I was taken aback at it actually has a million-dollar esports pool. Perhaps it has something to it.
The degree of customization is an element of Smite that I dig. You will pick from about a hundred characters from various civilizations, all of them originating in myths.
They’re also adding another pantheon of heroes from the legends of King Arthur. Don’t fret, players of the Nintendo Switch; you’ll get a chance to enjoy one of the best Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas. Smite’s Move version is set for a release date of February 19, 2019.
Arena of Valor
The Arena of Valor at Tencent Games is one of the most famous mobile MOBA games, and for a cause. It is not a online video game that stands out for introducing many new innovations to the genre, staying reasonably simple and true to the prime base (although there are a few surprises, such as seeing Batman as a champion). Instead, it focuses on supplying touch screens with a polished experience, as well as making the most of the Joy-Cons on Turn. As well as a long list of champions to pick from, you can predict both 5v5 and 3v3 tournaments.
League of Legends
The largest Multiplayer Online Battle Arena around is the League of Legends (or LoL to its many, many users). Every month of the year, hundreds of millions of unique players go into Summoner’s Rift-not only has it got the largest esports scene of all time, it also has its own K-pop girl group; if this still doesn’t sell it to you, we don’t know what would.
The standard MOBA blueprint followed by the League of Legends, but it definitely doesn’t sacrifice depth. From a quickly expanding roster of 150 playable heroes, you will need to select the best League of Legends champions, customize them with optimal item builds, and choose the right moment to accomplish targets that are crucial to victory. League of Legends strikes the best balance between tactical play and twitch ability for most players, for an environment where anyone can find their niche.
Heroes of the Storm
With 2015 ‘s Heroes of the Storm, Blizzard makes her first appearance on the chart. It was released on Windows and Mac by Microsoft. Instead, they refer to it as a ‘hero brawler,’ and they’re not wrong: Heroes of the Storm has everyone’s favorite Blizzard characters on the roster. Blizzard shies away from naming Heroes of the Storm, a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena game.
In-game characters, it’s really who’s who. All appearances are rendered by Tracer, Genji, Gul’Dan, Leoric, and others, 85 of them in all. The Butcher from the First Diablo is my absolute favorite. When I was younger, I used to be too terrified of him when playing, but now I can manipulate his evil strength to defeat my opponents. I would say that’s a pretty decent growth of character.
The prize pool is huge again: the most recent tournament had a prize of 1,000,000.
Players are plunged into brutal 5v5 combat on 15 separate maps using Blizzard’s Battle.net. It also contains mounts, something that is common to World of Warcraft players. This is one of the best Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas around, and far into the future, worth checking out.
Defense of the Ancients
Defense of the Ancients dates Back to when things started. Given the hundreds of iterations over the years, with a community of friends or against someone online, it’s still worth going back to the initial edition. Although this mod remained rampant in the original Warcraft 3, the introduction of Warcraft 3: Reforged offered a new forum for it. If you’re a fan of the universe and want to relive past memories or just get to play with champions you’ve grown to love with this custom map years ago during your time, know that Defense of the Ancients is still a chance for your gaming sessions. Taking into account, of course, how many years have passed since it was created.
Strife
Strife released on Linux and Windows in 2015 and developed by California-based S2 Games, a game studio. Everything that instantly attracted my eye about Turmoil and S2 Games was their mission of stopping the gaming community’s toxicity, something I believe can become overbearing and violent.
To cater to more casual MOBA matches, they simplified Heroes of Newerth into Strife somewhat. Strife places two sets of players against each other, with the main purpose being to break the opposing side’s structure. The framework, called the Crux, reminds me of the League of Legends Nexus.
For a game’s running time, usually around 30-40 minutes, a player selects a hero to stay with and can level up the hero outside of the game by earning experience points.
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang
Don’t let the name or the type of art mislead you. Mobile Legends: Riot Games does not grow Bang Bang, but it stands reasonably similar to it. That is why we included it in our list of the best MOBA games. It also stands out for its characters, apart from its aesthetic, offering their own backstories and cutscenes that serve to illustrate them. They all engage in this take on the genre of Multiplayer Online Battle Arena that is unique to handheld devices. And over the years, it has certainly learned how to better adapt itself to the small screen and around touch controls. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang is as close as it comes if you’re an ardent League of Legends player, and you’re on the lookout for a similar encounter.
This should take an average of 20-30 minutes, so compared to MOBAs like Dota 2. It’s pretty easy to play. Right now, players can pick from 48 different avatars, plunging themselves with complex shadows and textures into a beautifully rendered world. The number of avatars originally? Seven.
Battlerite
As you’re not defending or conquering bases, Battlerite might seem like a strange option for the best MOBA games. But in essence, there are several elements from the best MOBA games here since the developers jumped from the legendary Bloodline Champions to this game. Essentially, it’s a team-based brawler full of hundreds of characters to choose from, a deep and precise battle, and the same strength that makes your everyday MOBA encounters so exciting. If you’re looking for something new that shares certain parallels with the main genre entries, even if it’s not as active now as it was once in the past, Battlerite is the perfect pick.
Heroes of Newerth
2010 was the original MOBA, Heroes of Newerth, of the S2 Game year. Strife was an offshoot of this title, as I said before in the list, desiring more simplified access for more casual players. As S2 pooled all of their time and resources into making Strife one of the strongest MOBAs, Heroes of Newerth was moved to Frostburn Studios.
In terms of ‘Legion’ or ‘Hellbourne,’ Heroes of Newerth divides the two teams, and their core structure is based on their team allegiance, specifically the World Tree or the Sacrificial Altar. For pummeling the opponent and making them submit, the right combination of abilities is necessary.
Depending on all variables, game times will range from 25-40 minutes, so you might either have a short play or a deep intensive match that tests your true abilities. The 2015 HON Pre Season of Professional League eSports bonus pool was $236,185.14, so get out there and make a bank playing MOBAs!
Awesomenauts
Ronimo Games developed the cartoonish and lovable and addictive Awesomenauts and released it on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Linux, OS X, and Windows in 2012. Whereas the newer version was released in 2016 for the most recent console generation. A plus is the compatibility of all channels. It’s a 2D style game starring the game’s protagonists, the Awesomenauts.
Awesomenauts, thanks to its amazing gameplay, is one of the best MOBA games in 2020. Awesomenauts are extremely different in abilities from each other, making matches with even the strongest MOBAs even more enjoyable and competitive than normal. Games are often played in 3v3 matches where the Solar Collector of the opposing side becomes the target to kill. For the design of this game, what I like is that it spices up the charts.
For starters, a giant monster has a map in a pit to be a pain for players trying to defeat their opponent. Matches are normally fast, about 20 minutes. In 2017, it became free-to-play.
Legend of Ace
Legend of Ace blends the elements and gameplay of MOBA games with the elements of trading card games if you are looking for another interesting combination. Of course, you have your list of champions to pick and get to know their stories as normal, but the twist is that by using cards, they can all be customized to suit your playstyle better. Don’t expect many surprises about anything else: the map style is close to those you already know about, but matches are usually 10 minutes long, which makes Legend of Ace an ideal lunch break game.
Demigod
Next up in our list of the best MOBA games is Demigods. Released on Windows back in 2009, Demigod is a title developed and published through Stardock by Gas Driven Games. The title of the game, analogous to Awesomenauts and Heroes of Newerth, comes from the name of the player characters in the game, Demigods going to fight each other.
The Demigods are split into two distinct classes, the Assassins and the Generals. In gaming words, these two types are significantly different. Assassins are ideally suited to the player who wishes to beat their enemy in brute combat. Whereas in tactics and support, the Generals are far more complex.
To deter the opposing side, the Generals populate the arena with minions and demigods. Overall, there are ten demigods available to play, narrowing down on whether you play Assassin or General to the particular choices.
AirMech Strike
You may remember the AirMech Arena series. But AirMech Strike is pretty new and still saves a spot in our list of the best Multiplayer Online Battle Arena games. It looks and sounds like a real-time strategy game in several respects, but its gameplay is reminiscent of Multiplayer Online Battle Arena games. This makes a combination that blends the best of both worlds. In large scale maps, you can anticipate hundreds of units battling against each other, structures that change shape based on the scenario, and the frenzied combat that comes from the genre. PVE modes also used to exist, but they have been removed and are now planning to switch to AirMech Wastelands, a kind of companion game. So it’s all about playing online against other people and climbing up in the ranks.
Monday Night Fighting
Monday Night Fighting for PC and Xbox 360 released in 2011 by Uber Entertainment and Microsoft Game Studios. The Monday Night Fighting is a third-person squad shooter, framed in an amusing ‘Monday Night Football’ parody of the future. The main task is to kill Moneyball in the arena on the other side.
The squads made up of players in the arena, duking it out with clone troops. This game blurs the boundaries of what it is in a positive way. It borrows heavily from RTS sports, titles for tower defense, and MOBAs, making a good genre blend. Teams of 6 players compete in ‘Crossfire,’ the standard mode of play in the game. Every clone soldier has its own distinctive appearance and stats.
Extraordinary Ones
Here’s another addition to our list of the best MOBA games, unique to handheld devices, which provides the genre with a strange premise. It’s an anime-based entry in which you will find popular characters like Izuku Midoriya, My Hero Academia’s lead character, and in which every nook and cranny is inspired by this cornerstone. The characters are flashy and vivid, action and fighting are somewhat different from typical MOBA experiences, and the style of art helps to take it all and put it all together. It’s still worth a try, even if you’re not into anime. That’s especially if you’re looking for something new that differentiates dramatically from the rest.
Realm of the Titans
In 2010 in China and 2011 in North America on Microsoft Windows, Realm of the Titans burst into the level. It produced by a Shanghai-based studio, Ningbo Shengguang Tianyi. The developers went to study in Australia, becoming giant fans of the best MOBAs out there, igniting the fire inside them to build their word.
There are 168 heroes in the game and five powers that each of them can use. In addition, the developer continues adding more heroes to play, increasing the game’s playability and replayability.
Four bosses that are lurking in the corners of the game maps are a fun feature included in this MOBA. These bosses can be destroyed by players, allowing the other bosses to become the ‘creep’ AI.
Bloodline Champions
Bloodline Champions; another one among the best Multiplayer Online Battle Arena games from Stunlock Studios and it released in 2011, 6 years before another MOBA from Stunlock, Battlerite. You will see where their experience has arrived. The regular 5v5 players apply, with teams being on the ‘Hot’ or ‘Cool’ side. You have multiple gameplay styles, including Arena, the normal MOBA mode, and this game’s Coat the Flag mode, Capture the Artifact.
This game contains the fog of war, a rare aspect. Owing to ‘fog,’ obstructions along the players’ eye line, you can’t see those enemy locations. At present, there are 29 heroes you can play as.
Bleeding Edge
Lastly in our list of the best MOBA games comes Bleeding Edge. Over the years, the MOBA has included several characters from Overwatch, Diablo, and WoW, each with a special package focused on their current skills and movements.
Running exclusively on the Battle.net launcher from Blizzard, the game sees players face off through 15 different maps in 5v5 battles, whose landscapes can be traversed using mounts, a feature that is not normally available in most MOBAs.
Bleeding Edge is a multiplayer game that is up and coming, funded by Xbox Game Studios and created by Ninja Theory. While both the MOBA and hero shooter crazes could be a bit late, the game succeeds in incorporating elements from both genres while still injecting its own personality. This can mostly be due to the distinctive styles and backstories of the eclectic roster of heroes from BE.
While the game had a rocky start, its inclusion on Xbox Game Pass has helped draw new fans, while Ninja Theory continues to focus on new content and BE ‘s advancement mechanisms upgrades.
Best MOBA Games- Frequently Asked Questions
- What is a MOBA style game?
MOBA is a sub-genre of strategy online video games. In it every player controls a particular character alone. Each character is having a set of unique skills and abilities that improve over the course of a game. This improvement in skills and abilities contribute to the over all strategy of the over-all team.
- Is PUBG a MOBA game?
PUBG is similar to Fortnite Battle Royale Game. PUBG is a game played in Last man standing mode. It is an online multiplayer battle Royale game. PUBG is a online video game in which multiple number of players competing with each other. The last man standing alone is the winner.
- What is the first MOBA game?
Aeon of Strife is the first custom map for the real time strategy game Starcraft.
