Featuring traditional battle arena gameplay, players must fight over three lanes to take the enemy's tower and defend their own while securing objectives in order to pressure the opposing team.

Like classic MOBAs, there is no hero training to level up or pay to play angle—winners and losers are decided based on skill, ability, and strategy.

[10][11] In June 2020, the game was banned in India along with 58 other Chinese apps due to security concerns by the government.

There are six roles that define the main purpose of heroes: Tank, Marksman, Assassin, Fighter, Mage, and Support.

Depending on what side of the map (blue or red) a player starts on, the gold and exp lanes will be switching places.

Players can also form a whole team regardless of their rank differences and freely choose any heroes along with weekly free ones and any trial card they possess.

Apart from different types of "synergies", a player has to delegate the random items they gained while also taking care of the specific position of each hero on the battlefield.

In update patch note 1.4.60, Magic Chess was included as a permanent arcade game mode, after temporarily being added in January 2020.

After Moonton's staff of 20 finished developing its first game called Magic Rush: Heroes, released in 2015 to commercial success, they proceeded with developing the company's next project, a mobile multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game later titled Mobile Legends.

The results suggested that the use of third-party components and open source resources, including libraries, may have led to old, vulnerable code still being present in apps.

This included changes in user interface, revamps to several older heroes' 3D models, skill sets, stories, and voice lines.

[35] There were multiple changes that were specifically aimed at providing players with a much-improved gameplay experience, including the launch of a revamped version of the Brawl game mode.

[47] Occasionally, Moonton releases multiple skin series with accompanying stories separate from the central lore.

[48][49] On 10 January 2022, Moonton announced their first anime-themed skin series called The Aspirants, featuring Japanese voice actresses Yoshino Nanjō and Nana Mizuki with original music from composer Yasuharu Takanashi.

The first series skins released in the game were Iori Yagami for the hero Chou, Leona Heidern for Karina, and Athena Asamiya for Guinevere.

[53] The second series skins released were Kula Diamond for the hero Aurora, K' for Gusion, and Orochi Chris for Dyrroth.

It will feature three new exclusive skins: General Kai for the hero Thamuz, Po Ping for Akai, and Lord Shen for Ling.

[63] The collaboration was returned in June 2024 with an updated visual effects on Yin's ultimate skill features Sukuna when using Yuji Itadori skin.

[70] Moonton released its first animated television series titled Legends of Dawn: The Sacred Stone directed by Ziaolong Zhang.

in Indonesia, and ABS-CBN Corporation's Kapamilya Channel and A2Z (owned by ZOE Broadcasting Network) in the Philippines on 19 September 2021.

[75] The first look of the game was presented on 14 December 2024, after Team Liquid ID sweep home 3–0 against Selangor Red Giants on lower bracket final in M6 World Championship.

The regions that received the first Professional League season were Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, and Myanmar.

[77] Cambodia also received its own MPL league, in partnership with Smart Axiata, the leading telecommunications operator in the region.

The first MLBB World Championship, dubbed as M1, was held in Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 15 to 17, November 2019.

[92] All winning teams were given an exclusive honorary skin in-game from a hero of their choosing to commemorate their championship to which players can purchase for a limited time.

[94] The first winner, David Charles "FlapTzy" Canon from AP Bren chose Paquito as his FMVP skin.

[96] The case was dismissed in the Central District Court of California in the United States on account of forum non conveniens.

[100] In July 2021, Moonton has allegedly disallowed Mobile Legends: Bang Bang esports organizations to create teams for League of Legends: Wild Rift and was criticized by the Team Secret CEO that the move "cannot be good from a healthy ecosystem or competitive integrity standpoint.

[103] In December 2021, following the triumph of esports team Blacklist International on M3, they were entitled to choose a specific hero for their championship skin.

[104] The hashtag #WeWantEstes trended on different social media platforms from the morning of 23 December, with Blacklist co-owners Tryke Gutierrez and Alodia Gosiengfiao and teams such as ECHO Philippines and Bren Esports joining the call for Moonton to rescind their decision.