Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) is a well-known multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game that lets players choose from over 100 unique heroes and compete in real-time matches with fellow players. Since its release in 2016, MLBB has been one of the most popular MOBA games for mobile devices, with millions of players worldwide and a reputable presence in the ever-expanding e-sports scene. In December 2024 alone, the game gained 7.6 million app downloads, adding to a total of over 641 million downloads at that point. The player base has remained active each month, with peak monthly users reaching 100 million.
American fans of MLBB were caught completely off guard on January 19, 2025, when the game was banned in the U.S. following the ban of TikTok. A law referred to as Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, designated H.R.7521 was recently put into effect, outlawing the distribution and maintenance of applications provided by companies that originate from countries Washington considers adversaries. This included China, which rendered TikTok, social media app owned by a private Chinese technology company, ByteDance, illegal under the ruling
MLBB was developed and published by Moonton, a subsidiary of ByteDance (the company behind TikTok), which qualified it as another data threat under the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. MLBB was not the only surprise mobile game removal following in TikTok’s footsteps. Marvel Snap, a popular digital collectible card game featuring iconic Marvel characters, was also removed from American app stores and devices shortly after TikTok. Despite being developed by Second Dinner, a company based in California, Marvel Snap was published by a subsidiary of ByteDance called Nuverse, leading to its subsequent ban.
Fortunately for both Marvel Snap and MLBB, these bans ended up being temporary. After 48 hours the MLBB dev team addressed players via a post on the game’s official Facebook account, bringing them “great news!” The post instructs players to simply open up the downloaded game to resume playing as usual. Players who lost access to MLBB during the ban will receive any activity awards that they missed, along with a small mystery gift.
While players were generally relieved by the game’s return, many found themselves in a predicament after having preemptively uninstalled the game during its 48-hour absence. Despite having been restored in the U.S. over four days ago, MLBB is still unavailable on both the App Store and Google Play Store in America. Those who lost access to the game are left without answers as to whether or not the game will return to mobile stores. Players called attention to the problem by responding to MLBB’s Facebook post, with Love Angel Parba commenting “how about those people who Uninstalled the app?” and Ems Em asking about “reinstallation for iphone users.” Ems Em explained that they “deleted the game when it was banned” and that now “it’s not available for download.” Sorlika Ny brought up current in-game issue by stating that “it’s back but [they] still can’t buy diamonds yet.”
Although things are looking up for MLBB, the game’s absence from U.S. mobile stores remain a present issue. The game’s dev team has not commented on the problem specifically yet, although future updates might shed more light on the situation.