Video Games Encyclopedia

Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) is a genre of strategy video games in which each player controls a single character with a set of unique abilities that improve over the course of a game and which contribute to the team’s overall strategy. Players work together as a team to achieve a victory condition which is to destroy the opposing team’s main structure whilst protecting their own. Player characters, typically called “heroes” or “champions”, are assisted by computer-controlled units that periodically spawn in groups and march forward along set paths (called “lanes”) toward their enemy’s base. Defensive structures, which are usually automatic “towers”, are in place to prevent this. The first team to destroy the opponents’ main structure wins the match. The genre is seen as a fusion of real-time strategy games, role-playing games, and action games, however, players usually do not construct either buildings or units.
This type of multiplayer online video games gained popularity in early 2010s. MOBA games are well-represented in esports as well.