CODM Esports is dying: Revival is possible by following proven roadmaps from other titles

Mobile esports is a recent trend. Though the industry has deep roots and has been growing for several years, we have witnessed several esports titles’ rise and fall. Led by the industry-dominant game companies, most of the titles are the products from the big fishes like Tencent, NetEase, Activision, etc. While some titles become successful in esports, some fail for several reasons, and unfortunately, COD Mobile or CODM is on the second list.

Despite having a big company behind it, the game failed to attract and get a place in the mainstream esports competition for mobile devices. In this article, we tried to determine the factors behind the fall of esports and the comeback possibility.

A Brief History of CODM Esports

CODM Esports is rooted back in 2020 when the first season took place. Organized by Activision, the inaugural season featured 8 teams and it was supposed to take place in Los Angeles. However, the COVID-19 pandemic halted the event and it was later canceled. The prize pool, a whopping $750,000, was then disbursed among the teams except Oxygen Esports. All the teams received $107,000 each.

Later, four more events took place and there were several changes made in the format, team numbers, and other features. Sponsors were changed as well. In the next year, 2021, the world finals were canceled again and were divided into two major events named East Finals and West Finals.

Throughout the next years, CODM Esports experienced many ups and downs. Many regional leagues and smaller tournaments were either disbanded or failed to attract significant viewership. The next big events failed to continue the same hype or increase it.

Blacklist Ultimate won the Call of Duty Mobile World Championship 2021 East Finals. The West Finals was taken away by Tribe Gaming. The next year, in 2022, Tribe Gaming won the championship as it was merged into a single event again. Wolves won the 2023 championship and the recent event in 2024 concluded with Elevate pocketing the trophy and a prize pool of $400,000.

The reasons why CODM Esports is dying

While the mobile esports scene is experiencing a massive elevation in investment, ecosystem, expansion, and sustainability, the CODM esports scene is walking in the opposite direction. There are leading esports titles that align with the game in a similar category, i.e. genre, mechanism, gameplay, etc. But none of them seem to work for Activision’s title.

However, I outlined some of the primary reasons why CODM Esports is dying.

1. Weak Competitive Ecosystem

From the beginning of the CODM esports ecosystem, it failed to meet the competitive demand. It is okay if a title starts small as the game was launched just a year ago. However, the liability is carrying the title to a phase where it can survive among the competitors.

We asked hesketh2, Liquipedia’s APAC Wiki Manager for Mobile Esports, about the reasons behind COD Mobile’s fall. “One reason in my perspective is the lack of density in competition“, he said. The esports roadmap is so small and only tied to the World Championship, causing a problem. He also said that there’s a distant gap between Ranked Modes and Competitive with differences in both rules not allowing players to bridge this gap by themselves.

Call of Duty Mobile miserably failed to carry its esports. Besides big numbers showcasing in the prize pool and sponsors, the title couldn’t match the viewers’ demand. It has only 5 regions worldwide for Snapdragon Pro Series and three leagues in the Asian Leagues. And most of the major events are confined to North America. So, the title receives less attention and can’t reach the players.

We also asked the same questions to Bobby Buckets aka RealBobbyPlays. He pointed out two big reasons. “Lack of continuity in the competitive scene (few tournaments, different formats region to region, disparity between ranked and competitive), and poor structuring of Champs (Stage 5 destination, stream times, slot allocation, etc.)“, he said.

But the competitors are doing more. Titles like PUBG Mobile, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, and Honor of Kings are leading the way only because they support grassroots and local communities and are expanding at a rapid pace. CODM failed to do so.

2. Declining Viewer Engagement

Viewers are the heart of any esports event. The more viewers there are, the better the marketing is. Besides, players across the competitive scene will get to engage more with the vast community. Content creators will also find a massive fanbase to showcase their content. CODM failed to keep the viewership. In 2024, the game couldn’t gather 50k peak viewership. This shows the poor scenario of the game.

RealBobbyPlays also shared his insights on viewer decline. He said that the game “lost half of its viewership” is an oversimplification of its issues. He gives an example of the 2023 World Championship. “The comparison in 2023 champs viewership vs 2024 is just Godlike vs no Godlike“, he said.

He also suggested that stepping into other regions will solve this issue by retaining more viewers. “Hosting the event in countries that will allow for a start time that will produce a higher viewership that includes the 3 main viewer demos (India/Philippines/US), which would be much better served with an EU/Asia host“, he added.

There are not many action shooting games available in the esports market for mobile. I can only recall PUBG Mobile as a pure action shooter title. The competitors are from the MOBA genre and we all know the names.

Even if we consider CODM to be only competing with PUBG Mobile, which is running a vast esports ecosystem, the title also failed to win over. PUBG Mobile’s journey is leaving pinpointing roadmaps to follow, but CODM couldn’t follow the same or bring anything new.

3. The success of other Esports titles

The current leaders in mobile esports are PUBG Mobile, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, and Honor of Kings. Besides, Supercell’s titles are also taking away a major part of mobile esports. Brawl Stars, Clash of Clans, and Clash Royale esports events are held together and attract a massive fanbase.

The success behind the other titles is mainly because of their vast and spread esports ecosystem. For example, PUBG Mobile has a massive ecosystem spreading into regional, country, and root levels. The support and local community support are unparalleled for the title. On the other hand, MLBB is also doing the same. The game got itself out of the SEA region and spread the scene faster.

4. Limited Developer Support for Esports

It seems from the outside that the developer support for the game is very limited. The game itself isn’t much caring, I want to add here. Because of the qualifications that teams go through to qualify for the world stage, the CODM World Championship is mainly divided into two events: the Snapdragon Pro Series, and the Asian Leagues.

5. Other reasons

Apart from these reasons, there are other causes as well behind the fall of CODM esports. To run a successful esports event and ecosystem, there must be interconnection among all the branches. So, the game needs to think about the teams and their operation.

We also asked hesketh if the game should get itself out of third-party organizers like ESL and invest more in a self-backed esports league. He said that the key issue is event density. There’s a huge gap in esports events from COD Mobile. “Looking simply at roadmaps such as PUBG Mobile where they introduced officially ran regional league (but still operate by third party organizers like NODWIN or ESL) can be a simple fix that allows more games, more matches and more airtime for the esports“, he said.

Some may argue that it is not up to the game to take care of the teams, but rather the organization. But I will give an opposing view here. When your event budget (prize pool) is lower, the team owners or organizations face hurdles to bear the cost. There are costs associated with running a team such as accommodation, travel, coaching, devices, and many more. If a team cannot bring a return from the events, then it becomes harder for them to continue business.

Besides, when a game receives viewership and a massive community, the teams can manage their costs even if there’s little support from the title’s publisher/developer or who is in charge. Sponsorships can fix the gap for the teams. But in CODM, this didn’t happen.

Though the big organizations managed to get over these budget or monetary issues with their support from other titles, as these organizations run several teams, the newcomers that want to join the competition don’t have any backing to support the team. So, the dream to reach the mainstream focus or even get the limelight, nipped in the bud.

The leaders in mobile esports: A brief overview of the mainstream titles

Mobile esports is currently dominated by a few titles ranging from action to MOBA genre. Among the top drivers, I will name Honor of Kings, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, PUBG Mobile, Pokémon Unite, etc.

Among these titles, Mobile Legends has more traction in the race, Honor of Kings is expanding rapidly, and PUBG Mobile has the most spread ecosystem that has been running for a long time. Now, if it comes to mention the Supercell titles, Brawl Stars is the driving force of its esports. On the other hand, Pokemon Unite has a wide community and a massive fanbase. So, it has every possibility to rise as a successful esports title.

Is revival possible for CODM Esports to make a comeback

Well, this might be tricky to answer directly, but I will be optimistic here. The game can make a comeback, strongly, but it needs to fill the gaps it now has. There should be an overall evaluation of the game to collect player feedback and take adequate action.

Hesketh suggested some possible ways out as we asked him about how the game could get back on track. Restructuring the roadmap to feature more events instead of just having everything being just “Worlds Qualifier” can be taken by the game. Besides, COD Mobile can follow a 2-split roadmap similar to the leading titles.

Then, it is a primary task to move World Champs host nations outside of the U.S. In that way, more players and viewers will become engaged. He suggested some other fixes as well, in the gameplay. “One such is bridging both Esports and Ranked to use the same ruleset“, he said. “And CODM doesn’t have much time to stay lazy with games like VALORANT Mobile on their neck“, he further added.

I must include other things here as well. The game should provide more player support and arrange a vast league system spreading to the root levels. Because the root-level communities are the heart of the game, they should provide more focus on the bottom.

The first few things to do will be to cover up the ecosystem gaps, to bring players into the game. It needs to focus on marketing and influencer engagement to bring spicy content and keep the title on the front page of the discussion.

From my experience, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and PUBG Mobile have reached so deep to the root that you won’t find the bottom of it. I’ve seen regular events at my university! Can you believe that!

Learning from the drivers in the mobile market: Possible way out

COD Mobile needs to learn from the drivers of the market. I would suggest following the same genre title PUBG Mobile first. PUBG Mobile arranged the esports so well from the beginning that it is very hard for any other title to match it now. Particularly, the roadmap PUBG Mobile followed from the beginning is impressive.

Then, the game should follow the footsteps of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. The partnerships, collaboration, content, etc. are just on another level and I must appreciate the thoughtful move of the game. It was confined to the SEA at first, but after the MSC 2024 in Riyadh, it went just like a rocket to experience success.

The other titles are doing well. Honor of Kings though couldn’t make a move to the global market, but its global adaptation, Arena of Valor, did the magic for it. And now, the game is globally available, and marking each footstep carefully. Summing up all the processes that Honor of Kings is going through, the future is very promising.

Final Thoughts

COD Mobile is one of my favorite games that I grew up with. I was pretty happy to try the game out when it was released globally. I was excited to see the game coming to mobile devices, and I was even more excited to see its esports.

I bet there are millions of fans out there who would like to see the success it could bring. The game is just having a bad time. I think with proper countermeasures to resolve the ongoing issues and all, the game has every possibility to turn the calculations upside down and reign as one of the best mobile esports titles.

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