Visa is accelerating support for esports development as the official payments partner for the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) M7 World Championship 2026 in Jakarta, Indonesia. Featuring 22 of the world’s top MLBB teams—including two from the Philippines—the M7 World Championship amassed more than 50 million hours of global watch time and drew over 3 million peak viewers during the previous edition’s finals.
With high mobile penetration and a young, tech-savvy population, the Philippines has grown to become a key esports hub in Asia-Pacific. An estimated 43 million Filipinos engage in esports or mobile games, with market size estimates reaching USD 28.6 million in 2025. MLBB, on the other hand, is the top mobile game in the Philippines, with more than 110 million monthly active users across the region.
Passion points – including gaming, music, and sports – continue to redefine the way millennials and Gen Z shop, dine, and connect socially. According to Visa’s Gen Z Decoded Report, 16% of Gen Zs have attended gaming or e-sports events in the past year, with 20% attending at least one live concert. Visa’s strategic investment in passion points like gaming amplifies the power of payments, weaving it into cultural moments that consumers prioritize when spending.
Visa has partnered with GCash, the Philippines’ leading superapp and cashless ecosystem, to enhance gaming experiences for Filipinos through seamless, secure, and fast in-game payments. With esports becoming an official Olympic discipline, as well as a staple of regional and local sporting events, Visa has begun working with various global esports powerhouses to unlock exclusive access to events and platforms for bank partners and their millions of Filipino gamer customers.
“Our next-gen audiences, or those in the millennial and Gen Z age groups, are redefining the way we play and pay, and Visa has been making strategic investments in gaming to support local esports development and unlock opportunities in the sector. Providing secure and convenient in-game payments for gamers align with our bigger goals to broaden financial inclusion and drive payments digitization in the Philippines,” shared Jeffrey Navarro, Visa Philippines Country Manager.
As part of the partnership, Visa and GCash are bringing select MLBB enthusiasts to experience the M7 World Championship live in Jakarta.
