Determination of Factors Influencing the Behavioral Intention to Play “Mobile Legends: Bang-Bang” during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Integrating UTAUT2 and System Usability Scale for a Sustainable E-Sport Business

The rise of mobile games during the COVID-19 pandemic era was evident, especially in Asia. One of the most popular online mobile games that has been evident across the world due to its live worldwide competition is “Mobile Legends: Bang Bang” (MLBB). This study aimed to determine factors influencing the behavioral intention to play MLBB by utilizing the integrated model of UTAUT2 and System Usability Scale (SUS). A total of 507 MLBB players voluntarily answered an online questionnaire that consisted of 69 items. Through convenience sampling, the online survey was collected from November 2021–January 2022 from different social media platforms. Several factors such as hedonic motivation, effort expectancy, performance expectancy, perceived usefulness, security, perceived usability, facilitating conditions, social influence, habit, behavioral intention, and SUS were considered in this study. Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), results showed that habit was the most significant factor in behavioral intention, followed by perceived usability, facilitating conditions, social influence, and hedonic motivation. In addition, it was evident from the results that when the mobile application is free and resources are available, then continuous patronage of the mobile application will be considered. In-game resources may be capitalized on by developers after gaining these habits and hedonic motivations among users. This is the first study that evaluated MLBB by utilizing the integrated models of UTAUT2 and SUS during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of this study could be beneficial for developers to entice users for team play and entertainment-based mobile applications. Finally, the model considered may be extended and applied to other mobile applications worldwide.