Mobile Legends sees steady growth in yearly viewership

MANILA, Philippines – One of the top mobile games all over the world, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) has seen an upward trajectory in terms of viewership of its esports scene.

Since debuting its international esports tournament, MLBB has seen a steady rise in viewership the past few years, with its M-Series world championship consistently increasing year.

The M2 World Championship that was postponed to 2020 from 2019, saw a peak viewership of 3 million growing to 5 million in a span of three years, with the M5 World Championship last December recording a peak viewership of 5,067,107 as confirmed by Esports Charts.

Speaking to Philstar.com, Alexey Borisov, lead esports editor at Esports Charts, points to the game’s continuous expansion to different parts of the world as a major contributing factor to its steady rise in viewership.

"MLBB has been steadily growing for more than just one to two years, and the growth of its esports audience is only one aspect of the title's development. The continuous expansion of tournament geography, new event series, and growing prize pools have collectively brought MLBB to where it is today," said Borisov.

Though MLBB has not set any new trends in terms of esports viewership as compared to PC and console games, it has racked up noteworthy viewership throughout its esports ecosystem, seeing millions of peak viewership in different regional tournaments, especially in Indonesia and the Philippines.

"Southeast Asia, especially the Philippines, accounts for a significant portion of global esports viewership, particularly in mobile esports, where the region leads in audience engagement. Indonesian is generally one of the key esports languages, ranking just behind English and Chinese. Filipino is also notable and on the verge of breaking into the top 10 languages for esports," said Borisov.

But even as MLBB continues to see millions of loyal fans tuned in to intense esports matches, Borisov believes this is just the beginning.

"I firmly believe that the esports industry has not yet reached its full peak in terms of viewership. If some regions have already reached their limit or are very close to it, others still have a lot of untapped potential, and Asian countries are in the second group. In recent years, we have observed various trends related to expanding esports coverage to a broader audience. Tournament organizers increasingly involve third-party content creators to cover events, which helps grow the audience. Additionally, with the easing of regulations on some platforms, streamers are now more frequently broadcasting simultaneously on multiple platforms, allowing them to expand their reach significantly. In short, the esports audience will continue to grow. This is inevitable," concluded Borisov.