The third season of the MLBB Development League or MDL Philippines has become the most popular season of the league so far, based on data from Esports Charts.
Data from the global esports statistics provider showed that the season hit over 110,000 peak viewers during the nail-biter Grand Final match between ECHO Proud and RRQ Kaito, the latter winning their first-ever MDL Philippines title.
“This match created several series records, becoming the only one to cross 50K PV and 100K PV while making this its most popular tournament among the three editions held so far,” Esports Charts noted.
Overall, Esports Charts noted that because of the development teams of top esports organizations shining, this particular season saw a “massive spike” in its peak viewership.
Based on data exclusively provided to Fragster by Esports Charts, The 110,405 peak viewership of the 3rd-ever MDL Philippines season proved to be a quantum leap from the viewership of Seasons 1 and 2, which only fared 36,900 and 37,000 peak viewers, respectively. This was despite the fewer overall broadcast hours of 97.5 hours compared to 146 hours in Season 2, and 129 hours in Season 1.
ECHO Proud, while not winning the championship this time, emerged as the most popular overall team in the season, with over 16,900 average viewers over the course of the two-month MDL Philippines Season 3 tournament. They are also the team with the most number of hours watched, which is at over 421,000.
Not to be outdone, and in a very close position, is the new champions of MDL Philippines Season 3, RRQ Kaito. They garnered over 19,600 average viewers and over 376,000 hours watched through the course of the tournament, showing that the Pinoy version of Indonesia’s Kingdom fanbase is also showing up in force.
Third in the list of most-viewed teams is ONIC PH Arsenals, which garnered over 12,000 peak viewers, and 221,000+ hours watched.
At a very close 4th spot – and only down by 6 average viewers – was Smart Omega NEOS, the developmental team of Smart Omega, which had 12,111 average viewers.
Finally, TNCZ4, the developmental team of TNC Pro Team, garnered over 10,000 average viewers throughout the season, landing them on the 5th spot of most-watched teams in MDL PH Season 3.
“Interestingly, TikTok maintained its place as the best alternative among the streaming services, with the official channel on this video-sharing app emerging as the most watched. Meanwhile, YouTube increased its dominance, with its share of the watch time going up by around 7.5%, eating into the shares of a declining Facebook Gaming,” Esports Charts noted in its report.
This Mobile Legends: Bang Bang competition saw ten academy teams battle it out for a prize pool of $20,000. RRQ Kaito took home US$3,690 in earnings, and ECHO Proud won US$2,425.
The season also hosted its first-ever offline or LAN playoffs, which may have also contributed to the rise in viewership.
More data can be found through the Esports Charts Website at escharts.com.
