MLBB MPL Indonesia hits record viewership

A match in the group stage of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang MPL Indonesia Split 1 caused an insane surprise, as it reached the highest concurrent viewership of all esport tournaments in the month of February 2023. It even beat prestigious events like VCT LOCK//IN in São Paulo, which just ended.

For us in Europe, it’s a little strange that a mobile game (which is heavily inspired by League of Legends but isn’t League of Legends) has such a large audience that it can easily trump VCT LOCK//IN and IEM Katowice. But in other parts of the world, that’s the reality.

VCT LOCK//IN- spectator numbers eclipsed

According to data from Esports Charts, the broadcast of a regular season match between RRQ and EVOS Legends reached a viewership of 1,780,665 concurrent viewers. This number not only surpasses the grand finals of VCT LOCK//IN and IEM Katowice, but even surpasses VCT Champions 2022 by quite a bit!

RRQ is considered one of the best and most popular teams in the game. Their lineup has several Indonesian and regional MPL trophies under their belt. In every single World Cup they have qualified for, they have always finished 5th to 2nd. And even if they don’t win any trophies, they are considered favorites in every tournament they participate in.

The team has a long-standing rivalry with EVOS Legends because they snatched the trophy away from RRQ for the game’s first World Championship.

It’s no wonder that the game was broadcast mostly in Indonesian. Of course, there were broadcasts in other languages as well, but of the 1.7 million viewers at the peak, the Indonesian stream accounted for 1.3 million. Currently, there are three weeks left in the regular season, and the grand finale in March is expected to break records again.

Mobile Legends is on the rise

Mobile Legends is basically the sleeping giant of the industry and the biggest mobile game in the world. At this year’s M4 World Championship, it became the third most-watched esports tournament of all time, with a peak audience of 4.2 million viewers.

Here are the five most-watched events in esports history:

• Free Fire 2021 World Series Singapore: 5.41 million viewers
• LoL 2022 World Championship: 5.15 million viewers
• Mobile Legends: Bang Bang M4 World Championship: 4.27 million viewers
• LoL 2021 World Championship: 4.02 million viewers
• LoL 2019 World Championship: 3.99 million viewers

Header: Riot Games