MDL Indonesia Season 8 received less attention from casual fans but has developed a stronger esports following

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MDL ID is the second-tier development league for Mobile Legends: Bang Bang in Indonesia. The 8th season of the MDL ID began in July and finished on October 29. While tier-1 of ML:BB is setting viewership records in Indonesia, the development league of the same region is struggling to break records set by previous seasons.

The MPL Indonesia, the tier one league, is one of the most-watched esports leagues in the world, and the recent MPL ID Season 12 reached over 116M Hours Watched. While the MPL is achieving new heights, the MDL is receiving substantial viewership, but cannot reach the same viewership it achieved in 2022. 

Overall viewership statistics for MDL Indonesia Season 8    

In total, Season 8 of the MDL in Indonesia reached 5.3M Hours Watched. Although the league spanned over three months, a large portion of this watch time was achieved during the Playoffs of the season, which lasted only three days. The three days of Playoffs received 1.01M Hours Watched, more than the final three weeks of the regular season combined. 

Peak Viewers also rose significantly for the Playoffs stage, reaching 216.3K PV during the Grand Final match of Season 8. Although the match between JL and EVOS Icon on the first day of the league received 92.2K PV, the remainder of the season struggled to draw in strong weekly viewership. Comparing the final week of the season to playoffs, PV rose by 178K for the ultimate match.

RRQ.Sena was the most-watched team of the season, receiving 1.6M Hours Watched throughout the entire league, but they were not the ultimate victors of the event. RRQ.Sena fell short in the Grand Final match, leaving Bossque to claim victory. Bossque was the first Open team to win the MDL since Season 3 back in 2021. 

The MDL Indonesia is made up of two groups of teams: the MPL-Affiliates and the Open teams. MPL-Affiliates are teams representing an organisation currently competing in the MPL and can be considered a B-team or junior roster for these organisations. Open teams on the other hand are representing organisations that are not competing in the MPL, or sometimes not tied to a proper esports organisation at all.

Bossque were not only an Open team but Season 8 marked Bossque’s first entry into the MDL, and they qualified for the MDL by progressing through the Open Qualifiers. Season 8 was the first time since the inaugural season of the MDL that a team from the Open Qualifiers was ultimately victorious.

Bossque’s victory at the MDL Season 8 Grand Final saw over 216K mobile gaming fans tune in concurrently for the event, however, viewership for the MDL is not as strong as it was in previous years. Compared to MDL ID Season 5 from last year, this year’s edition recorded 3M fewer Hours Watched, despite also recording over 100 hours more Airtime.

The MDL Indonesia has come a long way since its inaugural event in 2020, but viewership for the league reached a peak during 2022 which the current seasons are struggling to replicate. The final match of the MDL ID Season 6 reached 267.8K PV, and Season 5 also received more PV for its Grand Final match than the most recent season.

Looking at the channels which broadcast the MDL, community casters finally joined the league recently. Comparing Season 8 of the MDL to Season 6, roughly 45 more channels went live to cover the event: many of which were community casts on Facebook. There are many official YouTube channels which went live to cover the events, such as the MPL ID’s official channel, the MDL ID channel, and the official YouTube account for Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. 

During the most successful MDL season, Season 6, the most popular channels for the coverage of the event were the official Mobile Legends YouTube channel and the ML:BB Indonesia YouTube channel. These channels were far more popular than the official MDL channels, but this relationship was reversed for Season 8. Throughout the 8th season, official MDL and MPL esports channels were more popular than the Mobile Legends YouTube channel. 

This may hint at the fact that although the mainstream attention from casual fans of ML:BB is dwindling for the MDL, the esports scene has become stronger and hosts a more significant portion of the audience than in past years. Many esports disciplines which were hugely popular in the mainstream have struggled to negotiate a casual following into an esports audience, take Fortnite for example. The MDL still has to continue to develop its brand and construct an esports following to outperform the heights reached in 2022.