32nd SEA Games recap — MLBB creates history but other disciplines see dip

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The 32nd Southeast Asian Games will end today with the closing ceremony, but fans of esports have already checked out after all the disciplines were completed and medals handed out by May 15. The MLBB event was already historic for becoming the most popular female esports event of all time, but overall, the esports disciplines of the competition failed to do better than the previous edition.

It was the third time esports was part of the biennial extravaganza held between the 11 countries of Southeast Asia. There were six games and nine events, including Attack Online 2 (individual, team), Crossfire, Valorant, League of Legends: Wild Rift, PUBG Mobile (individual, team), and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (men's, women's teams).

Comparing the different disciplines at the 32nd SEA Games

Unsurprisingly, the most successful events in terms of viewership were the men's and women's Mobile Legends: Bang Bang tournaments. The latter created history as the most-watched female esports competition of all time with 1.36M Peak Viewers, beating the previous record by 348%. In fact, the women’s side of the action was almost as popular as the men’s segment, which managed 1.46M PV. The former did 6.3M Hours Watched, while the latter recorded 10.4M HW, as they were two of only three games to hit the one million mark at the 32nd SEA Games.

The other event on this list was PUBG Mobile, having reached 6.4M HW, while it also did a decent 639K PV. That the women’s MLBB competition thoroughly outperformed its battle royale shooter cousin is a massive fillip for female esports all around the globe, showing the appetite there is among fans and pundits for it.

Coming to the other disciplines, Valorant recorded 350K HW and 44K PV, Attack Online 2 got to 31K HW and 9K PV, Crossfire registered 24K HW and 6K PV, and League of Legends: Wild Rift notched 79K HW and 17K PV. Apart from Valorant and Attack Online 2, which were making their debuts, the other disciplines could not match up to the record numbers set at the previous edition, the 2021 Southeast Asian Games held in Hanoi, Vietnam.

  Comparing the viewership stats of the last two SEA Games  

Comparing the last two Southeast Asian Games, it is clear that the 2021 edition did better, as it had 31.6M HW compared to 23.7M HW for this year’s iteration. Every discipline fell in this metric at the 32nd SEA Games, and the main reason is that the host nation two years back has a much bigger market for these titles.

Also, viewers of the main languages — Indonesian, Tagalog, Bahasa Malaysia, and Vietnamese — seemed to follow a lot more of this tournament. These languages saw massive falls in watch hours in 2023, with only English watchers really maintaining a steady interest among the more popular languages.

With the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang event split this time into men’s and women’s segments, the break up in viewership was to be expected. When it comes to PUBG Mobile, considering it is such a big game in Vietnam, the higher numbers from the previous SEA Games are not shocking. However, there were less than a million hours watched difference between the two tournaments.

Even Crossfire and LoLWR did lesser numbers, but again, they are not the biggest video games in Cambodia, with Vietnam a much more lucrative market. It will be interesting to see which way the viewership stats go when the next edition is held in Thailand, another big market for many of these games.