In 2024, mobile esports saw some significant gains, led by the ever-expanding Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, which continued to pull in millions of viewers. Be it the most successful regional league, the MLBB Professional League Indonesia, or its season-ending world championship, the M-series, the MOBA has emerged as the biggest challenger to the ultimate competitive game, League of Legends.
It was also a good year for the underrated Arena of Valor, with many of its most popular and most watched tournaments coming over the last 12 months. This was in addition to the globalization of the game via the worldwide release of its Chinese version, Honor of Kings, bringing more eyeballs to HoK, a title that has emerged as the top name in the Asian nation.
Mobile esports was also helped by the introduction of the Esports World Cup, which gave an enormous fillip to the segment. The global attention it witnessed, coupled with the entry of several prominent Western organizations into the Asian scene, means that things should only be getting better in 2025.
Most-watched mobile esports events in 2024
The top four places here are all taken up by MLBB competitions, led by the most recent edition of the MPL Indonesia. The 14th season reached several records, including entering the top 10 most-watched esports tournaments table. Moreover, its final map was witnessed by almost 4 million concurrent viewers, setting viewership records for several languages and platforms, as well as the entire MPL event series.
Next comes the MPL Indonesia Season 13, which became only the second event in the MLBB Professional League (at that time) to get past the 100 million Hours Watched (HW) mark and ended as one of the more popular editions in the series. If not for RRQ Hoshi's early exit in the Playoffs, it had a high chance of creating a new watch time record in the regional series.
The latest edition of MLBB's top competition, the M6 World Championship, touched over 85.6 million HW, led by the return of fan-favorite Indonesian side RRQ Hoshi. It ended as the most-watched MLBB world championship and the fourth-most-watched event in the game.
Fourth is the EWC X MLBB Mid Season Cup 2024, the inaugural edition of the rebranded summer tournament, held in partnership with Saudi Arabia's Esports World Cup Foundation. A successor to the MLBB Southeast Asia Cup, this iteration was the first to be held outside Southeast Asia, with the added incentive of boasting the largest prize pool in the game's history, totaling $3 million.
Rounding out the top five is the PUBG Mobile Global Championship 2024, which registered more than 28.6 million HW. This coveted PUBG Mobile tournament had a total prize pool of $3 million, the highest ever awarded for an esports competition in the UK, and saw Korea's Dplus KIA become the first side to win multiple world titles in this battle royale shooter.
There are four AoV events in the bottom half of this top-ten list, led by one of the last esports events to end this year, the Arena of Valor International Championship 2024, which hit a not-too-shabby 25.7 million HW. With previous winners unable to qualify from their respective regions, this year's world championship crowned a new champion: Thailand's Bacon Time.
There was also the Arena of Valor Premier League 2024, which became one of the game's most popular tournaments, setting PV milestones for the Japanese language and for the game itself on TikTok. The Arena of Glory Winter 2024 and Arena of Glory Spring 2024 were eighth and ninth, as both had numerous positives to take home.
One more MLBB tournament, the MPL Philippines Season 14, takes the tenth spot. Of its 21.1 million HW, 47% was generated during the playoffs stage, with Serbian organization Aurora Gaming stepping up and impressing via its performances right away and reaching the Grand Final.
Most popular mobile esports events in 2024
The top spot in an all-MLBB top five goes to the M6 World Championship, which achieved 4.13 million Peak Viewers (PV). Next up is MPL Indonesia Season 14, where the Grand Final between perennial favorite RRQ Hoshi and Team Liquid Aura delivered one of the most thrilling finals the MPL has ever seen. The match peaked at 3.99 million PV, setting a new series record for the league, while also breaking milestones for Indonesian-speaking viewership and esports broadcasting on TikTok.
The EWC X MLBB Mid Season Cup 2024 is third, having ended as the most popular tournament in the Esports World Cup 2024 series. In fact, the overall viewership for the event could have been significantly higher had all the Indonesian teams, including Fnatic ONIC and EVOS Glory, not gotten eliminated after the group stage.
The first MPL Indonesia season of last year claimed the fourth spot with 2.2 million PV, achieved during the Grand Final between Fnatic ONIC and EVOS Glory. Closing out the top 5 is the 14th season of the MPL Philippines series, which set a regional series record with 1.62 million concurrent viewers during the Grand Finals. This further solidified its reputation as one of the world's most popular mobile gaming esports circuits, with Tagalog viewership reaching a new platform record for TikTok in esports.
The Brawl Stars World Finals 2024, which registered 1.10 million PV, comes in sixth as it was by far the title's most successful tournament, both by HW and PV. It is followed by the PUBG Mobile Global Championship 2024, which did over 985.4K PV to emerge as one of the most successful editions of the PUBG Mobile Global Championship.
The next three tournaments once again feature MLBB events, with the Snapdragon Pro Series Season 5 APAC - Challenge Finals claiming the title of the second most popular event in the series' history.
Following closely behind are the Snapdragon Pro Series Season 6 APAC - Open Finals and the MPL Malaysia Season 14. Despite being a qualifier without a prize pool, the Snapdragon Pro Series attracted more viewers than some major esports events. Meanwhile, MPL Malaysia continued to build on the regional league's growth, setting a new esports record for Malaysian viewership.
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