Esports clubs expanding: How Liquid, Fnatic & others took on new games
The global esports scene is highly diverse, with different regions favoring different games: Call of Duty is popular in North America, and Counter-Strike dominates in Europe and Brazil, while Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and PUBG Mobile are huge in Southeast Asia. As these trends unfold, top esports organizations often sign local teams to tap into new regional markets. Esports Charts highlights five organizations that successfully expanded into new games in 2024.
A major trend in 2024 saw Western esports organizations signing Southeast Asian teams for MLBB. Sometimes this was just a temporary partnership for the Esports World Cup, but still: top-tier clubs have finally realized that the MPL leagues and M World Championships offer a massive audience that are too big to ignore.
One organization that stood out last year was Team Liquid. One of the most respected and successful organizations in the industry, Team Liquid didn’t just sign an MLBB roster, they acquired the entire STUN.gg holding, which owned the AURA Esports and ECHO. This gave them access to teams in top MPL leagues in Indonesia and the Philippines, as well as two academy teams in MDL leagues in those regions. The investment paid off quickly: Team Liquid PH won first place in MPL Philippines Season 13 and reached the semifinals of the MLBB Mid Season Cup 2024, while Team Liquid ID took home the win in MPL Indonesia Season 14 and made it to the M6 World Championship finals.
Team Liquid’s MLBB teams racked up over 82,800,000 Hours Watched (HW) in 2024, making up about 42.6% of the total viewership for all of Team Liquid’s teams across different games. The peak viewership for Team Liquid in MLBB hit 4,129,026 concurrent viewers, marking the highest audience the organization has ever had.
Fnatic took a similar approach, but unlike Team Liquid, they didn’t buy a team. Instead, they arranged a temporary partnership with ONIC Esports, which has rosters in the regional MPL Indonesia and MPL Philippines. Under the joint Fnatic ONIC tag, the two teams won MPL Indonesia Season 13 and more importantly, the M6 World Championship.
Thanks to the collaboration with ONIC, Fnatic recorded over 73,200,000 HW, more than half of the total viewership for all of their teams in 2024. The club also doubled its peak online viewership record, which, by the way, was set during a match against Team Liquid. It’s worth noting that in early 2025, ONIC and Fnatic announced the end of their partnership, and the teams returned to their original names.
Team Liquid and Fnatic were not the only organizations exploring MLBB in 2024. The Serbian organization Aurora Gaming assembled a Filipino roster and secured a slot in the MPL Philippines. Meanwhile, the Serbo-Russian organization Team Spirit signed a team from Eastern Europe, which competed in the M6 World Championship. While the results of these teams were more modest compared to those of Team Liquid and Fnatic, they still made a significant contribution to the overall viewership statistics for clubs.
There were other interesting examples outside of MLBB, too. For instance, the Norwegian club HEROIC signed a Dota 2 roster in 2024, but chose South America instead of Europe. The roster didn’t achieve major results at cross-regional tournaments, but they managed to win the regional qualifier and secure a spot at The International 2024. By the end of the year, HEROIC’s team had accumulated nearly 20,000,000 HW in Dota 2, or 44.2% of the total viewership of the organization.
In 2024, esports organizations significantly boosted their viewership by expanding into new regions and games, with a notable focus on Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. Teams like Team Liquid and Fnatic saw remarkable success by either acquiring local teams or forming strategic partnerships, driving massive audience engagement and setting viewership records. This shift towards new games and regions demonstrates the growing importance of tapping into diverse esports markets, with organizations enjoying the benefits of increased global visibility and fanbase expansion.
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