How Mobile Legends is evolving in Brazil and Latin America

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Mobile Legends: Bang Bang is one of the most popular esports disciplines in Southeast Asia, where it competes confidently with industry giants such as League of Legends or Dota 2. Recently, the mobile title by Moonton Studio has been trying to establish and grow its audience in other regions. In this Esports Charts article, we will look at how the professional ML:BB scene is developing in Latin America and Brazil.

In some esports disciplines, Brazil is considered a separate region and has its own league, separate from the Latin/South American leagues. For example, there is such a division in League of Legends, Rainbow Six Siege.

Brazilian teams started participating in ML:BB world championships from the first international tournament by the developers (M1 World Championship), but they were more like "guests" at these events, as they got there via invitations or very limited national qualifications. Only in 2021, Brazil got its own professional league MPL Brazil, in which quotas for the World Championships are offered.

Similarly, Latin America has also entered the professional ML:BB scene, but it did so one year behind Brazil. At the M3 World Championship, the region was represented by the Peruvian team Malvinas Gaming, which won the LATAM Championship 2021. And only in 2022, the MLSL (MLBB Latam Super League) was founded, where teams from Latin America competed for quotas for the M4 World Championship.

ML:BB Coverage in Latin America

The main language of broadcasts at tournaments in Latin America is Spanish — it is the official language in Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, and many other countries in the region (the players of which mainly participate in these tournaments). The most watched tournament on the Spanish broadcast was the LIGA LATAM 2022 — about 6K Average Viewers watched its streams, and the Peak Viewers number reached 18.8K. MLBB Latam Super League Season 1 had slightly fewer viewers — 2-3K Average Viewers and 15.1K Peak Viewers.

The number of viewers on the Spanish broadcast of the latest world championships was even lower than on the broadcasts of the regional Latin American league. The most popular in this regard was the M3 World Championship, but even there, the Average Viewers number was 2.6K and the Peak Viewers number was 9.1K. The main reason for such numbers is the very inconvenient time zones since all world championships were held in Singapore/Indonesia, which is literally on the other side of the world from Latin/South America. Moreover, in the last two world championships, teams from Latin America performed very poorly and took the last places there, which certainly does not add motivation for viewers to watch such events.

ML:BB Coverage in Brazil

The situation with the coverage of the ML:BB in Brazil is similar to the situation in Latin America. The only difference is that the main language of broadcasts in Brazil is not Spanish but Portuguese.

The number of viewers at Brazilian tournaments is only slightly higher than in Latin America. The Average Viewers number on MPL Brazil broadcasts fluctuates from 2.6K to 3K. The Peak Viewers number at the league's games usually ranges from 10K to 12K people, but during MPL Brazil Season 3, this figure increased to 22.4K.

The situation with the broadcast of world championships in Portuguese is similar. Due to inconvenient time zones, these broadcasts gather fewer viewers than the domestic league. So far, the most popular tournament is the M2 World Championship with 13.4K PV.

Regional Dynamics

The audience coverage of leagues in Brazil and Latin America is incomparable to that of the leagues in Southeast Asian countries, where millions of viewers follow the matches of top teams. In the new regions, the count is still only in the hundreds and thousands of viewers.

The Average Viewers number of tournaments in Latin America fluctuates from 2K to 6K viewers. The range of Peak Viewers ranges from 8K to 18K at different tournaments. At the same time, Spanish-language broadcasts of world championships showed a slight increase. While the M2 World Championship had only 3.1K Peak Viewers, at the M3 and M4 championships, this number reached 9.1K and 6.6K Peak Viewers, respectively.

As for Brazil, the regular seasons of MPL Brazil show stable viewership numbers on broadcasts — this metric ranges from 2.8K to 3K people with a slight tendency to increase. The Peak Viewers number grows in jumps: during the first season, it was 9.6K. In the third season, it rose to 22.4K, but in the fourth it dropped to 11.1K viewers. In other words, there is also a slight dynamic of growth, but the range of error is very large. If we only consider the broadcasts of world championships, the most viewers on the Portuguese stream were during the M2 World Championship, when the Peak Viewers number reached almost 13.4K people. At the M3 and M4 tournaments, this metric was 5.2K and 9.4K, respectively.

Also read: MPL Spring seasons recap — Malaysia, MENA, and Philippines show improvements