The M5 World Championship has surpassed M4 in unique broadcast channels

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M5 World Championship Group Stage is underway in the Philippines, the main tournament of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang esports season. As initial stats of the second stage of the championship indicate, there's been a significant increase in the count of unique broadcast channels compared to the previous championship, but it doesn’t help the event improve last year’s viewership much. At least for now.

M5 World Championship Viewership Statistics

Following the Wildcard stage, six teams exited the tournament, leaving only Team SMG and Team Lilgun to advance to the group stage and continue their quest for the title. The standout Wildcard match, attracting the most attention, was the series between Team SMG and Niightmare Esports, boasting 271.8K concurrent viewers.

The Wildcard winners have joined the primary pool of participants in the group stage. Champions from the main regional MPL leagues compete here, alongside the top teams from Liga Latam 2023, MLBB Continental Championships, MTC Turkiye Championship, North America Challenger, and Tournament, totaling 16 teams split into four groups. Only half of these teams will advance to the final playoff bracket.

The group stage matches have just commenced this past weekend, yet some conclusions can already be drawn. Firstly, peak viewership has quadrupled in comparison to the Wildcard stage, all thanks to the participation of teams from the top MPL regions. The series between ONIC Esports and Bigetron Sons drew in over a million viewers simultaneously. Secondly, the teams from Indonesia lead in average viewership during matches, with a 33% edge over teams from other regions. And it’s no wonder since Indonesia hosts the most popular Mobile Legends league, which in the last season attracted over 2.1 million peak viewers.

There's a chance that the M5 World Championship might witness a decline in viewership compared to the previous World Championship. This is due to the absence of RRQ, the most popular team in the discipline. RRQ couldn't qualify for the current event because the team finished fourth in the last MPL Indonesia league. With RRQ missing, ONIC Esports retains its position as the primary viewer attraction at the M5 World Championship, and it’s interesting to see whether it would compensate the event for the lack of the most-watched ML:BB team in the world.

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