MDL Indonesia Season 7 lags far behind last season by viewership

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The last matches of MDL Indonesia Season 7 ended on April 16. Esports Charts tells about the tournament's viewership, its most popular teams, and compares the MDL's performance with a similar league in the Philippines and the MPL's audience reach.

MDL Indonesia (MLBB Development League) is the second division of MPL Indonesia, featuring eight MPL academy teams as well as eight teams that made it to the MDL from open qualifiers. MDL Indonesia was launched in the summer of 2019 when the regional league switched to a franchise format. Recently, a similar league also appeared in the Philippines, the second biggest region in Mobile Legends.

MDL Indonesia Season 7 Viewership Statistics

MDL Indonesia Season 7 matches accumulated almost 4.6 million Hours Watched. The event drew 16.5K Average Viewers and 171.6K Peak Viewers. The Grand Final between Dewa United Esports and EVOS Icon became the most popular game of the tournament. The latter also became the most popular team of the season, both by Hours Watched and Average Viewers at matches.

Three MDL Indonesia Season 7 matches attracted more than 100K PV. Apart from the Grand Final, the two matches between RRQ.Sena and EVOS Icon played in the Group Stage, and the playoff quarterfinals did the same. As the season progressed, the MDL viewers watched the games between the MPL academies much more actively than independent teams. No other team from the qualifiers made it into the Top 5 of the league's most popular games besides Dewa.

Most popular MDL Indonesia Season 7 teams

As for league coverage, broadcasts in Indonesian accumulated more than 99% of the total Hours Watched. In terms of platforms, YouTube enjoyed almost identical dominance. It is important to note that this season the organizers did not broadcast the tournament on TikTok, although in Season 6 this platform accumulated almost 20% of the total Hours Watched. This is partly the reason why the audience reach has dropped significantly.

Comparison With Other Leagues

MDL Indonesia Season 7 showed a very modest audience reach compared with the previous tournaments of the series. For example, it ranked only fourth by Peak Viewers, and sixth by Average Viewers. It is important to note, however, that last season was a record for the league.

One of the reasons for the lower numbers is a change in format. Previous MDL leagues saw all teams play a series of round-robin games in the same group, after which they continued to fight in the playoffs. In season 7, the organizers changed the format a bit, making two different groups, one for MPL academy teams, and one for those who advanced to the league via qualifiers. Moreover, in the playoffs, the academy and independent teams did not meet until the finals. On the one hand, this allowed non-franchise teams to advance through the tournament, but on the other hand, it created a great imbalance in viewership, as games between academy teams drew far more viewers.

EVOS Icon is one of the most popular MDL teams

The past MDL Indonesia Season 7 is far superior to MDL Philippines Season 1. The latter will end only on April 24, but so far the difference in all metrics between the tournaments is huge. Thus, the Average Viewers number differs by 2.5 times, and the Peak Viewers number differs by more than six times.

It is also interesting to compare the MDL and MPL. The main franchise league in Indonesia outperforms the academy league by ten times by every metric. The difference between the leagues can be clearly seen by a simple example: the most popular MDL Indonesia S7 game failed to beat the most unpopular MPL Indonesia S11 game. The difference between them was almost 80K viewers.

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The first MPL regional leagues in 2023 are slowly coming to an end. The champions have already been crowned in Indonesia and Singapore, and the names of all the winners will soon be revealed. You'll see many of them at the MLBB Southeast Asia Cup 2023, the next big Mobile Legends tournament. The event takes place June 10-18 in Cambodia.