MDL Philippines Season 3 is series' first event to cross 100,000 Peak Viewers

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The MDL Philippines Season 3 was held as a hybrid online/offline affair at the Shooting Gallery Studios in Makati City, Philippines, from March 12 to May 12. With the development teams of top esports organizations shining, it saw a massive spike in its peak viewership, hitting a new series record in the process.

This Mobile Legends: Bang Bang competition saw ten academy teams battle it out for a prize pool of $20,000. In the end, it was RRQ Kaito who beat ECHO Proud 3:2 in a nailbiter of a Grand Final to emerge as victors and take home $3,690 in earnings, with the runner-up becoming richer by $2,425.

  MDL Philippines Season 3 — Viewership stats and most popular matches   

The MDL Philippines Season 3 hit 110.4 Peak Viewers during the summit clash between the development teams of two of the most popular sides in the region. This match created several series records, becoming the only one to cross 50K PV and 100K PV while making this its most popular tournament among the three editions held so far.

With both orgs' second teams more or less starting afresh in the off-season, fans were keen to see how their new rosters would fare during actual competition. This added to the anticipation and excitement for the event and the eventual Grand Final, where the dream scenario of an RRQ-ECHO match was met, helping pull in many more viewers than usual.

That the game was full of jeopardy, with RRQ taking the lead before falling back 1:2 and ultimately making a comeback to seal a 3:2 win, added to the hype around the live action. These two teams’ good displays, coupled with the Semifinals run of another prominent side in Blacklist Academy, ensured this Mobile Legends: Bang Bang tournament also did 1.08M Hours Watched and 11.1 Average Viewers over an airtime of about 98 hours.

It was a close battle between two sides to emerge as the most popular, but one name eventually came out on top by a tiny margin. However, the absence of one particular org from this top five list and the five most popular games leaderboard is surprising given its run to the latter stages of the Playoffs.

Interestingly, TikTok maintained its place as the best alternative among the streaming services, with the official channel on this video-sharing app emerging as the most watched. Meanwhile, YouTube increased its dominance, with its share of the watch time going up by around 7.5%, eating into the shares of a declining Facebook Gaming.

  Most popular events in the MDL Philippines series   

Coming to comparisons, the latest edition of MLBB's development league in the Philippines did 197.7% better than the next best entry in terms of peak concurrent viewers. The number of average viewers also shot up by almost 33.2% compared to the second-placed event, a good measure of how many fans caught the action live.

Again, fans finally got to a Grand Final between rivals RRQ and ECHO after three editions, so that anticipation carried the match into previously unchartered territory. Even the second and third-most popular games involving ONIC Arsenals, ECHO Proud, and Omega Neos, would have been enough to create series PV records.

Moreover, there were a lot more official channels covering the event despite the overall number of handles being the same compared to the previous edition. Esports events in the Asian market usually rely on official broadcasts to attract viewers as compared to the prevalence of co-casting in the West, so the decision to have more such channels paid off handsomely.

MLBB continues to go from strength to strength each year and after a pretty impressive 2023, the new season has gotten off to a great start. With the various MLBB Professional Leagues also ongoing, fans could see even more records broken by the time the year's first international event comes around, i.e., the MLBB Mid Season Cup 2024.