MLBB's Mid Season Cup 2024 opens to 24% higher viewership than last year's world championship

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Coming into 2024, the esports organizers for Mobile Legends: Bang Bang replaced the previous Southeast Asia Cup with a new, more international, Mid Season Cup 2024. The newly rebranded event featured a Wildcard stage, something Moonton had experimented with during the previous world championship tournament. 

As of June 30, the Wildcard stage matches for the EWC x MLBB Mid Season Cup 2024 generated some of the most promising viewership ML:BB has seen all year. The matches reached 1.76M Hours Watched across a short broadcasting stint of best-of-one matches. The stage came to its culmination when Homebois played against Entity7 for the final deciding match. 

This final match of the Wildcard stage was the most popular moment of the tournament so far, having reached 373.5K Peak Viewers. Not only did the MSC 2024 reach that impressive peak viewership so early into the tournament, but it also managed to maintain a sizeable average concurrent viewership throughout all matches. 123.4K concurrent viewers on average were watching the Wildcard stage at this year’s MSC.

Southeast Asian languages such as Bahasa Malaysia and Indonesian remain the most popular demographics for the mobile gaming esports title, although usually Indonesian is the most popular language for ML:BB esports events. Bahasa Malaysia received a significant boost thanks to the performance of Homebois: a Malaysian team. The Malaysian roster advanced through the Wildcard stage and ultimately qualified for the next stage of the mid-season tournament.

TikTok has also caught up to YouTube Live in terms of viewership for these mobile gaming events. Moonton and the organizers behind these ML:BB esports events have shifted their focus towards TikTok broadcasts, and many new languages and demographics were covered on TikTok in 2024. This decision has clearly paid dividends, as TikTok broadcasts contributed almost as many viewers as the usually dominant YouTube Live. 

Understanding the watch time and viewership of esports events can be difficult without a base to compare the statistics to. Therefore, we collated the viewership statistics of the recent Wildcard stage at the MSC 2024, and compared these statistics to those of the Wildcard stage at last year’s world championship event.

Compared to the world championship, the MSC has achieved its high viewership through a slightly different method. The mid-season event opted for best-of-one matches throughout the Wildcard stage, rather than the best-of-three matches held at the M5 World Championship. This resulted in a much faster Wildcard stage, and one which held viewers’ attention.

The MSC 2024 has so far recorded significantly higher peak and average concurrent viewership compared to the record-setting M5 World Championship. Last year’s world championship is the most popular ML:BB esports event to date, having recorded over 5M PV. At the current pace set by the Mid Season Cup 2024, the event may set a new viewership record for ML:BB esports. 

This boost in viewership is thanks to a myriad of factors: the shorter and more action-packed stage, TikTok viewership growing significantly compared to previous years, and the boost to Malaysian audiences thanks to the competitive success of their home team. As the event continues, Indonesian viewership is likely to grow significantly, as the country’s most popular teams take the stage to compete. 

Moonton’s decision to parter with the Esports World Cup is already showing benefits. The collaboration has boosted ML:BB esports to a new level, and the esports discipline is proving its fans have the passion to keep up with this growth. With a bright road ahead for 2024, ML:BB will further solidify its position as the most popular mobile gaming esports game in the world. 

The Mid Season Cup 2024 continues on July 3 with its Group Stage, which will continue until July 7. Catch all the matches, and broadcasts of the esports event on the Esports Charts page for the MSC 2024.