TikTok boosts viewership of MPL Indonesia Season 15

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This past weekend, the 15th season of MPL Indonesia kicked off in Jakarta, bringing the region’s most popular Mobile Legends: Bang Bang league into action. The opening week’s matches revealed that this season is drawing more viewers than ever, with TikTok streams playing a significant role in boosting the numbers. Esports Charts provides an early look at the league’s performance.

MPL Indonesia is a franchise-based league, with usually the same teams competing each season. However, this year marks the debut of a new team. In February 2025, the Ukrainian organization Natus Vincere purchased the Rebellion Esports slot and is now competing in the league with an Indonesian roster. NAVI is one of the most high-profile esports organizations globally, and its inclusion in MPL is expected to attract a new wave of fans. That said, the league has been doing an impressive job of expanding its viewership.

In the opening week of MPL Indonesia Season 15, each team played two matches, and RRQ Hoshi and EVOS stood out with perfect records, each claiming two wins. However, one surprise at the bottom of the standings was the veteran team ONIC Esports, which has multiple MPL championship titles, a win at the MLBB Southeast Asia Cup 2023, and a second-place finish at the M5 World Championship. ONIC lost both of their matches, but with plenty of time left in the season, they still have a chance to turn things around. Natus Vincere also had a tough debut, suffering two losses in their first two games.

The most popular match in the opening week of MPL Indonesia Season 15 was the game between ONIC Esports and RRQ Hoshi, which peaked at 1,776,078 viewers — a 17% increase compared to the most-popular match of Season 13, last year’s spring season.

Interestingly, only two out of the eight matches exceeded one million peak viewers, and both of them featured ONIC Esports. The two surprising losses by this top team generated a lot of interest among the league's fans.

As for NAVI’s debut, there hasn’t been much buzz around their matches yet. Their series against RRQ Hoshi ranked fifth in peak viewership during the first week, while their match against Team Liquid ID drew even fewer viewers.

The first week of MPL Indonesia Season 15 brought in more viewers than the start of Season 13, but this dominance isn't as clear-cut. In some areas, Season 15 lagged behind: average viewership on YouTube and Facebook decreased, and audience reach on English and Burmese broadcasts fell. However, the stats for Season 15 were rescued by the Indonesian TikTok streams. By the end of the first week, average viewership on the platform had increased by 61.2%, and peak viewership rose by nearly 71% compared to Season 13. Overall, the number of unique channels nearly doubled compared to last year’s season opener, with the bulk of the growth coming from TikTok. 

With the rise of TikTok, there has been a noticeable decline in viewership on the channels of some YouTubers and community casters. R7 Tatsumaki, in particular, has been hit hardest — his channel's average viewership dropped by 69% in the first week of the season, and peak viewership fell by 62.8%. Still, R7 Tatsumaki's channel remains among the top 5 most popular channels of the current MPL season.

MPL Indonesia is currently transforming, with TikTok becoming an increasingly important platform. Viewer numbers on TikTok are growing, and its share of total watch hours has increased from 21% to 30.7% over the past year. YouTube still holds the dominant position, but it seems that the red platform has hit a ceiling: average viewership on major channels like MPL Indonesia and ML:BB Indonesia has even slightly declined compared to Season 13. It will be interesting to see how these platforms compare by the end of the season.

The group stage of MPL Indonesia Season 15 runs from March 7 to May 25. The top six teams will continue the fight in the playoff bracket, competing for two spots at the MLBB Mid Season Cup 2025. You can follow the tournament’s progress on the coverage page.