MPL Philippines Season 12 ends as fourth-most popular event in regional series

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The MPL Philippines Season 12, which started in early September, concluded on October 29 with AP.Bren claiming the trophy. It ended as the fourth most popular event in this regional Mobile Legends Professional League series and did do lower numbers than the last two editions.

In the Grand Final of the Playoffs, AP.Bren eased past Blacklist International 4:1 to emerge as the champion. As a result, it took home $43.2K and slots at the ONE Esports MPL Invitational 2023 and the M5 World Championship. The runner-up also progressed to these two big-ticket events while pocketing $27.6K out of the total prize pool of $150K.

  Essential stats and most popular matches from the MPL Philippines Season 12   

The MPL Philippines Season 12 registered 768K Peak Viewers during the summit clash between AP.Bren eased past Blacklist International. Another match involving the latter gave this game a close fight, with its Playoffs, Lower Bracket Final game against ECHO crossing 750K PV.

Blacklist International and ECHO were by far the most followed sides at this event, with the latter former having three entries in the top five matches list and the tournament runner-up enjoying four appearances. The former is arguably the most popular esports organization in The Phillippines, while ECHO has claims to being the most successful one among all disciplines to come out of this archipelagic country.

Interestingly, there was one game from the Group Stage that made this most popular matches ranking — between Blacklist International and Omega Esports. Having won and lost one each, the former had a chance to end Week 1 atop the table with a victory here, which seemed to attract fans, and the side duly obliged. All this also ensured this Mobile Legends: Bang Bang tournament registered 19M Hours Watched and 107K Average Viewers over an airtime of 183 hours.

There will be no surprises as to the most popular sides at the MPL Philippines Season 12 based on average online viewership. It gained 10.2% more people on average than the next-best entry, with its long-winding journey during the knockouts also helping it end as the most-watched team.

Tagalog and YouTube were the dominant language and platform at this tournament, although the latter did see a slight drop compared to the previous season. This was because TikTok was a major contributor this time, increasing its share of the watch time by 12.02% to end as the third-most preferred destination for fans to catch the action live.

  Most popular competitions held in the MPL Phillippines series   

\When looking at this regional Mobile Legends: Bang Bang series, Season 12 was the fourth most popular and sixth-most watched competition. A significant reason for these middling stats was the failure of ECHO, the defending world champion, to qualify for this year's event and thus lose the opportunity to defend its crown.

Coming to the M5 World Championship itself, the defending champion's absence is sure to affect the viewership dynamics. ECHO and Blacklist International's run to the M4 World Championship's Grand Final attracted millions of extra viewers, especially from The Phillippines, making it the most successful tournament by far in series history.

  MLBB World Championships viewership (2019-2023)   

Hence, it remains to be seen how the qualified sides are able to do with their performances when the lights shine brightly on them later. This year's world championship will run from November 23 to December 17, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Manila, The Philippines.

However, before that big-ticket event comes the ONE Esports MPL Invitational 2023, another international MLBB competition hosted by Moonton and One Esports. It will see a new "fan vote" feature during the Group Drawing, which should give it an interesting twist.

The MPLI 2023 will see regions like Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines,  Singapore, and Cambodia return alongside the addition of three new regions: North America, MENA, and China. Indonesia's ONIC Esports is the holder, but it has decided to skip defending its crown as it wanted to give its players rest as they prepare for the M5 World Championship.