ONE Esports MPL Invitational 2021 results — one of the most watched ML:BB tournaments

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The second event in the MPL Invitational series, held in the mobile game Mobile Legends: Bang Bang ended on November 6. The event was organized by ONE Esports news portal. The best teams in Asia played in the tournament, and the tournament itself became one of the most watched in the discipline.

Unlike last year, the tournament's teams have slightly changed. The best teams from the leading regions of the professional ML:BB scene (Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore), as well as a participant from the new league for Cambodia, once again participated in the championship.

MPL Invitational 2021 overall statistics

ONE Esports MPL Invitational 2021 was on air for 42 hours and had 14.2 million Hours Watched. The first day of the tournament gathered more than a million Peak Viewers - it happened during the playoff match between Indonesian teams (the most popular in the discipline) EVOS Legends and RRQ — 1.3 million people. It is noteworthy that the most viewers watched this match on NimoTV (an Indonesian platform), while the other matches were watched by more people on YouTube.

The tournament record for the number of concurrent viewers at the peak was reached in the semifinals when RRQ (Indonesia) and Blacklist International (Philippines) played — 1.7 million Peak Viewers. Compared with last year's Invitational, the Peak Viewers number increased by 140%! The Average Viewers number of the event rose in the same way too — 341.4K spectators (140% increase as well).

In the decisive match, the champion of the Indonesian league ONIC competed against the winner of the tournament in the Philippines — Blacklist International. The victory went to the Indonesian team, and the final gathered only 1.3 million Peak Viewers — this is only the third most popular match at the tournament.

Languages and Broadcast Platforms

In 2021 the organizers diversified the pool of available broadcasts. At last year's tournament, only YouTube and Facebook streams were available, but now Nimo TV, Twitch and even TikTok have been added to them.

The most popular broadcast platform was YouTube, which accounted for almost 67% of the total Hours Watched of the tournament and the highest Peak Viewers total of 1.16 million. The second most watched platform was Nimo TV with 18.5% of the total Hours Watched and 423K viewers at its peak (it should be noted that it happened on the first day of the tournament).

Contrary to the platforms, the number of broadcast languages was reduced. Since the championship no longer features teams from Myanmar, the organizers refused to broadcast in the Burmese language. In general, Myanmar's ersports scene is not yet functioning due to the political situation in the country and the social crisis.

Most viewers watched the Indonesian stream, which at its peak reached 1.3 million people. It accounted for 67.6% of MPL Invitational 2021's total Hours Watched.

In second place was Tagalog, which is common in the Philippines, with 21.3% of the total HW and 327K Peak Viewers. The top 3 was rounded out by the English-language broadcast with 101K Peak Viewers (7.6% of total Hours Watched).

Comparison with other ML:BB tournaments

Compared with the last MPL Invitational 2020, the Peak Viewers number of the tournament has increased by 140%! Hours Watched and Average Viewers also doubled.

Top 5 most popular ML:BB events by Peak Viewers in the history of the discipline

ONE Esports MPL Invitational 2021 made it to the top 5 most popular Mobile Legends: Bang Bang events by Peak Viewers. At the moment, the record belongs to the M2 World Championship with 3 million Peak Viewers in the middle of the broadcast.

M3 World Championship kicks off on December 6. Taking into account the constant increase in interest in the discipline throughout the year and the new regions of the scene, we can surely expect a new record for Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Bang.

Check M3 World Championship statistics

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