MSC 2023 becomes top-1 in history of series and sets new record for esports audience in Cambodia

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From June 10 to 18, MLBB Southeast Asia Cup 2023 took place in Cambodia, gathering the strongest representatives from the region as well as invited teams from other countries. The event attracted a lot of attention from fans, with a record number of viewers from Cambodia and becoming the second most popular in the history of the discipline.

MLBB Southeast Asia Cup is a tournament series organized by Moonton, which was launched in 2017. These tournaments served as major international championships before the launch of M World Championship series. Currently, the MSC is the second most significant international championship in the MLBB professional scene. Traditionally, only teams from Southeast Asia participated in the MSC, but this year the organizers also invited teams from North America, Egypt, and Turkey.

In total, 12 teams participated in the MSC 2023, competing for a prize pool of $300K. In the Grand Final, Blacklist International from the Philippines faced ONIC Esports from Indonesia. The latter won with a score of 4-2 and became the first Indonesian team to claim the title in years. It's the second title ONIC Esports, the team previously won the MLBB Southeast Asia Cup 2019.

MSC 2023 Viewership Statistics

The MSC 2023 matches accumulated 40.5 million Hours Watched and drew 659.3K Average Viewers. The Peak Viewers number was recorded during the Grand Final, reaching 3.6 million concurrent viewers. ONIC Esports participated in each of the Top 3 most popular matches of the tournament and also became the most popular team in the championship, both in terms of total Hours Watched and Average Viewers per match (outperforming the second finalist by 25%). Moreover, it significantly surpassed all other teams by both metrics.

A majority of the positions in the Top 5 are occupied by representatives from Indonesia and the Philippines. However, only the finalists managed to gather over a million Average Viewers at their matches. 

In total, MSC 2023 matches were covered on 300+ channels, including both official broadcasts and community casters. Among them, MPL regional league channels rank at the top in terms of Hours Watched and Peak Viewers. Among community casters, Emperor and R7, former professional MLBB players from Indonesia, are the leaders in terms of viewership.

MSC 2023 has set a record for the number of viewers from Cambodia, with the broadcast in Khmer language reaching 130.6K Peak Viewers. The previous record for the language was set during the M3 World Championship and amounted to 107.7K PV.

Speaking of languages in MLBB, it is interesting to note the change in the popularity of Burmese. During the M2 World Championship, the PV number for the Burmese broadcast reached about a million viewers. In 2021, there was a military coup in Myanmar, which greatly affected the entire entertainment industry and esports in particular (there were significant problems with the internet, etc.). MSC 2021 matches were not covered in Burmese at all, and the M3 World Championship broadcast gathered only a few thousand Peak Viewers. In the summer of 2022, the situation stabilized, and MLBB broadcasts began to attract a large audience again. However, it is still five to six times smaller than it was before the coup. The PV number for the Burmese broadcast at MSC 2023 gathered about the same number of viewers as last year's tournament.

Comparison with Other Tournaments

MLBB Southeast Asia Cup 2023 has become the most popular tournament in the history of the series by Peak Viewers, far surpassing 2022 and 2021 editions. 

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Overall, the MSC 2023 has become the second tournament in the history of the discipline in terms of Peak Viewers. It is only surpassed by the M4 World Championship, which took place in January 2023 and drew 4.2 million Peak Viewers.

The next major tournament for the MLBB will be the M5 World Championship, which will take place in November/December in the Philippines. The exact dates and venue will be announced by the organizers later. Participants will compete for a prize pool of $900K, and the tournament's feature will be the first use of the Wildcard stage format. This became possible thanks to the addition of new regions to the discipline's tournament system.