Asian PMSL regions star as PUBG Mobile gears up for Esports World Cup challenge
The various PUBG Mobile Super League tournaments for the Spring & Summer seasons have ended, with this year being its first as a global affair (it debuted exclusively in Southeast Asia last year). SEA, which saw an increase in the number of seasons from two to three in 2024, continued to lead the way in terms of audience reach to justify this move and maintain its position as the most vital market for the game globally.
As a result of having an extra event on the circuit, SEA is the only one to also conduct a summer split, with the other consolidated regions having just the spring and fall seasons. Readers must note that the winner of the PUBG Mobile Super League - Southeast Asia Spring 2024 qualified for the PUBG Mobile Global Open 2024, where Japan's REJECT created history and qualified for the PUBG Mobile World Cup 2024.
Speaking of the PUBG Mobile World Cup, it will be part of the upcoming Esports World Cup cross-event spectacle that carries an overall prize pool of over $60 million. The four regional splits mentioned above served as qualifiers for this mega competition, with the final allocation being five teams each from the PMSL Southeast Asia Summer, the PMSL CSA Spring, and the PMSL EMEA Spring, and four teams from the PMSL Americas Spring.
Also Read: Road to Esports World Cup 2024 — all teams, tournaments and qualifiers
Among these leagues, the PUBG Mobile Super League - Southeast Asia Summer 2024 notched the highest viewership numbers. It accrued 404.2K Peak Viewers, 12.7M Hours Watched, and 133.7K Average Viewers over 96 hours of airtime. These might be lesser figures than its spring season, but there are reasons for the same.
The higher watch time can be attributed to the three hours extra that the latter was on the air, while the lesser peak concurrent viewership was because, apart from winner BOOM Esports, the other popular sides could not muster a serious enough challenge, with the rest of the podium filled by names like D'Xavier and Yoodo Alliance, who hail from lesser-fancied regions.
Alongside the three names mentioned above, Talon Esports and Vampire Esports will head to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to represent this expanded region at the EWC 2024. These five sides will also participate in the PUBG Mobile Regional Clash 2024 - PEL vs CSA vs SEA, a battle for supremacy between the three most sought-after markets in the discipline.
The next-best league was the PUBG Mobile Super League - Central and South Asia Spring 2024, home to the current world champion and runner-up IHC ESPORTS and Stalwart Esports, both from Mongolia. However, both failed to win this event, with the former only barely sneaking into the World Cup's Group Stage by finishing fourth.
The latter, an Indian esports organization with an all-Mongolian roster, had a disappointing run, finishing 18th out of 20 places having failed to even get out of the league phase. This PUBG Mobile tournament still managed a healthy 115.7K Peak Viewers, 5.4M Hours Watched, and 59.5K Average Viewers over an airtime of 91 hours.
Both the above PMSL leagues finished among the five most popular events held this year in the discipline. The leader is the PMGO 2024, with the SEA Spring split in second having also ended as one of the game's eight most-watched tournaments of all time.
The EMEA and Americas spring splits also put in decent shifts to end among the more successful PUBG Mobile offerings this year. In fact, the former became the second-most-popular event ever in the discipline when looking at the Europe and Middle East regions.
Similarly, the Americas competition, which encompasses the Brazil, LATAM, and North America regions, ended as the most watched offering ever from these shores. However, it could only finish in the fifth spot when changing the metric to peak concurrent spectators, although that is still a positive sign for this revamped series.
Overall, it has been a great start to the year for PUBG Mobile, which continues to be one of the leading lights in the mobile battle royale competitive scene. The Esports World Cup 2024 could be another marker that the game leaves for its rivals and the industry, and it will be fascinating to see how the various disciplines at this spectacle do next month.
Detailed Esports data at your fingertips.
Subscribe to & start exploring!
Mentioned events
