In the first half of 2024, mobile esports tournaments in Southeast Asia dominated the rankings, with the most-watched events being in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and Arena of Valor. Mobile battle royale tournaments also made it into the top 10, demonstrating that the primary audience for mobile esports is concentrated in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The standout event was MPL Indonesia Season 13, which highlighted the significant influence of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang on the Southeast Asian esports scene. This season garnered 110.2 million Hours Watched and peaked at 2.25 million viewers, making it the second most-watched MPL Indonesia event ever, just behind last year's tournaments.
Following MPL Indonesia, the top three spots were occupied by two Arena of Valor tournaments. The Arena of Glory Spring 2024 set a new record for the series with a peak viewership of over 656,500. The Arena of Valor Premier League 2024 also performed well, though it did not reach the record-breaking numbers of 2023.
In fourth place was MPL Philippines Season 13, another regional league for Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. This season achieved just over 17.3 million HW, falling short of the peak of the 10th season, which had over 26 million HW. Notably, Season 13 was the first to feature collaborations between local teams and international clubs such as Team Liquid and Fnatic, ahead of the Esports World Cup.
Read also: Esports World Cup: keeping viewers engaged during long LAN events
Mid-table featured two seasons of PUBG Mobile Super League — SEA, with the Spring season outperforming the Summer season in all key metrics. This was largely due to a higher number of unique broadcast channels — 182 compared to 159 for the Summer season — as well as stronger performance in primary broadcast languages, Indonesian and Malaysian.
MPL Malaysia Season 13 ranked among the top tournaments with 10.5 million HW and a peak of 631,000 viewers, both the highest ever for the Malaysian league. Notably, the winner of MPL Malaysia Season 13, Selangor Red Giants, also secured the MLBB Mid Season Cup 2024 in Riyadh, earning one million dollars — the largest single prize in the discipline.
In the eighth position was RoV Pro League 2024 Summer. Although it saw a slight decrease in HW and peak viewership compared to the previous year, its average number of viewers increased by 21.7%. Talon Esports, the champion of RoV Pro League 2024 Summer, won their fourth championship, tying them with Bacon Time for the most seasons won in the region.
Read also: Most popular esports events of August 2024 — what outperformed Valorant Champions and IEM Cologne?
The Battlegrounds Mobile India Series 2024, a PUBG Mobile battle royale tournament for India, accumulated just over 9 million HW. It was slightly more popular than the previous year's event but did not surpass the record figures from 2021. Finally, the Free Fire World Series - Southeast Asia Spring 2024 rounded out the summer rankings with just over 8 million viewing hours and 310,000 peak viewers.
The top 10 list featured tournaments across five different esports disciplines, showcasing the diversity of the mobile gaming market. It is also noteworthy that these games are often closely tied to specific countries, leading to relatively low competition between games of the same genre within the mobile segment.
Detailed Esports data at your fingertips.
Subscribe to & start exploring!
Mentioned events
