RRQ's troubles hamper MPL Indonesia Season 13's quest for watch time record

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The MPL Indonesia Season 13 concluded on June 9 after more than three months of action between the country's best teams at multiple venues. It became only the second event in the MLBB Professional League to cross 100M Hours Watched and ended as one of the more popular ones in the series.

In fact, at one point, it seemed like the league could create a new HW record in the regional series, but a combination of factors prevented that from happening. One of the major reasons was the early Playoffs exit of RRQ Hoshi, perhaps the game’s most popular side, while another factor was that lots of matches were one-sided, meaning quicker games and less airtime.

This Indonesian professional league, in its tenth season as a franchise system, saw Fnatic ONIC beat EVOS Glory 4:2 in the Grand Final to emerge as the champion. This was the world's most successful MLBB org's fourth win in a row and fifth crown in six seasons, kicking off the Fnatic era in the best possible way.

  Fnatic ONIC reinforced its status as the best MLBB team in Indonesia (Image via MPL Indonesia)   

It was a second runner-up finish for the M1 World Championship winners in three seasons, meaning their MPL drought now stretches three years. As a consolation, it did qualify for the MLBB Mid Season Cup 2024 alongside the tournament winner. This new MLBB international championship, which replaces the old MLBB Southeast Asia Cup, will run from June 28 to July 14 as part of the much-awaited Esports World Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The top two also pocketed a large part of the $336,500 prize pool, with Fnatic ONIC taking home $74,338 and EVOS Glory becoming richer by $43,436.MPL Indonesia Season 13 – Viewership stats and most popular matches 

The MPL Indonesia Season 13 recorded 2.2M Peak Viewers during the Playoffs summit clash that pitted two of the most successful sides in the country. It was the only game from this event to pass two million concurrent spectators, with the next-best game involving Geek Fam ID and RRQ Hoshi.

Speaking of RRQ, the most popular side in the sport has been enduring a fallow period, with its most recent MPL win coming in Season 9, two years back. Since then, its best finish has been second in Season 10, with the likes of ONIC, EVOS, and Geek Fam ID proving more consistent and successful.

Moreover, its elimination in the first round of the Playoffs played a part in the tournament not reaching potentially higher viewership numbers, which, as alluded to above, could have been record-breaking. This is also its longest stretch without winning in the MPL, now going on four splits, with its previous-worst run being two events (twice).

Despite another season that ended in a finish outside the podium places, thanks to the millions of loyal fans it has, RRQ Hoshi had three appearances on the list of five top matches. Two of these were from the same week of the MPL Indonesia Season 13 Regular Season, showing again that the popularity of sides can play a huge role in the viewership dynamics, irrespective of how well they perform.

The above points might make it clear as to who the most popular side by average online viewers was at this MLBB competition, but the fight for the remaining positions in the top five was so much closer. Nevertheless, all these teams duking it out for the ultimate glory and fans' affections helped it register 110.25M Hours Watched and 464.7K Average Viewers over an airtime of 237 hours.

One point to make regarding viewership dynamics compared to the MPL Indonesia Season 12 is the continued rise of TikTok. It saw its share of the overall watch time go up by almost six percent, even eating into the share of market leader YouTube, which saw a drop in its HW number and stake by around three percent.

  Most watched events in the MPL ID series so far   

Sticking to event comparisons, the MPL Indonesia Season 13 ended as one of the more successful ones in the regional series. It was only the second competition to pass 100M HW after the previous split, which was on air for 13 hours less as well.

The latest split was also the fourth most popular tournament in the league, with the leader in this regard being the ninth season when RRQ and ONIC clashed in the Grand Final. It was the second of three consecutive summit clashes between the two most popular sides in the region, with the latter pulling ahead since then.

  Most popular tournaments in the MPL ID series so far   

Crucially, the appetite for the game in Indonesia for the series seems to be on the rise, with more platforms and languages being part of the action over recent editions. In fact, after first getting past 2M PV in Season 8, the league has breached this mark in each subsequent iteration apart from the 11th one, when ONIC and EVOS met in the decider after Rex Regum Qeon was knocked out in the Lower Bracket Semifinal.

This constant improvement and quality of play has ensured that massive global names like Fnatic and Team Liquid have entered the fray. Both have merged with established names to enter the most intense competition in regional Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, bringing even more credibility to a country with legitimate claims to be the best in the discipline today.