The thirteenth season of the Philippines leg of the MLBB Professional League concluded after more than two months of action. It was just the fourth edition to cross the 800K Peak Viewers mark, with the displays of a fan favorite, albeit under a new guise, key to this development.
After nine weeks of intense battles, Falcons AP.Bren faced off against Team Liquid Echo in the Grand Final looking to retain its crown. However, the latter continued its fine form to ease to a 4:0 win and add a second title in three years.
The tournament winner took home $44.5K as prize money out of a total purse of $150K while the runner-up became richer by around $31K. Both sides also booked their spots at the brand-new MLBB Mid Season Cup 2024 which will be a part of the upcoming Esports Word Cup 2024 extravaganza from June 28 to July 14.
MPL Philippines Season 13 – basic viewership stats and most popular matches
The MPL Philippines Season 13 recorded 824K PV during the Playoffs summit clash where Falcons AP.Bren was also looking to avenge an earlier loss to Team Liquid Echo (in the Upper Bracket Final). However, the latter was not to be denied, clinching its first competition victory after Team Liquid’s takeover.
The globally renowned brand expansion into Mobile Legends: Bang Bang saw it acquire Southeast Asian esports organization STUN.GG and its two competitive gaming properties from Indonesia and the Philippines — AURA Esports and ECHO Esports. That no other match passed 600K PV showed the amount of hype fans had for the Grand Final, with the same two teams also part of entry number two on this list.
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MPL Philippines Season 13 – most popular teams
The leaderboard for the most popular sides in this MLBB regional league reflects recent changes in the tide, with a new power slowly emerging to challenge highly-followed sides like Blacklist International. The collective might of these teams and their positive displays also ensured this tournament recorded 17.3M Hours Watched and 121.6K Average Viewers over about 143 hours of airtime.
It has to be pointed out that the huge differences in HW and AV are due to the nature of the organization’s participation. As the top side in the above pic only began its Playoffs journey in the Upper Bracket Semifinals, the number of matches it played was reduced, thus bringing down its watch time. Moreover, its Average Viewers figure was high as it was part of some of the tournament’s most popular matches. Conversely, sides with lesser AV played more games, so their airtime improved, hereby giving them higher Hours Watched figures.
Readers must note that Bren is the defending world champion and the only two-time winner of this prestigious MLBB event. Meanwhile, Echo won the M4 World Championship and Blacklist the M3 World Championship, making the Philippines perhaps the most successful nation in the discipline and thus one of its most successful in terms of viewership figures.
Most popular events in the MPL Philippines series
As already mentioned, the MPL Philippines Season 13 became one of the few competitions in this regional series to top 800K PV, with the leader being the seventh season that touched a massive 1.4M PV. With the MSC 2024 — the second international championship of the calendar that has replaced the MLBB Southeast Asia Cup — coming up, this was good news for the organizers, as global events rely heavily on sides from Indonesia and the Philippines to do well and attract large audience numbers.
This MLBB tournament also saw a slight tweak to the scoring system and format from last year, which saw the airtime come down drastically. That is why its watch time is lower compared to some other recent splits, although not too much should be read into this.
What can be said for sure is that if Blacklist International had been able to make it to the final three sets of games, the peak concurrent viewership figures would have been higher. It shows that despite the event finishing as the fourth most popular ever in this MLBB series, there is room for lots more to come in terms of potential audience reach.
For now, fans of Echo can enjoy its ascent back to the summit of MLBB esports in the Philippines. The next challenge will be to maintain this momentum and bring a first international trophy home under its new owners, which we won’t bet against based on what we saw at the Event Hall, SM Southmall, in Las Piñas City.
