More than three million viewers tuned in to watch the Philippines’ BREN Esports eke out an M2 World Championship grand finals win over Myanmar’s Burmese Ghouls, making it the fourth-most watched esports event in history.
The seven-game series kept 3.08 million viewers enraptured, according to Esports Charts. The second edition of Moonton’s Mobile Legends: Bang Bang premier international tournament shattered the title’s own viewership records, previously held by Mobile Legends Premier League (MPL) Indonesia season six with 1.39 million viewers in October 2020. ML:BB‘s first World Championship, held in November 2019, attracted just over 640,000 peak viewers in comparison.
The peak viewership record remains with Riot Games’ League of Legends, in which the 2019 edition of Worlds peaked at over 3.98 million viewers. The 2020 World Championship took the second spot with 3.88 million viewers, while the currently ongoing PUBG Mobile Global Championship sits in third place with 3.80 million viewers.
It’s a resounding win for developer Moonton, which committed to hosting an offline tournament in Singapore for the 12 teams. The mobile MOBA, buoyed by its massive Southeast Asian fanbase, seems undeterred by competitors like Arena of Valor and Wild Rift, instead going from strength to strength in its fledging esports scene.
BREN Esports vanquished their demons after getting knocked down to the lower bracket by Burmese Ghouls on the first day of the playoffs. The MPL Philippines season six winners tore their way to the grand finals undeterred, however, defeating MPL MY/SG champions Todak, and both of MPL Indonesia’s grand finalists to claim a spot in the grand finals, and eventually, the championship.
Update Jan. 26 9:57am CT: All numbers provided in the original article were sourced from Esports Charts. A Riot Games representative reached out to clarify that according to the developer’s own data collection and metrics from over 20 platforms, Worlds 2019 reached 21.8 million average minute audience and 44 million peak concurrent viewers and Worlds 2020 reached 23.04 million average minute audience and nearly 46 million peak concurrent viewers.
