Mobile esports has surged in popularity over the last few years due to its unparalleled accessibility and inclusivity. The ubiquitous nature of smartphones ensures that virtually anyone can participate, eliminating the barriers often associated with traditional gaming platforms.
This accessibility, coupled with the portability of mobile devices, allows gamers to engage in competitive play anytime and anywhere, transcending geographical limitations. This has also caused a rapid proliferation of competitions worldwide and across disciplines. Making this segment one of the most sought-after when it comes to competitive play.
All viewership statistics listed in this article do not include data from Chinese live-streaming platforms. The publically available viewership information for these platforms needs to be more reliable and track the number of viewers. The absence of which makes comparisons to other live-streaming platforms impossible.
What has also helped mobile esports tournaments increase their profile and fame are players, teams, organizations, and in some cases, the discipline itself. This has led to an increase in the importance of numbers and stats. Especially on the viewership front, so the below leaderboard will look at the most popular events held in the mobile esports segment across the year.
Ranked based on the best matches from events as per peak concurrent viewership, this list is dominated by names from Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.
#10 – Arena of Valor Premier League 2023
The Arena of Valor Premier League 2023 comes in at number ten thanks to the Playoffs Grand Final between Saigon Phantom and Bacon Time. The former coasted to a 4:1 win in this $500K event which served as the mid-season major for Arena of Valor’s 2023 season.
AoV is one of the most followed and played mobile games in the SEA region. Thus making its esports scene highly sought after among fans from this region. This popularity is what helped this tournament record 974.6K Peak Viewers, making it the most popular tournament in the history of the discipline.
#9 – PUBG Mobile Global Championship 2023
The PUBG Mobile Global Championship 2023 was able to hit 980.1K PV thanks to Round 16 on Day 3 of the Grand Finals. The third-last round of this coveted PUBG Mobile competition saw China’s Six Two Eight notch the first of its two wins over the last three rounds.
However, that wasn’t enough to prevent it from finishing as the least-ranked of the three Chinese sides, with Mongolia’s IHC ESPORTS emerging as the champion with 142 points. Thanks to the East Asian country’s flourishing esports scene, this $3M prize pool tournament recorded its highest peak viewership since the inaugural season.
#8 – Snapdragon Pro Series Season 3 SEA – Challenge Finals
The first of eight straight MLBB entries on this ranking is the Snapdragon Pro Series Season 3 SEA – Challenge Finals, which registered 1.03M PV during the Upper Bracket Final of the Playoffs between ONIC Esports and Bren Esports. It was a showdown between Indonesia and the Philippines, a regular occurrence in international/continental events.
The former would come back from 1:2 down to win 3:2 and win this $150K competition with a commanding performance in the Grand Final. Such a stirring story helped this regional league for Southeast Asia become the first ever Snapdragon PRO series event to reach over 1M+ PV.
#7 – 32nd SEA Games – Women’s Tournament
The only female representation here is the 32nd SEA Games – Women’s Tournament, which managed a stupendous 1.3M PV to shatter quite a few milestones. This number was reached during the Indonesia versus Philippines Gold Medal Match encounter. The former edged out a 3:2 victory to emerge as Southeast Asian champions.
Part of the 32nd edition of the biennial extravaganza that is the Southeast Asian Games, this MLBB competition became the most popular women’s esports event ever. It beat the previous record holder, the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Women’s Invitational 2022. By a whopping 348% and furthered the push for esports to be added to such multi-sport spectacles, including the quadrennial Summer Games.
#6 – 32nd SEA Games – Men’s Tournament
The men’s side of the SEA Games, the 32nd SEA Games – Men’s Tournament, comes next with 1.4M PV. It was the third time esports was part of this intra-continental show, and included six games and nine events. Including Attack Online 2 (individual, team), Crossfire, Valorant, League of Legends: Wild Rift, PUBG Mobile (individual, team), and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (men’s, women’s teams).
The men’s side of the MLBB event did 7.6% better than its female counterpart to end as the most popular tournament from this year’s SEA Games. The two also ended in the top three of the most popular competitions at this multi-sport affair involving participants from the current 11 countries of Southeast Asia.
#5 – MPL Indonesia Season 11
The MPL Indonesia Season 11 is the first entry in the top five of this list. Having hit 1.8M PV during the Lower Bracket Semifinal of the Playoffs between EVOS Legends and Rex Regum Qeon. As two of the most popular sides of the discipline in the country (and globally, in the case of the latter), their clashes are often hard-fought and keenly followed by fans.
In this instance, EVOS Legends was able to sneak a thrilling 3:2 win to advance to the Lower Bracket Final. Where it beat Alter Ego by the same scoreline before succumbing to another giant, ONIC Esports, in the Grand Final. However, RRQ’s early elimination was not good for the viewership of this tournament with a 300K prize pool. Which failed to impress and ended as the fourth-most popular one in the series at that point.
#4 – MPL Indonesia Season 12
The latest edition of the MLBB Professional League held so far helped recover from the stumble of its predecessor by notching up 2.1M PV. The MPL Indonesia Season 12 reached this figure during another clash between EVOS Legends and RRQ from Week 2, Day 3 of the Regular Season, with the latter this time coming out on top via a 2:1 victory.
RRQ once again fell at the Playoffs Lower Bracket Semifinal hurdle, this time to Bigetron Alpha, but this time, the numbers told a different tale. With qualification for the season-ending world championship at stake, viewers showed so much interest in this $336.5K competition that it became the first mobile esports event to surpass 100M hours of watch time, ending with 116M Hours Watched.
#3 – MLBB Southeast Asia Cup 2023
The Grand Final between ONIC Esports and Blacklist International has put the MLBB Southeast Asia Cup 2023 into the top three. This contest earned 3.6M PV as the Indonesian side clinched yet another tournament during its run of four straight tournament wins. Which also includes the MPL Indonesia Season 12, Snapdragon Pro Series Season 3 SEA – Challenge Finals, and the MPL Indonesia Season 11.
Having attracted a record number of viewers from home fans in Cambodia, the MSC 2023 became the second most popular event in the history of the discipline and number one by the same metric in the series. This $300K competition, also the second most significant international championship in the MLBB professional scene. Invited teams from North America, Egypt, and Turkey to compete with the usual list of Southeast Asia participants this year.
#2 – M4 World Championship
The M4 World Championship was one of two world events for Mobile Legends: Bang Bang in 2023, and both rocked the viewership charts. Year started with this tournament that registered 4.2M PV, a then-record for the discipline as the best teams from all over the world participated.
The peak concurrent viewers mark was reached during the Upper Bracket SF. Day 5 game between RRQ Hoshi and Blacklist International, in which the Filipino side won 2:3 to break a million (RRQ) hearts. It even ended up accruing a larger maximum simultaneous audience than major events like Dota 2’s The International series and the League of Legends Worlds competitions between 2019 and 2021.
#1 – M5 World Championship
We end with the new king of mobile esports, the record-shattering M5 World Championship, which claimed a humongous 5.06M PV during the Knockout Stage Grand Final between Bren Esports and ONIC Esports. The former clinched a thriller 4:3 victory in front of a jam-packed stadium of home fans. To emerge as the latest world champions in the discipline and remove any fears of RRQ and EVOS’ absence being a hindrance to the event’s popularity.
The Filipino side also became the first two-time winner of the M-series, and its underdog journey to the title was a major reason for this competition becoming the second-most popular mobile esports tournament of all time. It also ended as the number one MLBB event by peak online viewership and the first one to cross 5M PV.
Most popular mobile events, one per discipline
Having already discussed it in detail, MLBB is the king of the mobile esports viewership segment. With many of its tournaments breaking records or creating new ones this year. Both of its world championships this year celebrated some sort of milestone to bookend both sides of 2023, and the way things are going. It will only get better in terms of more viewership and larger prize pools, thus attracting more fans come the near year and season.
PUBG Mobile and its events are next, with the global championship continuing to be one of the highest-paying competitions for competitors in all of esports every year. The PMGC 2023 also improved on other metrics, seeing its watch time rise compared to previous years and becoming the most-watched edition since 2020. There’s always something new that the organizers and developers add every year, and 2024 should be another interesting one for the discipline, perhaps with more events and higher prize money on offer.
In third is Arena of Valor and its tournaments, with one of its major attractions, the Honor of Kings International Championship 2023.
till going on at the time of publication. The game and its esports scene are especially popular in China and East Asia, with these regions providing the bulk of its market and audience share at every competition.
While the Arena of Valor Premier League 2023 is its most popular event so far this year, the aforementioned event could just go past it, once it ends on December 31. That would make it a great year for the game considering how popular the former was in terms of the discipline’s all-time viewership stats.
The Free Fire World Series 2023 comes in next, representing a game that has seen a decline in its viewership and fame over the past couple of years. This decline has come despite a peak that came right during the pandemic era, with those stuck in lockdown taking to Free Fire in hordes and helping make one of its competitions, the Free Fire World Series 2021 Singapore, which remained the most popular esports event of all time until a month back.
Fifth is a name that might surprise many, but not hardcore fans of the mobile esports discipline.
Monster Strike, the Japanese RPG multiplayer that has been around for a decade and remains famous in its homeland, made this list thanks to the Monster Strike Grand Prix 2023 Japan, which got to 545.1K PV, higher than many more well-known mobile esports competitions across the year. This was mostly thanks to the Japanese audiences who watched the eight teams battle it out to see who was crowned the best in the discipline.
2023 has been the year for milestones to be broken and created in esports, be it the League of Legends World Championship 2023 or the M5 World Championship. Many other leagues and tournaments also did really well, furthering the idea that the industry is on a massive upward swing that can only get better in the new year.