Saudi Arabia is rapidly becoming a key player in the global esports scene, hosting events for both men and women. Currently, the EWC x MLBB Women’s Invitational 2024 is happening in Riyadh, featuring the largest prize pool ever for a women’s Mobile Legends: Bang Bang championship. Initial viewership data suggests that this year’s Invitational could become the most popular in the series, thanks to extensive community casting and TikTok broadcasts.
The international MLBB Women’s Invitational series began in 2022 with the first tournament held online. Indonesia hosted the event the following year. This year, the Invitational has joined the Esports World Cup series and, for the first time, is being held outside Southeast Asia, in Saudi Arabia. A highlight of this event is the partnership between Western clubs and Asian teams, forming women’s MLBB teams from organizations like Team Vitality, Gaimin Gladiators, Cloud9, and others.
It’s too early to make definitive conclusions about the MLBB Women’s Invitational 2024, but the first day showed impressive numbers, with over 648,200 Hours Watched and 113,700 Peak Viewers.
The MLBB Women’s Invitational 2024 is outperforming last year’s event. For example, the Average Viewers per broadcast have more than tripled from 20,300 to 70,100. Peak viewership has also increased significantly, from 42,700 to 113,700 viewers.
On the first day, over 180 unique channels streamed the matches on platforms like Twitch, YouTube, TikTok, and others, compared to just over 40 channels covering the entire event last year.
TikTok has significantly boosted the viewership
TikTok has significantly boosted the viewership for the Women’s Invitational 2024, now leading in audience reach, surpassing even YouTube. The number of broadcast languages has nearly tripled from last year. With new additions like Arabic and Portuguese, accounting for about 10% of the total watch hours on the first day. The share of Malaysian-language viewers has also increased, now making up just over 20% of the total watch hours.
When comparing MLBB Women’s Invitational Tournaments, the current metrics indicate that the MLBB Women’s Invitational 2024 could become the most popular tournament in the series. The inaugural MLBB Women’s Invitational in 2022 currently holds the record with over 2.1 million Hours Watched and 392,400 Peak Viewers.
In terms of the most popular female tournaments in esports, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, along with Valorant and CS:GO, shows significant development in the women’s esports scene. The MLBB tournament by Moonton currently holds the highest peak viewership among all women’s esports tournaments. With the 32nd SEA Games – Women’s Tournament reaching 1.36 million Peak Viewers.