The Cellular Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) Mid Season Cup 2025 concluded on August 2nd with Workforce Liquid PH taking the trophy and the lion’s share of its $3m (~£2.26m) prize pool.
All through its second iteration on the Esports World Cup in Riyadh, the Mid Season Cup (MSC) recorded almost 3.1m peak viewers – nearly 700,000 greater than the earlier yr.
The MLBB Mid Season Cup changed the previous Southeast Asia Cup in 2024 as its first worldwide in-season match of Cellular Legends’ aggressive calendar. The occasion can also be built-in into the Esports World Cup (EWC). This transfer to Riyadh noticed the cup improve its prize cash considerably from $300,000 in 2023 to a whopping $3m within the following yr.
Cellular esports has achieved huge recognition inside Southeast Asia for a number of years. However partnering with the EWC as a worldwide multi-title esports competitors has helped MLBB once more additional recognition amongst Western audiences and stakeholders.
Giant Western esports organisations, together with Workforce Liquid, Fnatic and Workforce Vitality, had been incentivised to develop into cellular titles to earn extra EWC Factors and enhance their probabilities at successful the occasion.
In keeping with esports knowledge platform, Esports Charts, MSC debuted in Riyadh with 406,638 common viewers and over 29m hours watched throughout its 72h airtime. Throughout the Grand Last between AP.Bren and Selangor Purple Giants OG Esports (SRG.OG), viewership peaked at almost 2.4m.
The MLBB Mid Season Cup 2025 in Numbers
Regardless of the same runtime of 84h, this yr’s MSC version garnered over 50m hours watched and nearly 600,000 common viewers along with its increased peak viewership. Moreover, the 2025 competitors managed to succeed in over 2m peak viewers throughout its high 4 most-watched matches.
Apparently, it was a Knockout Stage collection between RRQ.H and SRG.OG that attracted the very best viewership all through the occasion. As compared, the Grand Last between runner-up SRG.OG and Workforce Liquid PH grew to become the fourth-most fashionable collection of the MSC with beneath 2.3m peak viewers.
This uncommon viewers unfold is probably going because of the immense recognition of groups like RRQ and ONIC not advancing to the Grand Last.
Moreover, the RRQ versus SRG.OG collection (2-3) was among the many best matches throughout the high-stakes Knockout Stage. The Grand Last, alternatively, was a dominant 4-1 sweep from Workforce Liquid.
Whereas SRG.OG is the clear chief by way of amassed watch hours (17.1m), ONIC, in addition to its second roster, ONIC Philippines, take second and third place with 13.2m and 13.1m hours watched, respectively. These organisations are adopted by Workforce Liquid PH (12.6m hours watched) and RRQ (7.8m).
Nevertheless, common viewer numbers amongst MSC groups sees RRQ on the high with 1.3m, adopted by Workforce Liquid PH (1.2m), SRG.OG (1.2m), ONIC (1.1m) and ONIC PH (993,100).
Contemplating MLBB’s recognition in Southeast Asia, it’s unsurprising that the Indonesian MSC broadcasts had been the preferred (1.97m peak viewers). English live-streams (332,789) rank fourth on this listing, recording almost half the viewership of broadcasts in Tagalog (605,542) and Bahasa Malaysia (643,900).
Equally, Twitch, because the prime streaming platform amongst Western audiences, captured solely a small slice (17,268 peak viewers) of the match’s peak viewership. Nearly all of followers tuned into the YouTube (1.7m peak viewers) and TikTok Reside (1.3m) broadcasts.
How Does the MSC 2025 Examine to Different Esports Occasions?
Such spectacular viewers numbers allowed the MSC 2025 to change into the ninth most-popular MLBB match in historical past, solely barely behind the M2 World Championship with 3.083m peak viewers.
The all-time viewership file on this class was achieved by the M5 Championship, which recorded almost 5.1m peak viewers in 2023.
When occasion recognition throughout all esports titles, the League of Legends World Championship of 2024 takes the lead with just below 7m peak viewers. M5 presently sits in fifth whereas MSC 2025 is 18th on the listing.
Nevertheless, MSC 2025 is just not the highest-viewed mid-season worldwide MLBB occasion. This title goes to 2023’s Southeast Asia Cup. Though recording barely decrease common viewership, the 2023 competitors noticed nearly 3.7m followers tune into the Grand Last between ONIC and Blacklist Worldwide.
Each groups have massive followings throughout the MLBB scene, accumulating 20.3m and 16.7m hours watched for ONIC and Blacklist, respectively.
Why Was the MSC 2025 So Common?
Though the 2024 and 2025 iterations of the MSC featured the identical variety of groups and comparable prize swimming pools, the occasion format was adjusted for this yr’s competitors.
In 2024, the Wildcard and Group Phases adopted a round-robin format, with the highest groups from every group advancing to the upper phases. Solely the ultimate Knockout Stage featured a single-elimination bracket.
This yr, groups in each part of the match needed to struggle by means of single- or double-elimination brackets, highlighting the stakes of every particular person match.
One other issue was possible the early elimination of ONIC in MSC 2024’s Group Stage. The group has maintained a major following all through the previous MSCs and Southeast Asia Cups and competed in three out of the 5 most-watched matches through the 2024 occasion.
Following ONIC’s elimination, peak viewership dropped till the Grand Last.
