PUBG Mobile World League Brings 1 Million Viewers

PUBG Mobile World League was a complete success with the event peaking with viewership over 1.1 million, according to Esports Charts. On the fourth day of the PMWL East competition, viewership soared past 1 million on the last match, Erangel. The average viewership was a massive accomplishment too, settling at 390 thousand views. This event was the first of its kind and sets the bar for PUBG Mobile esports.

Screengrab via Esports Charts.

PMWL East Popularity

PMWL ran from July 10 to August 9 and featured a massive prize pool of $850 thousand. The event was split between two tournaments, East and West, each with a split of the prize pool and twenty teams participating in both competitions.

PMWL East reached unprecedented heights at its peak. Average viewership rivaled the world’s biggest tournaments. The fact that this was the first event of its kind makes it more of an astonishment. Over 37 million hours watched for this competition and the majority of these numbers came from YouTube. Peak viewership was 1.1 million and the tournament averaged over 390 thousand. PMWL East did so well that it even surpassed Katowice 2020, the biggest CS:GO tournament in the world.

PMWL West Slumps

Although PMWL East broke records, its counterpart, PMWL West, didn’t do so well. The western tournament peaked at 49 thousand viewers and averaged 17 thousand. These numbers compared to its eastern rival is over twenty times less, making fans wonder what happened.

One natural assumption is the regional consumer majority and popularity. The top five countries that play PUBG Mobile are India, USA, Japan, South Korea, and Russia. Four of those are eastern countries. Additionally, the top three countries that play PUBG overall are China, India, and the USA. China and India make up 43 percent of PUBG PC and Mobile’s 227 million players. These statistics explain why PMWL East performed better than PMWL West. But smaller numbers may not be the worst thing as the USA only makes up 12 percent of PUBG’s player base.

PUBG Mobile World League

Hello dear fans of the competitive @PUBGMOBILE! We would like to share a lot of details about the upcoming tournaments for the PUBG MOBILE Esports scene! Visit here: https://t.co/bugAL6x2ZT pic.twitter.com/1kZoaiH406

— PUBG MOBILE Esports (@EsportsPUBGM) August 9, 2020

Rivaling the best esports events in the world, PMWL brings another medal for mobile esports and PUBG Corporation. Despite one of the competitions falling behind, the fact that it still scored massive esports viewership in its first run is staggering. Fans can rest assured that more esports entertainment comes soon when Tencent releases information on August 24 about the biggest PUBG Mobile event in 2020.

Written by Jay Hunter