The first PUBG Mobile World League (PMWL) was held from July 10 to Aug. 9 and featured a prize pool of $850,000. It was divided into two regions, East and West, with 20 teams competing in each.
Despite being an online event, the league shattered viewership records. The PMWL East peaked at over 1.1 million viewers during the last match on Erangel during the fourth day of the finals, according to Esports Charts. The average viewership for the Eastern division was 393,766.
Unsurprisingly, the PMWL West didn’t fare quite well. The viewership peaked at just 49,374 people while the average viewership for the competition was a little over 17,000, according to Esports Charts.
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This huge difference is because PUBG Mobile is immensely popular in South and Southeast Asia which featured the majority of teams in the PMWL East. The Western division had teams from the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas where the game doesn’t have a significant player base when compared to Asia.
Nonetheless, this is the first time that a PUBG Mobile esports tournament crossed a million peak viewers. The last international event for the battle royale game was the PUBG Mobile Club Open (PMCO) fall split global finals. Compared to that, the peak viewership in the PMWL East grew by around 120 percent while the average viewers saw an increase of 118 percent, according to Esports Charts.
The PMCO fall split global finals was an offline event which featured live performances from numerous celebrities. The PMWL season zero, on the other hand, was held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Another key difference is that the PMWL was split into two regions which were played separately. The PMCO fall split global finals was a single tournament with teams from all around the world.
In 2020, Tencent unveiled the Pro and World Leagues for PUBG Mobile. The entire year features a prize pool of over $5 million. With the “biggest esports event” of 2020 being announced on Aug. 24, it remains to be seen to where the viewership numbers will soar in the future.
