MANILA, Philippines -- The fifth season of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League (MPL) turned out to be a massive hit in the Philippines, garnering all-time high viewership.

MPL-Philippines' fifth season, which aired its playoffs and grand finals on May 31, is the most viewed in the league's entire history in the country. It is also the most-watched Philippine esports event, ever.

It registered a peak online viewer count of 317,330 for the finals match between OnicPH and Sunsparks.

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The success of the MPL in the Philippines shows the potential of esports to become a major part of sports entertainment in the country, particularly in the wake of the "new normal" brought about by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

MPL Indonesia generated the same hype. The "El Clasico" match between RRQ and Evos in the playoffs helped generate 702,689 peak online viewers, before topping it off with a peak viewer count of over one million during the grand finals

"I'm very proud of our Mineski Esports Philippines and Indonesia teams for pulling off five seasons of the MPL with flying colors," said Mineski Global CEO and founder Ronald Robins.

"In the recently concluded fifth season of the MPL, MPL Indonesia and Philippines have achieved positive growth and breakthroughs in performance," added Lucas Mao, Moonton Games' director for esports. "We feel very grateful to the Mineski Esports team for their hard work and will continue to partner with them and contribute to the development of the esports industry in Southeast Asia."

"We will make efforts to bring greater experiences to our players and fans," he added.

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Sunsparks became the first-ever back-to-back titlist in the Philippine edition of the MPL. 

The team composed of, Allen Jedric "Greed_" Baloy, Kiel VJ Hernandez "Kielvj" Cruzem, Ashley Marco "Killuash" Cruz, Christian Provido "Rafflesia" Fajura, Jaypee Gonzales "Jaypee" Dela Cruz, Renz Errol "Renzio" Salonga Cadua, Rizzi Joy Pardiñas (manager), and Michael Angelo Bocado (coach) won a total of P1,258,000.