2022 Valorant Champions final smashes peak viewership record

With over 1.4 million live viewers during the Grand Finals, Valorant Champions 2022 has broken all previous Valroant viewership records.

The Valorant Champions 2022 is over with LOUD taking home the shining championship trophy and $3,000,00 USD prize money after a 3-1 victory in a record-breaking match against Optic Gaming. The event has amassed 1.5 million live viewers during the Grand Finals Series between Optic Gaming and LOUD, breaking all previous viewership records in Valorant esports. 

 

As the deciding map of the Grand Final came to a close, the broadcasts had accumulated a total of 60.7 million hours watched, 525.8K average viewers, and reached its peak viewing number of over 1.5 million people. The number greatly exceeds the previous high concurrent viewership figures for the Masters Reykjavik tournament and the Champions 2021 competition. Data from Esports Charts shows that both exceeded one million concurrent viewers but didn’t go any higher than 1.1 million.

The main Twitch broadcast once again had a deceptively low audience, suggesting that Riot’s decision to bring the biggest Valorant co-streamers to Istanbul paid well. The audience on Tarik’s co-stream, which also included a number of guest broadcasters, reached over 130k alone while Valorant’s English Twitch broadcast managed to hover at 644K peak. The official Japanese broadcast, the English YouTube stream, and Portuguese broadcasts accounted for a significant share of the additional spectators.

The Valorant Champions revives the viewership of VCT

There were concerns about Valorant’s dwindling viewership in the esports community after a few Last Chance Qualifier matchups received more attention than recent Masters Copenhagen playoffs matches. The match between Sentinels and The Guard at LCQ hit a peak greater than any other match in Copenhagen aside from the championship games thanks to Shroud’s comeback to competitive play. However, Valorant Champions 2022 allayed all worries after shattering the VCT Stage 2 Masters peak viewership record in the tournament’s very first game. Paper Rex, a regular at elite events, and Edward Gaming, the first Chinese representative at international competitions, were up against each other in an all-Asian opener that surpassed the peak viewership of VCT Stage 2 Masters Copenhagen.

As the only VALORANT team to have three distinct matches with one million concurrent viewers, it’s also a significant accomplishment for North America’s favorite OpTic Gaming. The North American fan base never looks away from their beloved team, particularly during international competitions. The secret to great viewership, surpassing the 1 million mark, has been proven to be featuring a NA team in the match. The semi-finals of the Champions 2021 tournament between Gambit Esports and KRÜ Esports and the championship match between Gambit Esports and Acend are the only games with 1 million peak viewers that do not feature NA teams. 

Header: Lance Skundrich/Riot Games