VALORANT: VCT Americas create new viewership records

VCT Americas 2024 proved the power of US and LATAM audiences in terms of overall views for pro VALORANT tournaments, according to data from renowned statistics provider Esports Charts.

In a report published March 5, Esports Charts said that the Grand Finals of the VCT 2024 Americas Kickoff received 823,008 peak viewers – the most-viewed event of the Americas region compared to its nearest counterpart, the 2023 VCT Americas League.

The said Grand Finals saw the redemption arc of NA team Sentinels defeat 2022 World Champions LOUD from Latin America, in a 3-2 nail-biter finals at the Riot Games Arena in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Sentinels and LOUD were present in the most-watched matches of Americas Kickoff.

Esports Charts said, “two of the most popular sides in the Americas clashing in the summit clash, with bragging rights at stake in a Brazil versus NA encounter, was only going to help bring in more eyeballs. Their importance to the success of this competition can also be seen in the fact that at least one of them appeared in all the top five games in terms of peak viewership.”

They added, “Sentinels’ success no doubt also played a part in the higher peak concurrent viewership numbers, for it is, without doubt, the most popular Valorant side from North America. Its run to the summit clash alongside LOUD — the highly followed Brazilian side — helped this competition register 22.5M Esports Hours Watched and 347.2K Average Viewers over 64 hours of airtime.”

VCT Americas Kickoff also holds the record for the most watched Kickoff event across all regions, beating Pacific, EMEA, and China.

 

Among the most watched matches for VCT Americas Kickoff, meanwhile, are the Sentinels vs NRG Semifinals match last March 3 which drew over 685,000 peak viewers, the Leviatan vs LOUD Group Stage Day 5 match last February 24 which drew close to 593,000 viewers, the LOUD vs Sentinels Group Stage Day 2 match last February 18 which drew 590,312 viewers, and the semifinals playoff match between LOUD and 2023 Valorant World Champions Evil Geniuses (EG) last March 3, with 571,564 viewers.

In terms of language, Esports Charts noted that English and Portugese-language broadcasts were the more dominant broadcast streams in terms of viewership, and also pulled by interest from both LOUD and Sentinels fans.

“When looking at the peak online viewers, English saw a large increase while Portuguese declined slightly, again proving how crucial the success of the respective teams was in attracting audiences from these regions. Likewise, the continued underperformance of Spanish sides, who usually attract massive audience numbers, saw the language’s share of the HW section drop negligibly,” said Esports Charts in its reports.

The stats bureau also noted, “Americas’ Kickoff has become the most popular non-global competition in Valorant history, pointing to the continued growth of the discipline and its competitive segment. Of course, the Americas remains the game’s stronghold thanks to the love that LATAM and Brazilian fans show for its teams, so it remains to be seen if any other region, perhaps the Pacific, can match this level of interest.”