VCT regions draw big viewership numbers as Stage 1 begins

Stage 1 tournaments are delivering big viewership numbers as the second major season for competitive Valorant kicks off worldwide.

Data from esports statistics provider Esports Charts show that the league kicked off with pretty strong viewerships in their particular regions.

In VCT Americas, Cloud9 and Leviatan’s recalibrated rosters had fans excited to see them do battle in the highest levels of competitive Valorant – so much so that their match trumped even the matches of Masters Madrid winners Sentinels.

Their opening bout garnered over 455,000 peak views – the highest opening week viewership among all regions.

“Their match received more than 120K viewers more at peak than Sentinels’ game against 100T, and almost 20K more than NRG’s game against LOUD. Aspas of Leviatán is also one of South America’s most popular players, and he consistently brings high viewership to their matches. At the Kickoff event for the region, Leviatán was one of the more popular teams of the event, despite their early exit from the tournament,” Esports Charts noted.

In EMEA, Fnatic fans were among those driving viewership numbers in the tournament, as well as Team Heretics. Their match in the opening stages of Stage 1 scored over 244,000 peak viewers and can be attributed to their popularity among their respective fanbases.

“Despite being one of Madrid’s most popular teams, viewers were more interested in checking up on Fnatic,” Esports Charts noted.

Esports Charts also said that although the EMEA teams were some of the most popular at Masters Madrid, the viewership for the regional league is lower compared to the previous year. 

“The EMEA region was the only Major league in Valorant to record fewer peak concurrent viewers in the first week of 2024’s Stage 1 compared to 2023,” according to their reports.

Meanwhile, in China, the first year of VCT CN had a popular matchup between EDward Gaming and JD Gaming. This match reached around 20,800 peak views.

“In the first year of the Chinese league, the most popular match of the VCT 2024: China Stage 1 so far was the game featuring EDward Gaming and JD Gaming. Alongside Bilibili Gaming, these teams were the Chinese representatives for last year’s Champions event,” Esports Charts noted.

The group also noted that they cannot effectively track viewership statistics from Chinese live-streaming platforms, due to potential inaccuracies in data.

Finally, in the Pacific, Paper Rex and T1’s matchup was the opening record breaker, as it garnered over 375,000 peak views. This is despite the traditionally high support for Japanese teams.

“Paper Rex is currently looking like one of the region’s strongest teams alongside competitors Gen.G Esports, but viewership was generally higher for Paper Rex so far this year. Paper Rex have a particularly explosive and exciting methodology when it comes to approaching Valorant, and their games are always fast-paced games that are perfect for the big screen,” Esports Charts noted.

They also added that although T1 is not as deeply established in Valorant as Paper Rex, T1 has a large following from League of Legends that they brought to Valorant, and many of their games receive high viewership.

More detailed stats on the VCT may be found through the Esports Charts website at www.escharts.com.