Cover-Credits:
- Valorant almost overtook League of Legends as the most viewed esports title of 2020.
- The game hit a peak of 1.7 million viewers in April and its esports community is growing rapidly.
- Riot Games is set to host the Valorant Champions Tour next year, which will be the biggest Valorant event yet.
Valorant is undoubtedly one of the biggest game releases of 2020 and by far the biggest new esports title we have seen in a while. Riot Games has already seen success in the esports industry, with League of Legends is one of the longest-running esports game of our generation since 2009. Valorant went into closed beta testing in April, and a sizeable part of the gaming community showed interest in the game. According to a report published by WePlay! Esports, 1,728,977 concurrent viewers were watching the game on Twitch in April at its peak. In comparison, League of Legends achieved 1,734,835 concurrent viewers on the platform, edging its brand-new FPS game by mere thousands.
36% Valorant Esports Viewers Are Female
According to metrics collected by the WePlay Twitch extension and data from Twitch, WePlay Esports reveals that 36% of the English-speaking audience who tuned into Valorant esports are female, compared to 58% of the audience being male. 6% of the audience chose not to reveal their gender. The data was collected during the Valorant Ignition series event, which was one of Riot’s biggest esports events at the time. The game will branch into bigger events next year, with the Champions Tour being set up to be a global tournament featuring teams from all regions.
People between the age of 18 and 24 comprise over half the audience of Valorant esports. Despite gender ratios being the same across English speaking viewers and non-English speaking viewers, English-speaking males are more likely to visit tournament pages. The biggest English-speaking region interested in Valorant esports is Spain and Brazil.
Valorant Esports in 2021
Valorant esports is set to grow bigger next year with the champions tour featuring three tiers of competitions to bring together the world's best teams. The Challengers series will be announced in January 2021, followed by the Masters tour to find the best teams from each region. The Challengers tour will have its own on-stage event with the top 16 teams fighting for the crown of being the Valorant champions of the world. More details on the tournament are expected to drop before 21st January 2021.
