Valorant Champions 2022 has broken previous viewership records for Valorant esports events, eclipsing over 1.4 million live viewers during the Grand Finals at Valorant Champions 2022.
Valorant Champions 2022 has been a massive success viewership-wise. Stories like that of DRX almost making a run to the Finals have captured audiences worldwide.
With the first game at Valorant Champions beating the peak viewership record for VCT Stage 2 Masters in the very first game of the tournament, it’s no surprise that this record has been broken. What is surprising is that the old record has been shattered.
Between co-streamers and official broadcasts, peak viewership has managed to break the previous record by over 300,000 viewers.
A resounding success for Valorant Champions 2022
Riot flew some of Valorant’s biggest co-streamers out to Istanbul, a move that has clearly paid off. The viewership on the main Twitch broadcast that hovers between 230k-270k is deceptively low.
The viewership on Tarik’s co-stream hit over 130k, with various guest streamers taking over his stream as the event went on. Tarik also made some cameos on the official Valorant twitch stream through the event, along with big figures in the scene like Shroud.
And, with Brazilian team LOUD in the Grand Finals, a massive portion of the additional viewership was from Portuguese broadcasts with viewers excited to represent their favorite region.
Additionally, the lower bracket Final between DRX and Optic went over the 1 million peak viewership mark, a number that almost broke the previous record of 1.1 million.
This number is likely higher than it appears due to how difficult it can be to get accurate Chinese viewership numbers – 1.4 million peak viewers is likely a bit lower than the actual viewership peak.
Average viewership through the event is at over 500k, meaning that viewership has been high through the entirety of this event.
The main English broadcast being just a fraction of the overall viewership number shows just how global Valorant is an esport, with broadcasts and co-streams in many different languages averaging tens of thousands of live viewers.
Considering that Valorant Masters Copenhagen was a low point as far as viewership goes, Istanbul’s massive turnout both in-person and online bodes well for Valorant’s future as an esport.