Riot Games announced on the 19th that the viewer numbers for regional leagues and international competitions of the team-based first-person shooter (FPS) Valorant esports have reached all-time highs.
According to Riot Games, the viewer count for the regional league Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) reached 810,000 in the Americas and 481,000 in the Pacific, which includes South Korea, marking growth of 53% and 24%, respectively, compared to the previous year. VCT EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) had 409,000 viewers, an increase of 41%, while the VCT CN (China), which started this year, achieved 1.8 million viewers.
The viewer numbers for international tournaments also rose significantly. The first international tournament of 2024, Masters Madrid, recorded a peak concurrent viewership of 3.1 million.
Riot Games noted that the premier international tournament, 2024 Valorant Champions Seoul, held in South Korea last August, has established itself as the most successful international tournament for Valorant.
According to Riot Games, the final match attracted a peak concurrent viewership of 9.13 million, and the total viewer count was 44.38 million, which is more than five times the viewers for last year's tournament held in Los Angeles.
Riot Games stated that it has distributed a total of $78.4 million (approximately 112.5 billion won) in revenue, financial support, and prize money among the 44 teams participating in the global Valorant league.
Next year's Valorant esports tournaments will kick off with the regional league kick-off events. The kick-off for the VCT Pacific, which includes South Korean teams Gen.G, DRX, T1, and Nongshim RedForce, will begin on Jan. 18.
The eight teams that win and become runners-up in the kick-off events of the four international leagues will compete in Masters Bangkok.