VALORANT Champions 2022 becomes the game’s most-viewed esports event

20 September 2022

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(ESI Illustration) Image credit: Riot Games

Last week, VALORANT Champions Tour concluded its latest season in Istanbul, Turkey, with VALORANT Champions 2022 officially the title’s most-viewed esports event ever.

According to data provided by Esports Charts, the event recorded 1.5m peak viewers and over 520,000 average viewers between August 31st and September 18th 2022.

The match-up that garnered the peak viewership total was unsurprisingly the finals between OpTic Gaming and LOUD, which saw the Brazilian organisation walk out victorious. The two teams previously played in the finals of VCT Masters Reykjavik 2022, an event that also attracted more than a million viewers.

LOUD was the most popular VALORANT team at the tournament, with the Brazilian team’s matches attracting more than 720,000 viewers during the tournament.

Concluding its second year, the VALORANT Champions Tour is the title’s main esports circuit. The compeition is organised by Riot Games and consists of several levels of competition starting with Challengers, then Masters and finally Champions. However, for next year, this system is set to change following the introduction of international leagues, partner teams and a revamped Challengers system.

The last edition of VALORANT Champions, which took place in December 2021, recorded around 1.1m peak viewers. It’s important to note that this edition of Champions was a fully-fledged LAN event with spectators, whereas the 2021 edition took place without a live audience.

Riot Games has already unveiled plans for the 2023 season of the VCT, with a major event in Brazil kicking off the circuit. The event is set to take place in February 2023 and it will feature all VCT partnered teams from international leagues. Following the conclusion of VCT 2022, all eyes will now be on which organisations will be selected to be a part of VALORANT’s partner team regime.

Ivan Šimić
Ivan comes from Croatia, loves weird simulator games, and is terrible at playing anything else. Spent 5 years writing about tech and esports in Croatia, and is now doing it here.