The VCT 2022 Game Changers Championship has become the most-viewed female VALORANT tournament ever.
According to esports data platform Esports Charts, the competition peaked at 239,334 viewers during the finals between North America’s Shopify Rebellion and Europe’s G2 Gozen.
VCT Game Changers is a VALORANT esports circuit organised by Riot Games for female players. The Championship is the culminating event of the season, which started in January.
The inaugural VCT Game Changers Championship has also become the second-most-viewed female-only esports event ever recorded. Taking place earlier this year, the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Women’s Invitational currently holds the top spot after recording a peak figure of 392,405.
G2 Gozen — the team that went on to win the tournament — recorded the highest average viewership (149,500) out of all of the competition’s teams. Meanwhile, Shopify Rebellion secured the most total hours watched (2.8m). Overall, the event garnered 5.4m hours watched and an average viewership of 114,914 across its over 47-hour run time.
VCT Game Changers’ biggest event of the year took place in person at the LEC Studio in Berlin, Germany. The $500,000 offline event, which also featured an audience, featured sponsors such as Verizon, Secretlab, HyperX, Aim Lab and Red Bull, among others.
The event far exceeded viewership statistics from previous VCT Game Changer events. Prior to this global event, the most-popular female-only VALORANT event was VCT 2022: Game Changers East Asia, which garnered just 66,271 peak viewers.
Riot Games’ continued development of the VCT Game Changers programme looks set to continue in 2023. After debuting its female-focused esports ecosystem in 2021, the series was bolstered this year by introducing the global event.
For next year, Riot Games announced a partnership with Knights prior to the championship, which sees the Pittsburgh-based esports organisation host North America’s Game Changers leagues. This will be done through the organisation event’s arm Knights Arena.
