VALORANT’s inaugural VCT Pacific League garnered a peak viewership of 227,000 on its opening day, March 25th.
The most popular match-up of the day was between Japanese organisation ZETA DIVISION and Korean team DRX, according to statistics platform Esports Charts.
VCT Pacific League is the first of VALORANT Champions Tour’s three international leagues that will debut in 2023. The competition commenced on March 25th and will conclude on May 28th. VCT’s two other international leagues, VCT EMEA and VCT Americas, will begin on March 27th and April 1st, respectively.
As of this writing, the second-most-popular matchup on VCT Pacific’s opening weekend is the DetonatioN FocusMe vs Paper Rex clash from day 2, recording a peak viewership of 225,588. The average viewership of the league so far is 125,700.
The viewership statistics continue to showcase the popularity of VALORANT esports in Japan. On VCT Pacific League’s opening day, Japanese-speaking platforms peaked at 141,950 viewers, with the second-highest language being English on day two (46,787).
VALORANT Challengers 2023: Japan, one of VCT Pacific’s second divisions, concluded its first split earlier in the month, recording a peak viewership of 160,700.
VCT, Riot Games’ semi-franchised partner team league, features some of Pacific’s most prominent organisations including Korean powerhouses T1 and GEN.G as well as notable SEA teams such as Team Secret and Talon Esports.
Organisations are competing for a place in VCT Masters, which is being held in Tokyo, Japan, as well as VCT Champions — VALORANT’s season-concluding international event.
VALORANT’s new revamped esports ecosystem is currently headed in the right direction viewership-wise, with the new structure’s inaugural international tournament, VCT 2023: LOCK//IN São Paulo, becoming the title’s second-most watched event ever. The VCT-themed VALORANT bundle for the event also raised over $10m (~£8.42m) for its participating teams, according to the game’s publisher Riot Games.
