The VCT Americas League concluded its first week of action earlier this week, with the semi-franchised VALORANT competition recording 407,641 peak viewers.
According to statistics by Esports Charts, VCT Americas also garnered an average viewership of 226,401, making it the most popular out of VALORANT’s new international leagues.
In comparison, VCT EMEA League achieved a peak viewership of 288,816 in its opening week, with VCT Pacific League garnering 272,093 peak viewers.
The most popular match-up of the weekend was day 1’s North American clash between Sentinels and 100 Thieves, which saw the former walk out victorious. VCT’s all-Brazilian match-up, featuring LOUD and MIBR, was the second-highest-viewed match, recording 336,678.
When breaking down which language platforms performed the best, VCT Americas was largely dominated by Spanish (80,575 peak viewers), Portuguese (180,259 peak viewers) and English (274,741 peak viewers) channels.
VALORANT’s esports ecosystem continues to gain momentum, with America and Brazil in particular being a major part of the scene’s viewership success. Even VCT Challengers North America, VALORANT’s second division in the country, has shown decent viewership figures. For example, its most recent Mid-Season Face Off recorded 106,850 peak viewers.
VCT Americas League features partner teams from North America, Brazil and South America, such as Argentine esports organisation KRU Esports, as well as North America’s NRG, Cloud 9 and Evil Geniuses. This season the 10 organisations are competing for three spots at both VCT Masters in Tokyo, as well as VCT Champions in Los Angeles.
The competition also has a variety of notable commercial sponsors that include the likes of Red Bull, Aim Lab, Secretlab, Verizon, ZOWIE, Heineken 0.0 and Prime Gaming.
Last year Riot Games, VALORANT’s game publisher, revealed that it was completely overhauling its existing esports ecosystem for 2023. This included the introduction of three semi-franchised international leagues and a partner team system in which organisations will gain various commercial benefits. One recent example is the VCT-themed VALORANT bundle for its VCT LOCK//IN event, which raised over $10m (~£8.42m) for its participating teams.
