The VCT 2023 Last Chance Qualifiers experienced notable shifts in viewership patterns this year, according to statistics from Esports Charts.
VALORANT’s Pacific Last Chance Qualifier emerged as the most popular event, attracting a peak viewership of over 387,000, surpassing both the Americas and EMEA leagues. On the other hand, when considering average viewership, the Americas league secured the leading position with more than 200,000 average viewers throughout the event.
The Pacific Grand Final showdown between Japanese esports organisation ZETA DIVISION and European esports organisation Team Secret was what mostly captured viewers’ interest.
Additionally, the organisations’ day four match-up also garnered significant attention, drawing over 230,000 peak viewers. ZETA DIVISION went on to win the event, which will see the organisation qualify for VALORANT Champions later this year in Los Angeles, US.
This is VALORANT’s first Pacific Last Chance Qualifier under its new format. However, for comparison, last year’s East Asia Last Chance Qualifier garnered just over 210,000 peak viewers.
Whilst receiving a positive reception from the audiences due to KRÜ Esports underdog run to win the event, the Americas Last Chance Qualifiers fell short of matching last year’s success of the North America Last Chance Qualifier. The North American qualifier last year achieved over 630,000 peak viewers during a match-up between the Sentinels and Guard.
In contrast, this year’s Americas Last Chance Qualifier — which now includes LATAM teams — recorded 385,500 peak viewers.
Lastly, the EMEA Last Chance Qualifier showed the lowest performance compared to the other regions, although it still managed to show growth compared to last year. Throughout the almost weeklong event, Day 1 witnessed a peak viewership of nearly 250,000, followed by an average viewership of 126,583. This is higher than last year’s viewership figures of 216,000 (peak) and 110,000 (average), respectively.
Interestingly, the finals between NAVI and Giants was not among the top five most popular match-ups at the event. Due to Fnatic’s victory at VCT Tokyo, both NAVI and Giants have qualified for VALORANT Champions 2023.
The 2023 VCT season commenced in February, with the VCT LOCK//IN tournament concluding later in March. Prior to this period, VALORANT underwent significant ecosystem changes, including the implementation of a partner team model and international leagues.
This year’s statistics are especially noteworthy due to the integration of tier-one regional events that previously operated independently in 2022, forming unified international leagues. As a result, events like the South and North America legs have merged to create the Americas league, among others.
