The recently concluded VCT 2023 Game Changers tournament in Riot Games‘ FPS title VALORANT has become the most-watched women’s VALORANT tournament ever.
The latest edition of the tournament saw increases across the board, with around 50,000 more peak viewers and around 10,000 more average viewers with less air time than the 2022 edition, according to Esports Charts data.
The 2023 finals were watched by a peak of 293,000 viewers, which is an increase of around 50,000 when compared to last year’s 239,000 peak viewers.
The average viewer number is also higher this year, with a total of 124,000 average viewers compared to just under 115,000 in 2022. There was a total of 45 hours of air time in 2023, and 47 in 2022.
This year’s edition saw Shopify Rebellion win the tournament by beating Team Liquid Brazil. The tournament was held in São Paulo, Brazil, and Shopify Rebellion denied the home team advantage to take home the majority of the $500,000 (~£397,000) prize pool.
As is often the case with Brazilian events, the home team, in this case Team Liquid Brazil, was the most popular and most watched team at the event, with a total of 3.2m hours watched, compared to Shopify Rebellion’s 2.3m. The grand final was the most-watched match of the tournament.
The boost in viewership was partially due to a large number of channels covering the event, amounting to a total of 140. Popular content creators like Tarik, Kyedae and others also co-streamed the games, helping the total viewership.
The VCT Game Changers Championship is the final event of Game Changers, a women-only tournament series featuring female VALORANT rosters from around the world. The Game Changers brand has subsequently expanded to other Riot Games titles, such as League of Legends.
The VCT Game Changers Championship 2022 was also the most-watched female VALORANT tournament last year, encouraging evidence of a steady year-on-year increase for one of the most high-profile women’s esports leagues.
The highest-viewed women’s esports event ever is the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) women’s tournament at the 2023 Southeast Asian Games, which garnered 1.37m peak viewers.
