Valorant reduced viewership, is the game still hot after launch

Riot Games’ latest FPS game: Valorant officially launched on June 2 has become so popular thanks to the extremely aggressive closed beta promotion. With advertising and promises from the game developer League of Legends, it is not surprising that gamers are eager to play Valorant. As noted by Riot, Valorant is likely to be developed intensively in the direction of Esport with updates and patches continuously released. Combining the tactical style of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and the variety of skill sets from Overwatch, Valorant is a unique concept that combines skill mechanics with teamwork and communication.

Players were attracted by the Agents (characters in the game) with their own unique skill sets. While some closed beta gamers are concerned about the excessive simplicity of the maps, the game will certainly have more map changes in the future.

However, with the current “pull rate” advertising and half-season fever, how many people are actually playing Valorant?

How many people are playing Valorant?

There are no official numbers shared by Riot Games when it comes to the current player count, but Riot has provided statistics for the closed beta period.

During the press conference, the studio said “nearly 3 million players logged in every day to play Valorant” during the two-month beta testing period.

Note that the closed beta is only available in certain regions, including North America and Europe, and it’s only available for PC. At that time, players can only join the closed beta by receiving a random key when watching the stream. You have to go to game stream channels on Twitch to hope to get the game key, causing the number of people watching the stream and then hanging up to get the game key, not necessarily because they are really interested in the game.

Since Valorant opened in Korea, Japan, Asia Pacific, Europe, Turkey, Middle East, North Africa, Russia, CIS countries, North America, Latin America and South America, obviously Valorant has more players than the closed beta. But only time will tell exactly how many real players will be when the new game fever is gone.

LAUNCHING —
In 12 hours – Korea, Japan, and most of Asia-Pacific
In 18 hours – Europe, Turkey, MENA, Russia, and CIS countries
Print 25 hours – North America, Latin America, and South America
EPISODE 1: IGNITION. pic.twitter.com/mXmXw86zRQ

— VALORANT (@PlayVALORANT) June 1, 2020

As Riot continues to release content to create a stable esports system for the game, we will have more Valorant players in the coming months.

Is Valorant still a popular game on Twitch?

The easiest way to see how many people are playing a game is to look at how many people are watching it on Twitch and through other streaming platforms.

When the new Valorant closed beta was released, the game broke the record for the number of Twitch viewers in a day after just a few hours. The game had 34 million hours of viewing time, with viewership peaking at around 1.7 million. This record beats the previous record, also set by Valorant when the game’s gameplay was first shared on April 3 (then 12.2 million hours watched).

Impressive, but we need to remember that viewers hung their eyes on Twitch to get the closed beta key that played an important role in the above figure. The attention Valorant received for receiving a random key is starting to anger the streamer community. They say the Valorant array on Twitch is “fake” due to the amount of bots (virtual viewers) hanging 24/7 to receive drops.

Many streamers and pro players find the game “boring and slow” to play and watch. Even then, the game still topped Twitch during the closed beta due to players wanting to get the game keys and the presence of third-party tournaments.

So, once the key drop is over, will Valorant hit the big numbers on Twitch again? The answer is yes and no.

Valorant is now ranked 6th in current viewership, losing out to popular games like CSGO, Dota 2, and Fortnite. As of June 10, Valorant had just over 76,000 views per hour, compared with more than 1 million at its peak two months ago on April 6. It’s down a lot from “470 million watch hours.” when the game was still in closed beta, but being in the top 10 of Twitch is no easy task. That also means that the number of streamers in Valorant is still large for the number of viewers to continue to follow.

Is Valorant still hot?

Several esports communities mocked Valorant because of the sudden drop in viewership on Twitch. Many fans expressed their displeasure when the game was exclusively on PC.

But this amount of criticism comes from CSGO fans, who are worried that Valorant is taking away many professional players from other famous games, or they are upset when the game is not as good as they expected. Obviously, Valorant still has a long way to go until the game can match the esports monument Counter-Strike, Riot clearly states that they have big plans for Valorant.

To achieve those goals, Riot contacted more than 100 esports brands, including tournament organizers and competition teams. While nothing has been made public, it seems that esports organizations and insiders have great faith in Riot’s plan, as many big-name organizations have built their own Valorant lineups. The Overwatch League’s most expensive player also left his sport to join Valorant, showing that he sees Valorant’s future. Why would he give up his $150,000 contract, which is calling him Overwatch’s best player?

So in conclusion, Valorant has not lost its charm. Not yet. For now, fans of Valorant wait and see what Riot Games is preparing for the future.