The Americas area needs to be honoured because it continues to hold the top spot in terms of viewership even though their position in the cutthroat VALORANT ecology is currently in doubt. According to data from Esports Charts, both the EMEA and Pacific VCT leagues have finished their first week of competition, however neither of them quite reached the 300K peak viewership threshold. Through two different BBL Esports matches against Karmine Corp. and Fnatic, EMEA attracted 288K views. As ZETA DIVISION faced up against Rex Regum Qeon in week two, Pacific was able to draw in 269K viewers as opposed to just 228K in week one.
But so far, both league pale in comparison to peak viewership in Americas, which rocketed past the 400K peak viewership during the marathon “clout bout” between 100 Thieves and Sentinels. As always, co-streaming provided a huge boost to the opening match, namely via Tarik’s on-site stream featuring 100 Thieves founder Nadeshot. According to SullyGnome, his co-stream alone reached a peak of at least 121K viewers and nicely averaged just shy of 69K.
While it didn’t reach the heights of Sentinels vs. 100T, the second match of VCT Americas opening day, pitting FURIA against KRÜ, reached a peak of 257K.
VALORANT regional event viewership dominated by North America is not a new trend. According to Esports Charts, North American events are some of the most-watched regional events in terms of peak viewers and total hours watched in VALORANT’s short history.
Given how much viewership Sentinels and 100T are capable of driving and that it was the league opening match, there’s a chance that a significant amount of time passes before another Americas match passes this peak. Still, it’s a strong start, given how committed Riot is to VALORANT in North America.