Valorant Beta Attracts Record-Breaking 1.7 Million Twitch Viewers
Ever since its announcement, Valorant has been attracting a great deal of attention, particularly as Riot Games’ new shooter seems to be attempting to supplant CS:GO. In fact, now that the closed beta has begun, it’s looking increasingly possible that the game could do just that. On Tuesday, shortly after the beta launch, the game drew over 1.7 million concurrent viewers on Twitch. Together, those viewers broke a record for single-day viewing hours on the platform.
Valorant Draws 1.7 Million Concurrent Twitch Viewers
Given the attention which Valorant has received online, it’s easy to see why gamers are keen to get a proper look at it. Thus far, Riot Games’ had been relatively cagey with details. As such, the closed beta has been most gamers’ first chance to see Valorant for themselves, and it certainly seems that a massive number of gamers wanted to get a look! The game hit a peak of 1.7 million concurrent viewers on Twitch on Tuesday, a massive figure, especially for a game still in beta. In fact, that Tuesday audience also broke the record for “single-day hours watched” for a single game category. Indeed, more than 34 million hours of Valorant have already been watched on the platform!
This is particularly staggering when you consider that this is only Valorant’s closed beta. However, it is worth noting that access to the beta isn’t easy to acquire. As such, the vast majority of interested gamers have no choice but to watch on Twitch. At present, the only (legitimate) way to get into the beta is to watch specific streamers on Twitch. These streamers were given codes by Riot to hand out at random to lucky viewers. (Note that your Riot Games account needs to be linked to your Twitch account too if you want to be in for a chance to get a code.)
Given that there are a few unusual factors at play, it’s worth not jumping to conclusions just yet. However, this obvious surge in interest certainly makes it seem more likely that Valorant’s launch will indeed be massive. It will be worth watching to see whether interest wanes in the coming weeks; once gamers have had the chance to actually see the game in action and assess it for themselves. However, thus far, that doesn’t seem to be happening. Indeed, if Riot is able to keep players hyped, then Valorant could well prove to be the game which finally supplants CS:GO’s spot in the esports industry.