On the first day of the competitive FPS’s closed beta, Valorant has already scored an insanely high viewership on Twitch for an all-new IP. It may not be a sure-fire indicator that League of Legends developer Riot Games has a hit on their hands, but it certainly doesn’t bode ill for the shooter’s future.
Revealed little more than a month ago, Riot Games’ latest and greatest has quickly captivated the attention of esports athletes, streamers, and their massive audiences. A hyper-stylized, class-based FPS, Valorant takes some very obvious cues from Activision Blizzard’s Overwatch, but it’s coming five years down the line from its top hero shooter competitor and has injected a very different personality and competitive focus into the winning formula. Of course, not everyone is impressed by another Overwatch clone hitting the well-saturated market, but a stir-crazy populace in quarantine is itching for the next hype train to leave the station.
This morning, Dot Esports reported on Twitter that Valorant hit a wildly impressive milestone of 1.6 million concurrent viewers on Twitch on the first day its closed beta, a major feat for a property that’s only been in the public eye for such a short time. It’s still going strong at 1.5 million even at the time of writing, which might be a good sign that the game has attracted a reliably strong following before it’s even been released. That sizable viewer base could very well wane by the time Valorant‘s projected summer release date finally rolls around, but it’s anyone’s guess at this point.
If any studio can build a competitive favorite among players of all skill and renown, it’s Riot Games. However, the developer does have a… well, Riot Games-sized hole in its public image. Its toxic corporate apparatus has spent the last year openly courting controversy over its alleged mistreatment of employees, which is now the first identifying characteristic that pops into many consumers’ heads when the developer’s name is mentioned. And, while a recent dispute with Valorant streamers was quickly quashed, Riot has won itself a lot of international ill will among League of Legends streamers and Esports teams thanks to a long list of real and perceived sleights pulled over the past decade.
Riot Games may never quite outrun its past mistakes, but its staff is likely dancing to the tune of 1.5 million viewers today before returning to the arduous final stretch of development. This victory proves that Valorant might pan out to be the talented studio’s next League of Legends (if not more), but they’ll have to play their cards just right if they don’t want their upcoming title to go the way of its many deceased competitive contemporaries.
