VCT 2025 EMEA Kickoff Sets New Viewership Records
The 2025 Valorant Champions Tour has kicked off with impressive viewership numbers during its regional tournaments. The EMEA Kickoff tournament’s first two days have already demonstrated significant growth, achieving a peak viewership of 336,040 concurrent viewers.
A key highlight of the tournament has been the professional debut of Ava “florescent” Eugene, who made history as the first Game Changers player to compete in the main VCT circuit. Her appearance coincided with another milestone in competitive gaming, as Imperial’s women’s Counter-Strike 2 team faced NAVI at the BLAST Premier Bounty Season 1.
The matchup between Apeks and Gentle Mates emerged as the standout viewing attraction. Surpassing high-profile contests featuring established organizations like NAVI, Karmine Corp, Team Liquid, KOI, GiantX, and BBL Esports. The game’s popularity stemmed from dual factors: international interest in florescent’s VCT debut and Gentle Mates’ strong French fanbase.
Viewership
Viewership was bolstered significantly by popular content creators providing co-streams. Gentle Mates co-founder Lucas “Squeezie” Hauchard, who commands a following of over 5.19 million on Twitch, drew more than 100,000 concurrent viewers to his French-language broadcast. The English-language streams attracted a similar number of viewers, resulting in the highest English-language viewership peak of the tournament thus far.
Apeks vs. Gentle Mates match outperformed even the highly anticipated Karmine Corp vs. NAVI matchup, which itself drew over 60,000 French-speaking viewers through team founder Kamil “Kamet0” Kebir’s stream. The peak viewership for Apeks vs. Gentle Mates exceeded other matches by more than 100,000 viewers.
While Spanish viewership saw a decline due to the absence of KOI co-founder Ibai “Ibai” Llanos from co-streaming duties. Increased engagement from Russian and Portuguese-speaking audiences helped maintain strong overall numbers. Compared to the previous year’s event, both average and peak viewership metrics have shown marked improvement.
Looking ahead, the tournament promises more high-stakes matches. Team Vitality’s newly assembled roster featuring Felipe “Less” de Loyola Basso and Nikita “Derke” Sirmitev will face Karmine Corp, while 2024 Champions runner-up Team Heretics is set to challenge Gentle Mates. Apeks, despite their viewership success, finds themselves in a precarious position in the lower bracket of the double-elimination tournament.