VCT 2025 Masters Bangkok: Viewership Predictions for the Playoff Stage
As the Swiss Stage of VCT 2025: Masters Bangkok concludes, attention now shifts to the upcoming playoff stage featuring elite teams from Valorant’s International Leagues. This first international tournament of 2025 offers valuable insights into this year’s competitive landscape. Based on participating teams’ average viewership and historical Masters event trends, we can project expected audience numbers for the tournament’s conclusion.
Playoff Stage Overview
The double-elimination playoff bracket will showcase four qualified teams, with remarkable diversity as one team represents each International League. The opening matchups pit China’s EDward Gaming against Pacific League leaders T1 from Korea, while Team Vitality and G2 Esports create an exciting EU versus NA confrontation. Given this compelling lineup, viewership is projected to reach approximately 900,000-1,000,000 concurrent viewers at its peak.
While impressive, this would represent a decline from VCT 2024: Masters Madrid’s record-breaking 1,687,848 peak viewers. Nevertheless, Masters Bangkok would still rank among Valorant’s top five most-viewed Masters events.
Viewership Factors
Several key factors influence the projected viewership:
- The absence of Brazilian teams significantly impacts potential numbers, as the Portuguese-speaking fan base remains largely unengaged
- Sentinels’ elimination reduces English-language viewership potential, as their massive popularity typically adds approximately 100,000 additional viewers for finals featuring the team
- Chinese viewership statistics cannot be reliably included due to data transparency issues with Chinese streaming platforms, which use proprietary metrics rather than standard viewer counts
Despite lacking certain regional powerhouses with massive fan bases, the tournament remains poised for strong viewership. EDward Gaming continues to attract Western audiences as the current VCT champions, serving as a benchmark against which fans measure their regional favorites.
Group Stage Performance
The Group Stage demonstrated promising results, despite falling short of Masters Madrid’s exceptional numbers. The tournament has already recorded some leading statistics for VCT events, demonstrating Valorant’s ability to reach million-viewer peaks for international tournaments even without specific fan-favorite teams.
Compared to VCT 2024: Masters Shanghai, Bangkok has seen increased engagement from English-speaking audiences and growth in Korean-language streams. T1’s prestigious brand recognition could potentially drive Korean viewership to new heights if their strong performance continues.
The Playoffs begin with upper-bracket matches on Thursday, February 27, continuing through the weekend with the grand final scheduled for Sunday, March 2, potentially delivering one of Valorant’s most thrilling conclusions to date.
