The Valorant Champions 2024 event, marking the end of the year for the tier-1 esports scene, has commenced in South Korea. The event opened with two matches, featuring some of the world’s most popular and competitive teams. However, despite this promising lineup, viewership for the 2024 event is lower across all metrics compared to last year’s Champions.
Starting on August 1 and running throughout the month, the grand final is slated for August 25. The first day saw Gen.G Esports play against Sentinels, and Team Heretics face FunPlus Phoenix. According to statistics from this year’s Stage 2 regional circuits, these teams rank among the top 5 in their regions by Average Viewers.
Although these matches appeared poised to attract significant viewership, the 2024 event’s opening day showed a decline. It amassed 2.86 million hours watched and peaked at 652.8K viewers during the Gen.G vs. Sentinels match. These figures represent a 10.7% drop in average viewership and a 1.3% drop in peak viewership compared to last year. Nonetheless, the 2024 event became the fourth-most popular Valorant tournament of the year by peak concurrent viewership on its first day.
The main issue seems to be the absence of Brazilian teams. While viewership from English, Japanese, and Spanish audiences remained stable or increased, and Korean viewership saw a significant rise, Portuguese-language viewership plummeted by over 88.7% compared to last year’s opening day.
Twitch exit South Korea
Earlier this year, Twitch announced its exit from South Korea, leading to a scramble among livestreaming platforms to fill the void. On the opening day of Valorant Champions 2024, most Korean viewers tuned in via YouTube Live, followed by CHZZK, with AfreecaTV trailing behind. Despite this, the absence of LOUD, a Brazilian team with a massive following, has severely impacted Portuguese-language viewership.
Leviatán, KRÜ Esports, and Sentinels each have one Brazilian player, but this hasn’t been enough to retain Portuguese-speaking viewers. LOUD’s failure to qualify has resulted in a noticeable decline in viewership from this demographic, which is now absent from the top 5 languages for the event’s opening day.
Despite LOUD’s absence, Sentinels and Gen.G, both highly popular teams, are competing. Gen.G’s popularity, in particular, is expected to benefit from playing on home soil. The match between FunPlus Phoenix and Team Heretics peaked at 502.9K viewers, although viewership from Chinese platforms remains unaccounted for due to unreliable statistics.
Overall, while the opening day of Valorant Champions 2024 was successful, it did not reach the heights of previous events. The lack of Brazilian representation has had a notable impact, and this trend may continue throughout the tournament.
