How important are community streams to Valorant esports?

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The recently ended Valorant Champions 2021 set a new viewership record for the discipline. However its statistics was still far from being the most impressive for a tournament of this level. Namely, it only slightly overtook Reykjavík Masters in terms of Peak Viewers, and this was mostly achieved thanks to community streamers. Let’s see which creators have gathered the largest audience.

Community casting is extremely common in esports. Organizers of many major tournaments stipulate the conditions under which streamers can cover matches on their channels. Some of recent examples include The International 10 and PGL Major Stockholm. 

However, Valorant differs significantly from CS:GO and Dota 2 in this regard. For example, the contribution of Russian streamers to the overall figures by language (in terms of Hours Watched) during The International was slightly over 28%, while the English-speaking creators accounted for only 15%. This share turned out to be even lower during CS:GO major: about 10% for Russian and 6% for English.

  Average viewership of Valorant's official Twitch channel during international tournaments  

In the case of Valorant Champions, the creators' contribution to the total numbers was much more significant. The ratio between streamers and studio channels was roughly 50:50 by Hours Watched.

Note that the main Twitch channel of Valorant attracted 109.3K Average Viewers during the event, which is only 5K more than during the VCT Masters Berlin. At the same time, the final tournament of the season exceeded 469K Average Viewers overall: this means that the contribution of streamers to the impressive statistical figures is extremely high.

  Most popular community streamers of Valorant Champions 2021   

Valorant Champions 2021 has been covered by streamers from all over the world, from Spain to Japan. Kyedae (3.2M hours) became the leader among streamers in terms of total Hours Watched: she is a content creator for 100 Thieves and also the girlfriend of TenZ, a tournament participant from Sentinels. 

Three former professional CS:GO players were also Among the leaders by Hours Watched. The second spot went to shroud (2.6M), the third spot occupied by tarik (2.5M), and the fifth spot went to Mixwell (1.5M). Fps_shaka also entered the top 5 (1.8M); he is the most popular Japanese Twitch streamer of Valorant.

Not all creators covered the tournament throughout its entire duration. For example, one of the most famous Spanish streamers, ibai, commented on only a few games of the KRÜ Esports: however, he became the leader in terms of viewership, amassing over 219K Peak Viewers. Interestingly, the team became one of the most watched one on the tournament, as its matches were also streamed by TheGrefg and KRU's owner and football star Sergio Aguero who streams on Twitch under the SLAKUN10 nickname.

It is noteworthy that wtcN, a former professional League of Legends player from Turkey, closed the top 5 by this metric. He rooted for cNed from Acend and his channel gathered 82.8K Peak Viewers during decisive match of the event.

Also Read: Acend Triumph and New Record in the Discipline — Valorant Champions 2021 Statistical Overview

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Community streaming is a very important part of Valorant tournaments, and the contribution of streamers to views is much more significant than in Dota 2 or CS:GO events. Content creators bring a lot of viewers to streams and thereby expand the game’s esports audience.

Detailed stats of Valorant Champions 2021 and any other esports event is available to our PRO subscribers. Need even more data? Then you will be interested in the dashboard; access to it can be purchased directly from our sales department.