Thanks to French streamers, a new viewership record was set last weekend for the Valorant Challengers series. The match between the Joblife and Gentle-Mates, which belong to the creators of JLTomy and Gotaga, respectively, gathered over 171K concurrent viewers.
Interestingly, the Gentle-Mates team is a relatively recent addition. Its launch was announced in mid-April, and the founders of the new club were the popular French creators Squeezie, Brawks and Gotaga. The club immediately secured a spot in the Valorant Challengers France by signing the Supra Beaux Gosses roster.
Amid the hype, Gentle-Mates immediately became the most popular team in the league, as their matches are now covered by Gotaga, who is one of the five most popular streamers in France as of early 2023. During the match between GM and Joblife, Gotaga drew over 118K viewers at peak, while JLTomy (who was obviously rooting for Joblife) drew over 47K viewers at peak. A huge audience of streamers, coupled with viewers of the official broadcast of the tournament, helped set a new record.
Previously, the record for tournaments in the Valorant Challengers series belonged to Japan Split 1. At this tournament, more than 160K spectators were attracted by the confrontation between Crazy Raccoon and FENNEL. The top 5 events also include Japan's second split and North America tournaments.
