Valorant Challengers Ascension 2023 — Pacific takes over Americas by peak viewership

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Coming into 2023, Riot Games announced a new plan for how the professional scene would compete. The Valorant Champions Tour follows the top partnered teams around the world competing for spots at the ultimate Valorant Champions event. Not only is a plan in place for the top level of competition but also for the tier-2 leagues.

Tier-2 leagues in Valorant are known as the Valorant Challengers, and they are split up into three major regions. The Americas, EMEA, and Pacific regions function as the major regions, each comprised of smaller minor regions. The top teams from each region battle it out all season long for a chance to play at the Ascension tournament. The Valorant Challengers Ascension tournaments take place in each region and present teams with a unique opportunity to rise up to the Champions Tour. 

Joining the Champions Tour teams not only receive the opportunity to compete at the highest level Valorant events but also become a partnered team, meaning: they receive a yearly stipend from Riot Games and a cut of the in-game item and team-branded content revenue.

As of June 11th, the Americas and Pacific Ascensions have come to an end, while the EMEA league fights on.

Valorant Challengers Ascension 2023, Americas

The Americas Ascension tournament came to a close on the 10th of July. Six teams from North America, Latin America, and Brazil all competed for a chance to ascend to the Champions Tour. Ultimately, the North American teams were a cut above the rest, M80 and The Guard dominated the tournament and during the playoffs stage The Guard went undefeated and M80 only lost to their American counterpart. 

So The Guard are your next American Champions Tour team. But who are they? The Guard has been around as an organisation since late 2021 when they joined the Valorant competitive scene. Before that, their parent company dipped their toes into esports in 2017, entering the Los Angeles Gladiators into the Overwatch League. Football fans might be interested to know the company that owns The Guard, Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, also owns Arsenal F.C. 

The Guard bought a franchise slot for the Call of Duty League, entering the team the Los Angeles Guerrillas. Since 2021, the organisation has been officially known as The Guard and they now will receive a yearly stipend from Riot Games. 

Valorant Challengers Ascension 2023 Americas viewership statistics

The Americas Ascension league clocked in at 2.3M Hours Watched over the course of the tournament. On average 52.9K viewers spectated the games and the North American teams are nicely showcased in the Peak Viewers by match as being regularly above this average.

North American teams were the most popular of the event, with the Grand Final between The Guard and M80 drawing in over 120K concurrent viewers. However, the Brazillian community was not to be overshadowed. Two Brazilian teams played in the event and The Union was clearly the more popular. Although M80 remain a consistent factor in the podium spots, The Union clearly received some support of their own. 

Most popular languages for streams of the Americas Ascension 2023

English was the most-favoured language for viewing the event, however, Portuguese remains a significant portion of the viewership of the event. The event was hosted in Brazil, and the fans not only turned out to support their favourite teams in person but also contributed to a large chunk of the 2.3M Hours Watched the event collected. Other local languages for the teams are also seen in the data. 

Valorant Challengers Ascension 2023, Pacific

The Pacific iteration of the Ascension tournament for 2023 ended on the 9th of July. For this event, 10 teams were gathered from throughout the region to compete for the first-place prize. Teams hailed from South Asia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia & Singapore, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong & Taiwan, Philippines, Indonesia, and Oceania. 

By the end of it all, the Singaporean team of Bleed Esports claimed the ascension spot for the 2024 and 2025 seasons. The Singaporean organisation was established in 2021 and features teams in various esports such as Valorant, Dota 2, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege and Mobile Legends Bang Bang. Of all these teams, their Valorant roster remains the most popular. 

Valorant Challengers Ascension 2023 Pacific viewership statistics

As the Pacific Ascension tournament featured four more teams than their Americas counterpart, the tournament was live for over double the amount of hours as the Americas event. Nevertheless, hype remained high throughout the event and after Grand Finals the event had amassed 4.2M Hours Watched.

The Japanese team SCARZ went head to head against Blood Esports in the Grand Final but couldn’t topple the Singaporean Goliath. Viewership peaked for this climax with 186K spectators concurrently viewing the streams. In comparison to the Americas event, YouTube was the most popular platform rather than Twitch. 

Most popular languages for streams of the Pacific Ascension 2023

Although English was a sizeable contributor to the events Hours Watched, various Asian languages outweighed the lingua franca’s contribution. Teams from Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam all received support from their local fans while on the big stage. However, Japanese prevailed as the most popular language of the event: with a Japanese team competing and hot on the tail of the VCT Masters Tokyo 2023, viewership from Japan was set up for success. 

Valorant Challengers Ascension 2023 regional comparison

Although still ongoing, the EMEA event has already garnered a solid amount of viewership. The tournament reached 114K Peak Viewers as multi-national FOKUS took on the French Gentle Mates roster.

French is, so far, the most popular language of the event. The French Gentle Mates roster continues to dominate not only the event but also the viewership statistics. The French roster qualified for the playoffs stage which will take place from the 13th to the 16th of July. Make sure to check out our tournament page once this event is over to check out all the data. 

Valorant Challengers Ascension 2023 EMEA viewership statistics (ongoing) compared to other regions

Comparing the viewership for the two finished Ascension events, both events performed well in terms of viewership metrics. The Pacific region held the most-watched single match of the series with 186K Peak Viewers, as the Japanese fan favourite faced off against the ultimate winner Blood Esports. 

The Pacific event also garnered 4.2M Hours Watched, 1.9M more total hours than their Americas peer. Although a huge gap between the events, the Pacific event was live for over double as long as the Americas. On the other hand, on average the Americas event drew in 3.5K more Average Viewers a game in comparison to the Pacifics event. 

Overall, the Ascension events so far have been relatively comparable in terms of viewership. The Pacifics Ascension tournament did receive more Peak Viewers than the others, thanks to the power of the Japanese sphere, which may become of the main regions for the genre. Check back in with Esports Chart at the end of the week for the finalised statistics of the Valorant Challengers Ascension 2023 EMEA event.