DFM and Japanese fans push VCT Pacific viewership as JP viewers surpass EMEA

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Across the first 10 days of matches at the debut event of the Valorant Champions Tour 2026, the VCT 2026: Pacific Kickoff emerged as the global leader in viewership among all International Leagues (IL). As we covered in our opening comparison of viewership, the Pacific circuit started ahead of the others, and this trend has continued, with a Japanese team causing peak viewership spike after spike.

Read also: Valorant Champions Tour 2026 starts with Pacific at #1 — Kickoff first-week top matches & viewership

DetaNation FocusMe rebuilt their roster for the 2026 season, acquiring Amon "Caedye" Okakura and Kazuya "yatsuka" Ikeda from the tier-two team RIDDLE. Heading to the Kickoff, many Japanese fans tuned in to the Kickoff to support the fresh roster representing their country. Their opening match against Gen.G reached over 317,000 Peak Viewers, and their subsequent games have only been more popular. 

  Matches featuring DFM are some of the most popular games at the Pacific Kickoff   

DFM’s games at the Pacific Kickoff has been followed by a wave of Japanese viewership; compared to last year’s Kickoff, Japanese viewership increased drastically, with Average Viewers up by other 33% and Peak Viewers more than 43%. While Japan has long been one of the globe’s most passionate Valorant esports audiences, their teams have struggled to make it to the international stage — now, with DFM set to face T1 on February 13, they stand only two wins away from qualifying to Masters Santiago. 

For DFM’s opening match against Gen.G, fans may not have been ready for their success and a 2:0 victory. Japanese viewership was strong, but then drastically increased for their second game against Rex Regum Qeon; the Indonesian squad is a regionally dominant team, although they failed to pass groups at Champions last year, and many saw this as a true test of DFM — for DFM vs RRQ, over 290,000 Japanese viewers tuned in concurrently, dwarfing the VCT EMEA Kickoff which currently has only 217.9K PV. Although DFM lost 0:2 against RRQ, they moved on to their next game undeterred. 

Heading into the mid bracket of the Kickoff’s triple elimination format, DFM defeated Team Secret 2:0, before advancing past both Global Esports and FULL SENSE. With four wins under their belt so far, DFM is in a prime position to qualify for the upcoming Masters tournament. If they win their next game against T1, DFM will face the loser of Nongshim RedForce vs RRQ for a shot at qualifying; if they lose, DFM stilll has their final chance in the lower bracket. 

If DFM qualify to Masters Santiago, we could see the true potential of Valorant’s current Japanese audience. Japan’s Challengers circuit dominated global viewership for the tier-two scene, and games featuring Japanese teams always performed well in the VCT, and now, Japanese viewership could reach some new records during DFM’s climb to the top. Keep an eye on who qualifies and the live-updated viewership statistics with the Esports Charts tournament page.