Sentinels success makes VCT 2024: Americas Kickoff Valorant’s most popular regional event ever
The VCT 2024: Americas Kickoff concluded on March 4 at the Riot Games Arena in Los Angeles, California, getting the international Valorant circuit for the new season off to a solid start. It ended as one of the most popular events in the discipline while reaffirming its status as the most successful of the four regional leagues in the rejigged Valorant esports calendar.
Readers must note that since the Kickoff events are new, there are no early-season regional leagues from last year to directly compare viewership statistics. However, the closest comparisons can be made with the VCT 2023: Americas League, against which it saw a higher number of Peak Viewers.
The addition of the highly successful G2 Esports to the region's roster of teams was also crucial, as it brought more eyes from European audiences thanks to its great run there. After all, it was one of the most successful teams during its time in the continent — winning every Ignition Series event in the region — before moving across the pond after acquiring a majority of The Guard's roster.
The Guard had won the Valorant Challengers Ascension 2023: Americas to qualify as the 11th and newest side in the Americas region. However, it could not fulfill the Team Partnership Agreement, leaving the door open for G2 Esports to swoop in and sign four of its five members. This made the esports organization eligible to enter the fray and kick off its journey in the North and South American competitive Valorant scene.
Getting back to the VCT 2024: Americas Kickoff, it hit 823K Peak Viewers during the Grand Final between Sentinels and LOUD. The former would win 3:2 to avenge its loss in the opening match of Group B and emerge as the champion in a match that was the dream scenario for many fans.
Two of the most popular sides in the Americas clashing in the summit clash, with bragging rights at stake in a Brazil versus NA encounter, was only going to help bring in more eyeballs. Their importance to the success of this competition can also be seen in the fact that at least one of them appeared in all the top five games in terms of peak viewership.
Sentinels' success no doubt also played a part in the higher peak concurrent viewership numbers, for it is, without doubt, the most popular Valorant side from North America. Its run to the summit clash alongside LOUD — the highly followed Brazilian side — helped this competition register 22.5M Hours Watched and 347.2K Average Viewers over 64 hours of airtime.
Sticking with the winning team, its celebrity streamer, Tarik, once again played a starring role, emerging with massive numbers among channels to live stream the VCT 2024: Americas Kickoff. This only proved once again why he remains the biggest name when it comes to content creation on this Riot Games tactical hero shooter.
Moving to languages, English and Portuguese continued to be the dominant names, thanks to the followings enjoyed by sides like Sentinels and LOUD. Interestingly, the former's watch time rose a bit while the latter fell by almost the same margin, a reflection of the winners at the 2023 Americas League and 2024 Americas Kickoff.
When looking at the peak online viewers, English saw a large increase while Portuguese declined slightly, again proving how crucial the success of the respective teams was in attracting audiences from these regions. Likewise, the continued underperformance of Spanish sides, who usually attract massive audience numbers, saw the language's share of the HW section drop negligibly.
Moving to comparisons, the meeting of two powerhouses in the Grand Final helped make the VCT 2024: Americas Kickoff the most popular Valorant tournament in the region so far (not counting worldwide events). The expected performances of the favorites played a major part in this spike, while the much shorter runtime ensured audience engagement levels did not wane, as is the case with competitions that have longer airtimes.
Americas’ Kickoff has become the most popular non-global competition in Valorant history, pointing to the continued growth of the discipline and its competitive segment. Of course, the Americas remains the game's stronghold thanks to the love that LATAM and Brazilian fans show for its teams, so it remains to be seen if any other region, perhaps the Pacific, can match this level of interest.
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