VCT 2024: EMEA Kickoff first stats — Squeezy surpasses Ibai and Kamet0 in peak viewership

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VCT 2024: EMEA Kickoff kicked off in Berlin on February 20th — the first tournament of the new season for the European partner league of Valorant. Judging by the viewership statistics of the opening matches, the European audience has enthusiastically embraced the Valorant esports scene. The most active viewers on the broadcasts are currently French fans — they eagerly follow the matches on the community caster streams of Squeezie and Kamet0.

Compared to the start of the league last year, the main viewership metrics have seen some growth. In particular, the average audience for EMEA Kickoff currently stands at 165.4K viewers, which is 33% higher than last year's result for the same time. Similarly, the peak audience of the event has increased by several thousand viewers.

Several teams from popular streamers are competing at EMEA Kickoff, such as Karmine Corp, KOI, Gentle Mates, Team Heretics, and others. For instance, Kamet0 attracted 80.5K Peak Viewers during the match between Karmine Corp and GIANTX. Meanwhile, Ibai streamed the series between KOI and Team Liquid, with 63.9K people watching it simultaneously.

During the opening matches, the most popular community caster was the French streamer Squeezie, co-owner of Gentle Mates; his broadcast of EMEA Kickoff peaked at 159.7K viewers. This currently stands as Squeezie's best result for 2024 and the sixth-best in his streaming career.

In the aftermath of the first days of EMEA Kickoff, community casting significantly surpasses official broadcasts in audience reach. The official English-language Twitch channel, Valorant_EMEA, only gathered 32.3K PV, ranking fourth among all channels covering the tournament. Organizers also conduct official broadcasts in French and Turkish, but they barely reach the top 10.

Despite the initial growth in audience compared to the EMEA League 2023, EMEA Kickoff currently shows the weakest audience reach among all partner leagues. For instance, the peak online viewership of VCT 2024: Pacific Kickoff has already surpassed 462.6K PV, while the broadcasts of VCT 2024: Americas Kickoff gathered 589.7K viewers simultaneously.