European languages help VCT 2024: Masters Madrid witness viewership spike compared to Masters Tokyo
The VCT 2024: Masters Madrid kicked off on March 14 at Madrid Arena with its Swiss Stage, where the eight teams play three rounds. With its first day doing so much better than the VCT 2023: Masters Tokyo, this momentum continued across the next four days.
Despite a day of action remaining in the first stage in Madrid, the Swiss Stage's numbers have already far surpassed the corresponding phase from Tokyo, i.e., the Group Stage. The reasons for these substantial hikes in figures continue to be the presence of Brazilian followers and high-profile community casters from Europe, including Kamet0 and Mixwell.
The most popular match so far was the clash between Sentinels and Karmine Corp from the Round 2 High Matches on Day 3, which did 878.5 Peak Viewers. The American powerhouses won 2:0 to advance to the Playoffs while the French side fell into the Round 3 Matches phase where it will face Paper Rex later today for a slot in the knockouts.
This viewership number is already 114.8% better than the corresponding figure from the first stage in Tokyo. Moreover, the watch time has gone up by 42.7% with two matches still to go, meaning this gap could still widen before the Playoffs begin on March 21. Continuing with the theme of the number of stream viewers surging, the average viewership rose by 86.1% compared to the VCT 2023: Masters Tokyo.
There were a few language gains when looking at the Day 1 viewership stats, and that has continued across the next three days. English's peak increased by 113.4% while the corresponding jump for Portuguese was 411%, thanks to the participation of LOUD, the sole representative of regions that speak this language.
However, Japanese's fall was pretty pronounced, hitting 49.1%, while its watch time saw an even bigger decline of 74.9%. The lack of a team from this country, and the awkward broadcast times that were geared more towards appealing to the European and American audiences, meant that viewers were not that inclined to catch the live action.
Thanks to the presence of Karmine Corp owner Kamet0, French's viewership numbers saw a big boom. Its peak concurrent viewership figures across the first stage jumped by a huge 1982.4%, while the watch time saw a leap of 391.9%.
Similarly, Mixwell's streaming of Team Heretic's matches helped Spanish's peak witness a 351.3% spike. Thai, too, benefitted from an increase in interest among audiences as its peak online viewership shot up by 108.1%. That was because its representative — Paper Rex — played its first game in the Playoffs last year, while it was in action from the word go in 2024.
It also has to be mentioned that a lot more streaming services have been live broadcasting the games, including the new CHZZK and the ever-improving TikTok and Kick. This has also meant many more channels bringing this Valorant event to a lot of new audiences globally.
Most importantly, these improved numbers have seen the VCT 2024: Masters Madrid become the third-most-popular Masters competition in Valorant's short competitive history. With the main teams looking like qualifying for the knockouts, there is a chance it not only finishes as one of the most successful Valorant Champions Tour tournaments but also in the top five overall in the discipline.
Detailed Esports data at your fingertips.
Subscribe to & start exploring!
Mentioned events
Mentioned teams
Newsfeed
