VCT 2024 Pacific Stage 1 league reached new heights as other regions fall behind
Following on from the major success of the Masters Madrid event, which was the most popular Valorant esports event ever, the regional leagues kicked off for another season of domestic competition. Although the year started off high, many regions did not experience the growth in viewership many expected of them, and some leagues struggled to maintain interest from viewers.
A newcomer to the regional system, China, also entered the fray in 2024. Unfortunately, viewership statistics reported by Chinese livestreaming platforms are unreliable and unsuitable for comparison to other regions here. As such, China’s league has its viewership determined by its coverage on other livestreaming platforms, such as Twitch and YouTube Live. As it is the year’s first year, there is also no previous benchmark to compare it against.
The extremely high viewership for the Masters Madrid event was a lucky stroke for the esports title. The grand final between Sentinels and Gen.G was perfectly poised to combine the viewership of two of Valorant’s strongest regions and reach highs never before seen. On a domestic level, however, the Americas league struggled to generate the high viewership expected of it, as the region’s most popular teams did not continue far into the playoffs stage.
VCT 2024: Stage 1 regional leagues viewership
Leading the way and making its way ahead of the Americas, the VCT 2024: Pacific League - Stage 1 was the most popular region of the domestic leagues so far. The grand final match between Gen.G and Paper Rex reached 509.4K Peak Viewers, one of the best matchups the region could muster. Gen.G bring a sizable Korean viewership with them, whereas Paper Rex have been a powerhouse in the Pacific region for years, constantly qualifying for international events and building up a fanbase.
One shortcoming of the Pacific League was the failure of the two Japanese teams to be competitive and advance to playoffs. DetonatioN FocusMe and ZETA DIVISION were both eliminated from their group, without winning many matches. Nevertheless, the most popular language of the was Japanese, and by a considerable margin. If these two organizations are able to field more competitive teams and bring the Japanese crowd fully to the playoffs stage, the Pacific league will be able to reach even higher peaks.
While the Pacific region was enjoying new highs, the VCT 2024: Americas League - Stage 1 failed to meet the standards set last year. The league could only reach 498.8K PV, and this drop in viewership was due to which teams qualified for playoffs. Sentinels and LOUD, the region’s two most popular teams, failed to impress throughout the season. Sentinels failed to qualify for playoffs entirely, following on the high of winning Masters Madrid, whereas LOUD was eliminated by playoffs in the first round of knockout matches. Of the top 5 most popular matches of the season, none of these games were from the playoffs stage.
Most popular matches of each VCT 2024 regional league
Across the pond for the VCT 2024: EMEA League - Stage 1, two of the region’s most popular teams did compete in the grand final. Fnatic is the region’s most-followed team, thanks to their dominant performances throughout 2023, and they competed in the final match of the season against Team Heretics, who have a large Spanish following. However, French-language viewership is becoming almost more important than English-language audiences for the EMEA league, and without either Karmine Corp or Gentle M8s competing in the grand final, the EMEA league struggled to expand on last year’s viewership peak. The EMEA circuit reached 311.7K PV, marking only a 2.8% increase in peak viewership compared to 2023, despite French and Spanish audiences growing significantly since then.
Ultimately, both the Americas and EMEA leagues faced similar problems. The viewership of these two domestic circuits is highly dependent upon fan-favourite teams, and without the appearance of these teams throughout the late-playoffs stage, the events struggled to grow their viewership compared to the previous year.
The VCT 2024: China Stage 1 could manage to only reach 40K PV outside of Chinese livestreaming platforms. Although there is no 2023 circuit to compare to, this was a significant drop in viewership compared to the VCT 2024: China Kickoff, which received 61.6K PV.
Community casters are an integral part of Valorant, and tarik remains the king of the watch party. The Sentinels-affiliated creator reached 106.5K PV for Sentinels’ match against Leviatán in Week 2 of the regular season. Leviatán is home to aspas for this year, one of Brazil’s most famous star players. The game was a white-knuckle ride throughout, with the first map extending deep into overtime, and the second finishing in a tight 13-11 finish in favour of Leviatán.
Sentinels continued to struggle competitively throughout the rest of the season, and tarik’s viewership followed suit. As fans became less interested in watching them perform throughout the season, no other game was able to beat the height reached by their close match early in the season. Tarik was also the most popular community caster of the EMEA league, reaching 86.6K Peak Viewers for the grand final match between Fnatic and Team Heretics. Unlike the Americas, tarik’s viewership reached its peak at the natural stage of the grand finals when covering EMEA, as he personally had no horse in the race. However, in both the EMEA and Americas regions, tarik was even more popular than the official broadcasting channels.
Moving to the Pacific, another Counter-Strike professional turned streamer topped the charts. GOFNS was the region’s most popular community caster, reaching 65.2K Peak Viewers for his coverage of the grand final between PRX and Gen.G. FNS has built up a name for himself within Valorant as a community caster who can offer the insights of a former professional player, sometimes leading to matter-of-fact comments about mistakes being made in-game. This approach has built him a loyal fanbase of those interested in his no-holds-barred approach, and it paid dividends as he was crowned the most popular watch party of the Pacific.
Finally, in China, Sliggytv was the most popular community caster to cover the league. He has been hard at work throughout the entire season, often broadcasting matches from all four individual leagues. This came to fruition for him during the finals of the league, where very few community casters took part compared to other regional leagues. His coverage of the China league was brief, as he mainly was tuning in between the Pacific and EMEA final matches, but nevertheless his 13.3K PV earned him the top spot of the region.
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