LATAM viewership surpasses English-speaking audiences at VCT 2025 Americas Kickoff

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As we covered in our previous article for the VCT 2025: Americas Kickoff, the International League (IL) has been losing viewership compared to last year across the board. Throughout further days of the Kickoff, this remained true, with the circuit failing to match the viewership of last year’s popular matches.

Read also: Viewership wanes at the VCT 2025 Americas Kickoff across all demographics

Days five through nine of the Kickoff held matches for lower bracket round one and two, the lower bracket quarterfinals, as well as the upper bracket semifinals. These upper bracket groups saw North American fan-favourites Sentinels face off against South American stars LOUD, and G2 Esports knock Leviatán Esports to the lower bracket. Last year, a group stage match between Sen and LOUD fell just short of 600,000 viewers, but in 2025, it failed to reach even 450,000 concurrent viewers.

While viewership for the American circuit has waned, South American viewership has become even more crucial to the overall results of this VCT IL. All three of the most popular matches from days 5 to 9 featured South American squads. Although Sentinels' match against LOUD drew strong numbers from English-speaking viewers, Brazilian fans still outshined them.

LOUD are usually the champions for Brazilian viewership in Valorant, but Leviatán’s game against MIBR was the most popular match among Portuguese-speaking fans, as well as the most popular game overall. MIBR’s signing of Brazilian star Erick "aspas" Santos to their roster has bolstered their support among their home country. This game’s viewership was also boosted through engagement of the minor Spanish-speaking viewer base for Valorant, which reached an event high of 82K Peak Viewers. 

Whereas last year the group stage matches could reach over 500,000 concurrent viewers, this was out of reach for Valorant’s Americas scene in 2025. One minor positive shift is that YouTube reached a peak viewership far higher than last year. This is largely due to many Brazilian influencers multistreaming to both platforms and a general shift away from previously dominant Twitch.

North American audiences seem to be showing less engagement with Valorant esports. Viewership from this audience has not only fallen for region-leading co-streamer Tarik Celik, but also for the official English-language broadcast. Tyson "TenZ" Ngo, a new entrant to the co-streaming scene after retiring from esports competitions, reached just under 25,000 concurrent viewers; while impressive, this peak is no higher than what other English-language co-streamers managed to reach at last year’s Kickoff.

On the Brazilian side of the scene, co-casting is thriving with multiple personalities like TcK10, Gustavo “Sacy” Rossi, and Victor “LOUD_Coringa” Augusto all driving sizeable Portuguese-language viewership to games. LATAM’s viewership was also represented through Spanish-speaking co-streamer Óscar "mixwell" Cañellas, who dominated Spanish-language viewership for the event.

Overall, LATAM seems to be the healthier side of Valorant Americas esports. While Sentinel’s massive audience has helped Valorant to set viewership records in the past, following the exit of Sacy and TenZ, viewership has calmed down among its previously fervent fan base. Nowadays in the VCT, viewership is driven much higher by South American squads, and especially Brazilian teams. Sentinels are indeed still one of the VCT Americas’ most popular teams, but their core English-language audience seems to slowly be fading. 

Next up, the VCT Americas will host two regional showdowns: Sentinels will face G2 Esports in the Upper Bracket Final as the North American derby, and MIBR will face KRÜ Esports in the lower bracket semifinal. North American viewership has a chance to show its worth once again in the final matches of the event, and following LOUD’s elimination by KRÜ Esports, Brazilian viewership may slow down for the ultimate games.