VCT 2025 Americas loses 25% of viewers for Stage 2, Pacific and EMEA diversify audiences

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Valorant Champions Tour 2025 Stage 2 events have come to a close across the globe. Each International League (IL) has generated tens of millions of hours watch time across hundreds of hours of esports action in Stage 2. With these results, each of the Valorant leagues have decided their top four teams to send to this year’s Valorant Champions 2025 in Paris.

Leading up to the ultimate event of the calendar, the Stage 2 regional events are usually less-watched than their Stage 1 counterparts, which was also true this year. While all regions recorded decreases in viewership, some circuits shifted more drastically than others. Esports Charts explores the viewership results of each Valorant Champions Tour Stage 2 regional league, as well as how they compare to each other.

VCT 2025: Stage 2 International Leagues viewership comparison

• Not only did Pacific continue to lead in Peak Viewers for Stage 2, but also recorded more Average Viewers than Americas for the first time ever.
• Americas saw significant drops in English-language viewership across top official and community broadcasts.
• A new language and platform audience for EMEA drove significant viewership towards its Peak Viewers during the grand finals.
• Kick is beginning to successfully enter Valorant esports broadcasting, generating a significant portion of EMEA’s total Peak Viewers this stage. 
• For international viewership of China, average viewership actually slightly increased for Stage 2, making it the exception to the rule here.

VCT 2025: Pacific Stage 2 viewership statistics 

VCT Pacific circuit remains Valorant esports’ most popular region. Over 426,900 Peak Viewers (PV) tuned into the grand final with Rex Regum Qeon and Paper Rex, standing out far ahead of any other IL. Paper Rex took the top spot with a handy 3:1 victory over RRQ, who are both heading to Champions alongside T1 and DRX. 

The VCT 2025: Pacific Stage 2 displayed the healthiest viewership statistics of any VCT region, with a wide spread of viewership coming in across a diverse range of demographics. Compared to the Americas or EMEA, where viewership is largely concentrated in three language groups, the Pacific Stage 2 boasted six significant languages — meaning minimum 10,000 Average Viewers (AV).

The VCT Pacific’s wide range of viewers allows it to consistently achieve strong viewership stage after stage. The largest audience of the event, Japanese fans, did not even reach their 153,488 PV during the grand finals, but rather the Japanese derby between ZETA Division and DetonatioN FocusMe in the opening week. Although Japanese viewers were less interested in the finals, enough other language demographics tuned in to the finals to counteract this.

VCT 2025: Americas Stage 2 viewership statistics 

The VCT 2025: Americas Stage 2 experienced the sharpest decrease in viewership from Stage 1, roughly 95,000 fewer PV and 25% fewer AV. Now, the Americas sits behind Pacific in both Average and Peak Viewers, abdicating the top spot they previously held since the VCT’s inception. 

This decrease in viewership for the Americas was largely due to falling interest among English-speaking fans. Portuguese-language viewership remained relatively stable compared to the previous season. Both of these audiences were represented in the most popular game featuring LOUD and 100 Thieves, a regular Group Stage match. Viewership fell for top-performing official and co-streaming broadcasters, and usual North American fan-favorites Sentinels even made a deep playoffs run to the Lower Bracket Final.

Ultimately, G2 Esports and NRG faced off in the grand finals, where the former claimed a 3:0 victory. However, the games were closer than G2 Esports would have liked, and it’s still unclear how these teams will stack up at Champions. Alongside these two, Sentinels and MIBR also qualified, two top teams for viewership potential. 

In the past, the Americas circuit was clearly the global leader for Valorant esports in terms of viewership, enjoying significant audiences from both North America and Brazil. However, this has slowly slipped in recent years, and now, the Pacific circuit has clearly overtaken the Americas. 

VCT 2025: EMEA Stage 2 viewership statistics 

For the VCT 2025: EMEA Stage 2, Turkish-language viewership played a significant role in the PV achieved during the grand final. Turkey has quickly become a key region for Valorant esports, with some of the most-promising young talents emerging from the country. In support of their local team, BBL Esports, more than 100,000 Turkish live viewers tuned in to support them in the fight against Team Liquid.  

A significant part of this Turkish viewership came from Kick, almost matching the YouTube Peak for the final match. Kick has been making moves to expand both into esports and the Turkish market, so keep an eye on this audience in the future: there could be serious potential for growth here if Turkish players and teams continue to perform at the top of the VCT EMEA.

Also representing the VCT EMEA at Champions alongside Liquid and BBL, local legends Fnatic and Team Heretics will fight it out in Paris this year. These two historic organizations bring their own fanbases with them, and could generate some exciting peaks for the Champions event.

VCT 2025: China Stage 2 viewership statistics

While we can’t track livestreaming viewership data from Chinese platforms, the international attention for the VCT 2025: China Stage 2 continued to generate some minor viewership. Although international viewership for this circuit is rather low, the top-performing Chinese teams are always popular on the international stages, with their reputation for strong performances bringing in plenty of fans.

The VCT China was indeed the only Stage 2 event of 2025 to record an increase in Average Viewers compared to Stage 1, but the viewership here is so low compared to other ILs that the usual rule of decreasing viewership for Stage 2 is not as strict. Also, Peak Viewers did still decrease significantly compared to Stage 1.

The most popular match between EDward Gaming and Trace Esports was not the grand finals of this circuit, and indeed Trace Esports did not qualify for Champions after losing to EDG in the first lower-bracket match. The other attendees for Champions from China, alongside reigning world champions EDG, are Bilibili Gaming, Dragon Ranger Gaming, and XLG Esports.

For Valorant Champions 2025, some of the most popular and successful teams have qualified for each region. This upcoming event has serious potential, keep an eye on its viewership not only for serious highs, but new language records for up-and-coming audiences like Turkish and potential platform records for Kick.