VCT Ascension 2023: EMEA Viewership Statistics

The VCT Ascension 2023: EMEA Valorant tournament ended on July 16. The tournament determined the team that will compete in the EMEA affiliate league in 2024 and 2025. The Peak viewership of the league reached over 227K viewers, all thanks to the community casting by Gotaga, who covered the matches of his team Gentle Mates.

In the VCT Ascension 2023: EMEA, 10 teams from different European countries participated. They were all selected based on the results of regional and national leagues (such as leagues from France, Italy, Spain, Northern and Eastern Europe, etc.). In the final match, the French team Gentle Mates defeated the European squad Apeks with a score of 3:0 and advanced to the top European division of the Valorant Champions Tour. It will compete there for the next two years.

It is interesting that the co-owners of the Gentle Mates team are two popular French streamers — Squeezie, Gotaga, and Broky Brawks. The latter actively covered his team's matches at the Ascension tournament and during the Grand Final, he gathered almost 180K Peak Viewers viewers on his channel.

Ascension 2023 EMEA Viewership Statistics

In total, VCT Ascension 2023: EMEA matches accumulated 2.7 million Hours Watched. The Average Viewers number of the broadcasts was 49.6K, with the Peak Viewers number of 227.2K.

Only games involving Gentle Mates made it to the Top 5 most popular matches of the tournament. This same team was the undisputed leader in both Hours Watched and Average Viewers, surpassing its closest competitors by almost two times in both metrics.

In comparison, the most popular match in which Gentle Mates did not play — the series between Acend and Apeks — gathered 34.6K PV. At the same time, the least popular Gentle Mates match (against Case Esports) was watched by over 70K PV.

There is nothing surprising about the dominant performance of Gentle Mates, considering that every series of the French team was covered by Gotaga (while ignoring other matches). Thanks to his efforts, the broadcasts in French accumulated 2/3 of the total Hours Watched for the entire tournament. Gotaga himself amassed six times more Hours Watched than the official English-language Valorant channel.

Comparison of All Ascension Tournaments

Thanks to Gotaga's streams, the European Ascension tournament surpassed similar tournaments in the Americas and Pacific leagues in terms of Peak Viewers. The difference with the closest one was about 22%. At the same time, Pacific became the leader in terms of Average Viewers per match, and the broadcasts in the Americas accumulated the most Hours Watched (mostly thanks to the longer duration of the tournament itself).

It is worth noting that active community casting was present in two out of three regions. While Gotaga was the audience reach leader in EMEA, Tarik had the highest number of viewers on his channel in the Americas. As for the Pacific region, the advantage was with the official broadcast channels. Japanese channels made the largest contribution (as the Japanese team SCARZ played in the finals). The results could have been even higher for Pacific if local community casters like Jasper7se and fps_shaka had joined the coverage, but they ignored the tournament.

The participation of Gentle Mates in the EMEA top division can significantly affect the share of community casting of the affiliate league in the upcoming seasons. Half of the teams in the European division are already owned by popular streamers who cover matches on their personal channels. This is a very convenient circumstance for the organizers, which allows them to count on the growth of the number of viewers. On the other hand, it will be interesting to compare the EMEA results with the same Pacific, where the audience prefers to watch official broadcasts.

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From July 15 to 23, matches of the Last Chance Qualifier are taking place in the Americas, Pacific, and EMEA leagues, determining the final participants of the Valorant Champions 2023. The games are in full swing, and the series between Sentinels and 100 Thieves in the Americas qualifier gathered over 385.3K Peak Viewers. You can follow the progress of the events in more detail on the coverage pages: