VCT Pacific emerges as the most popular Valorant region of early 2025

Loading

Over in Asia, the VCT 2025: Pacific Kickoff has kicked off Valorant esports in the region for 2025. Despite lagging behind other regions in past years, the Pacific International League (IL) opened to the highest viewership of all the ongoing Kickoffs. Pacific leads the ILs thanks to T1’s nail-biting victory over Paper Rex, local heroes and historically one of the strongest Asian teams competing. 

While the Pacific Kickoff has indeed recorded the highest peak viewership for Valorant in 2025, other viewership metrics show negative trends for the series. The season-opening Pacific event last year received roughly 100,000 more Average Viewers for its opening three days, and it also recorded multiple matches more popular than 2025’s most popular opening game. This trend is not Pacific-exclusive: as we explored in our article dealing with the VCT 2025: Americas Kickoff, this IL is also suffering from declining viewership.

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

For the first three days of matches at the Kickoff, T1’s match against PRX was the most popular match by over 100,000 concurrent viewers.  T1 is one of esports’ most popular brands in esports thanks to the South Korean organization’s historical dominance in League of Legends. While South Korean viewership is still relatively minor for Valorant in comparison to other Asian audiences, T1’s participation in the VCT has helped to develop this demographic, and they remain highly popular among international fans.

Paper Rex also remains highly popular in their own right. The Southeast Asian organization has been the Pacific’s most competitive team for years, with numerous regional championships and podium places at international events under their belt, including a runner-up finish at Valorant Champions 2023. Not only was the match-up between PRX and T1 conducive for viewership in name alone, but the hard-fought nature of the match boosted viewership for the final map, which went the full 24 rounds of regulation time. 

Excluding the exceptional peak for T1’s game against PRX, the other top games both featured Japanese squads. At last year’s Pacific Kickoff, the most popular match of the opening days was T1’s game against Japanese team ZETA DIVISION: Japanese viewers are one of the most powerful audiences for Valorant in Asia, and they are extremely passionate when it comes to supporting local teams.

Outside the top match, two Japanese squads drove viewership far above the average for the Kickoff: DetonatioN FocusMe and ZETA DIVISION. Japanese was the single largest language audience for the Pacific Kickoff, with a peak viewership more than 30% higher than the next-most popular language: English. Japanese was also the only sizeable audience for the Pacific Kickoff to record its peak viewership not during T1’s game against PRX. 

Unfortunately, both Japanese teams in attendance of the Pacific Kickoff lost their first matches, and now sit in the lower-bracket. DFM still awaits their opponent, but ZETA DIVISION will face off against Paper Rex on January 26. This game has the potential to drive massive viewership for the event, combining the international following of PRX with DFM’s passionate and loyal Japanese fans for this high-stakes elimination match.

The VCT 2025 Pacific Kickoff currently sits as the most popular Valorant event of 2025. With both Japanese teams on the brink of elimination, viewership from this crucial audience for the IL could fall significantly in the later stages. Nevertheless, T1’s game against PRX was proof that the Pacific circuit can still reach significant peaks without relying on this passionate regional audience.