Valorant closed beta launch draws 1.7 million Twitch viewers

Riot Games has always had a high ranking on Twitch thanks to League of Legends but it would seem that the buzz surrounding its new shooter, Valorant, is pushing things even further. During the launch yesterday, 1.7 million concurrent viewers were watching various streamers playing the game on Twitch, rivalling some of Fortnite’s biggest streams.

At the moment, 1.7 million is the record for live concurrent viewers on a game, which was previously set by Fortnite during its ‘Black Hole’ event. Valorant is more of a competitive shooter though, aiming to compete with the likes of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Rainbow Six Siege.

Aside from being huge on Twitch already, Riot had another advantage when it comes to racking up views. Instead of having standard closed beta sign-ups, Riot asked interested gamers to connect their Riot accounts with their Twitch accounts and actively watch streamers. Then, beta access would be randomly given away to viewers who had their two accounts connected.

As noted by Dot Esports, it is likely that people set up multiple Twitch and Riot accounts in order to improve their chances of getting beta access. For now, Valorant will remain in closed beta for a while, before transitioning to a full free-to-play release later in the summer.

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KitGuru Says: I played a few rounds in the beta last night and so far, Valorant does seem fun. Although I still need to learn the ins and outs of the different maps and weapon spray patters. Have any of you been able to get into the beta yet? What do you think of Valorant so far?

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