Riot Games’ latest Valorant esports event recorded concurrent viewership numbers exceeding one million yesterday evening during its grand final. The best of five series pitted North American team Optic Gaming versus Brazillian team Loud, with the former eventually winning in a 3-0 fashion.
Optic took home the lion’s share of a $650,000 prize pool and became the second team to lift the Masters Reykjavík trophy after Sentinels had done so for the very first time last year.
The viewership numbers are a actually down from last year, though only slightly. According to Escharts the comparison is as follows:
- Masters Reykjavík 2021 – 1 085 850
- Masters Reykjavík 2022 – 1 065 887
It’s worth keeping in mind, however, that last year’s event was given a major boost by the fact that it was Valorant’s first ever LAN event, and the grand final (which recorded the above figure) was between two hugely popular esports organizations in Sentinels and Fnatic. Optic and Loud, by comparison, don’t command quite the same number of fans and interest — though that might change after this recent run.
In any case, Valorant’s esports scene is still looking healthy for the time being, and as new communities of fans are built for newcomer organizations such as Optic and Loud (the former at least as it relates to Valorant) we should start to see numbers creep up consistently.
In related news, you can check out new information on Valorant’s latest weapon skin bundle, the RGX-11z Pro 2 here, and a full reveal of its latest Agent, Fade.
