VALORANT Masters Madrid breaks peak viewership record
Last night, Sentinels ended a three-year trophy drought and became the VALORANT Masters Madrid Champions. The game broke all the previous peak viewership records clocking at 1.665M, surpassing VALORANT Champions 2023.
The first International event of VCT 2024 became the most successful of its kind with a total of 34.9M hours watched despite only having a 52 hour airtime.
The 10-day tournament featured a new format, which led to some amazing inter-region and intra-region match-ups.
The first stage of the tournament itself clocked in at 882K peak viewers for the game featuring Karmine Corp and Sentinels.
3 out of the 5 playoff games clocked above 1M peak viewers, setting a huge benchmark for the rest of the season.
The qualifying tournaments for the event, the regional kickoffs also become the most successful regional tournament events.
According to Leo Faria, the Head of VALORANT esport:
“We are starting 2024 with incredible momentum in the VCT. As you all know, the off-season was quite breezy, there were a lot of churning teams and new players joining our leagues and of course everyone wanted to see those new teams in action and that anticipation as well as a super high stakes format for kickoff, made Kickoff 2024 the most successful regional competition in VCT history. We are incredibly excited about it. Engagement and viewership is up across the board in all of our leagues anywhere from 50 to 100% as compared to the previous year. And We are super happy with that.”
Talking about Madrid, he said:
“Masters Madrid has been incredible, we are very happy. First event of the season. Our all new Swiss Stage has been incredibly successful. We saw incredible growth compared to the first Masters of 2023. Our peak viewership is up by 117% and average viewership is up 87%, so a lot of engagement. As we all know VALORANT is still very much growing and Masters Madrid is an indicator of that.”
The return of Sentinels also played a big part in Madrid’s success. The NA heartthrobs were part of all the most watched games at the event.
Tarik, the Sentinels ambassador, streamer and team’s ‘lucky charm’ was also the most watched VALORANT stream out of available OFFICIAL alternatives.
The tournament also featured some of the best VALORANT till date. The Grand Finals that went the distance, saw Sentinels winning by just a sliver of margin. To say, Madrid was the best tournament till date would not be wrong.
With such a successful start to the year, VCT 2024 will likely become the best year of VALORANT esports yet. Follow Valorant Champions Tour X (formerly Twitter) for upcoming regional league updates. You can also follow the International leagues on Strafe.
Featured Image Credits: Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games
Read More: Sentinels claims second international title at Madrid after 3-year drought