Counter-Strike: Global Offensive esports continues to shine on Twitch, once again leading all channels despite the arrival of its direct competitor in Riot Games’ VALORANT.
The League of Legends publisher’s new tactical shooter had a somewhat underwhelming debut following its official release when compared to the record-shattering figures it produced during the closed beta.
Twitch’s Top Channel – Gaules
In 2019, CS:GO players were voicing concerns with the oversaturation of the game’s tournament ecosystem. Teams were traveling across the world week after week to compete in tournaments from a wide array of organizers. In the era of COVID-19, that glut of operators and tournaments has allowed the game to continuously lead Twitch channels in viewership. Organizers such as ESL, DreamHack, and BLAST have taken their turn near the top of the charts week after week, but the consistent performer each time has been the game’s premier Portuguese-language broadcast channel Gaules.
This week, the channel led by a significant margin, generating 5.74M hours watched while BLAST’s main channel reached just 2.96M.
Twitch’s Top Content – Just Chatting
As expected, the catch-all Just Chatting category continues to lead the platform, generating 43.05M hours watched. What was more noteworthy this week, however, was the official release of VALORANT launching at seventh place with just 16.5M hours watched. This comes in below the final full week of the game’s closed beta, which reached more than 18M hours watched.
The inflated figures from VALORANT’s early beta weeks were well-documented, but these numbers still created a level of expectation, particularly for the game’s ability to contend with CS:GO. Debuting below its direct competitor in viewership is not ideal for a brand new title, but with the game implementing an open ecosystem, it has plenty of room to grow over the next year.
