The first-ever international Valorant competition made big waves on Twitch, pushing the game above even it’s older sibling, League of Legends.
Twitch’s Top Channel – Shroud
Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek was one of Riot Games’ official co-streamers for the Valorant Masters tournament in Iceland last week. Throughout the tournament, his channel would consistently hold more viewers than even the main broadcast. A week filled with high-volume, event-driven content pushed Grzesiek to the very top of Twitch, generating over 9M hours watched.
The event’s main broadcast generated 4.28M hours watched throughout the week, coming in at fifth place. Overall it was a strong first showing for Valorant esports, and particularly highlighted the value of big name co-streamers bringing additional eyes to event sponsors.
Twitch’s Top Content – Just Chatting
Grand Theft Auto V Saw a slight decline this week as the drama from recent bannings begins to subside, but the big story of the week remains the success of the first big Valorant tournament. A game that traditionally resides in the bottom half of the Top 10 surged into third place this week, generating 36.3M hours watched. This was enough to even surpass Riot’s other major esport in League of Legends, which had concluded its international esports competition the previous week.
One other trend to monitor going forward is the rise of the Slots category, which broke through into the Top 10 this week with over 11M hours watched. Gambling is becoming increasingly popular on Twitch, which could bring a new wave of backlash from parents and lawmakers against the platform as its biggest names broadcast slot machines and other forms of casino-style gambling to their young audiences.
