In April 2020, Valorant was the big game on Twitch. It reached millions of viewers and experienced a real hype. Now, 5 months later, it has become significantly calmer. It has crashed brutally, yet it still maintains a loyal viewership.
What happened with Valorant:
- In April, the beta started and access was granted only by watching selected streamers on Twitch – Everyone wanted such access, which is why the numbers on the streaming platform exploded
- On April 7, there were over 1.7 million viewers simultaneously – A record that Valorant could never break again
- At the release on June 2, significantly fewer people tuned in – There was no need for a Twitch drop anymore, and another hype did not occur
Meanwhile, the game is somewhat fading. Developer Riot regularly adds new content, but especially the big streamers and thus the general audience have turned away from the game. New games, such as Fall Guys, have come into focus and the viewership for Valorant has dropped on Twitch.
Massive drop, yet still thousands of viewers
These are the numbers on Twitch: If you look at the development of viewer numbers on Twitch, you see a significant drop:
We summarize the most important data for you:
- While on April 9 there was still an average of one million viewers simultaneously, there are currently not even a tenth. On August 31, “only” about 57,000 viewers tuned into Valorant streams
- In the last 14 days, the biggest streamers were Flashpoint and Hiko – they almost exclusively stream Valorant and owe their success mainly to the shooter
- Big names like Shroud or Myth only watch the game occasionally now – hence the smaller spike on August 12. Shroud returned to Twitch with Valorant and created a lot of buzz
Why is there such a huge drop? The reason was the beta of Valorant, which could only be played through Twitch drops. So, back then, a shooter came out that streamers found really cool, but you could only play it if you watched on Twitch.
This also attracted viewers on Twitch who were not necessarily interested in the gameplay. With the release of Valorant, they of course left again. Meanwhile, you can play the shooter without a Twitch drop.
Additionally, many big streamer names show little interest in Valorant anymore. Names like summit1g or xQc, who regularly showcased Valorant at the beginning, are rarely or never seen in the game anymore. People are currently tuning into Valorant mainly purposefully and not just because their favorite streamer is playing the shooter.
So, are the numbers a disaster? At first glance, one might think that Valorant is completely down, but the reality is quite different.
The shooter is still extremely popular on Twitch, and in the last 14 days, Valorant still ranked 9th among the most watched categories on Twitch. It still stands ahead of classics like World of Warcraft and just behind the current Twitch hit Among Us.
Valorant does not reach nearly the viewer numbers it had during the beta, but there is still a loyal community behind the shooter. The numbers have remained stable for weeks and it hardly loses viewers.
Currently, the MMO New World is a hit on Twitch. This is also because Amazon is behind the game and simultaneously owns Twitch. They have cleverly connected the MMO with the streaming platform.
