Just Chatting overtakes VALORANT as most-watched category on Twitch

Riot Games’ new tactical shooter VALORANT has been usurped on Twitch for the first time since its closed beta launched early in April. Just Chatting posted more hours watched than the new game this past week with nearly 41 million hours watched, according to Twitch statistics website SullyGnome.

VALORANT has dominated Twitch in terms of hours watched since the game’s closed beta began on April 7, posting numerous records for viewership by a game on the platform. 

A large part of the title’s success came from Twitch drops, which gave beta access to viewers who watched content creators playing VALORANT. But as more people have gotten into the closed beta and some popular streamers have taken a break from the game, viewership has declined.

This past week, the game may have seen a dip in viewership but it’s still notably the second most-watched category on Twitch with 33.8 million hours watched. Fortnite and League of Legends were third and fourth with 27.7 million and 27 million hours watched, respectively.

One contributing factor to the game’s lower viewership is the loss of some of Twitch’s more popular content creators, like Summit1g and TimTheTatman. The two gamers with CS:GO backgrounds have had some of the best average viewership of any streamers playing the game. 

Summit1g’s 93,812 average viewership on the title is the highest among all streamers. Tim’s 67,285 average viewership is third. 

Meanwhile, Anomaly, who controversially broadcasted 24/7 streams that included VODs, had a large dropoff in hours played this week with just 42 hours of airtime. He has 657 hours of airtime on the game since testing began almost six weeks ago. 

That airtime helped him post the most hours watched on the title of any streamer on Twitch. Anomaly has 44 million hours watched on the game.

Many pundits thought the introduction of competitive ranked games in VALORANT could push high-profile content creators back to the game. But it seems like maybe streamers like Summit and Tim are waiting for competitive play to be in a live game, not beta testing.

As Riot continues to produce content for the game in the form of new maps or agents, there’s likely going to be small spikes to the game’s viewership. But until then, VALORANT might see its audience continue to simmer down for a little while before Riot releases a finished product later this year.