The EMEA VCT 2023 season, and the start of the partnership era for the decorated VALORANT region, is off to a record-breaking start already after the opening match set a new viewership standard.
The opening match of the season between NAVI and KOI, which ended in a surprising 2-0 KOI upset victory, broke the record for highest peak viewership for a VALORANT match taking place at an EMEA event. The match reached 269,997 viewers, not even including CS:GO legend s1mple who was in attendance to cheer on NAVI, the most ever for a match from an EMEA tournament, according to Esports Charts.
The match between NAVI and KOI surpassed the previous EMEA peak viewership record held by the EMEA Challengers Stage One 2022 playoffs match between Fnatic and M3C (former Gambit). Yesterday’s NAVI vs. KOI match got a big viewership buff from the Spanish co-stream hosted by KOI co-owner Ibai Llanos.
Co-streaming has been a reliable source of VALORANT viewership boosts for the past couple of years at both the international and domestic level, so much so that Riot now has official processes for signing up and getting co-stream access across all three international VCT leagues. Even domestic tier-two leagues like NA Challengers have gotten huge boosts to viewership from the likes of streamers such as Tarik, Disguised Toast, and Ludwig.
As impressive as EMEA’s day one was, the region still has some catching up to do when it comes to acquiring a top ranking in regional viewership placements. The top regional events when it comes to peak viewership are all in North America or Japan, according to Esports Charts.
The good news for EMEA is that there are still a number of prolific matchups to come this season, including the likes of Liquid, Vitality, Karmine Corp, and others that could feasibly break the newly set regional peak viewership record.
The ongoing VCT EMEA opening super week runs from Monday to Friday before the league resumes its Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday schedule starting in week two.
