VALORANT hits worrying benchmark at VCT Masters Copenhagen with record-low viewership

Despite being the first VALORANT event in front of a live audience, VCT Masters Copenhagen didn’t celebrate the success fans might’ve thought.

The live crowd at Forum Copenhagen was intense and marked an important milestone for Riot Games’ FPS, but its online broadcast of the event peaked at 786,185 for the grand finals between the champions FunPlus Phoenix and Paper Rex, according to Esports Charts. The peak viewership figure is the worst in the history of international VALORANT tournaments to date.

Additionally, VCT Masters Copenhagen also had the lowest average viewers in VALORANT‘s international history: 317,748. The action in Denmark saw a total of 12 teams from all over the world fight for their share of the $650,000 prize pool from July 10 to 24.

VCT Masters Copenhagen was the second international VALORANT tournament that did not hit one million concurrent viewers. VCT Stage Three Masters Berlin in 2021 also didn’t broach the million mark, but the event held in Germany peaked at 811,370 viewers, according to Esports Charts.

Here’s how VCT Masters Copenhagen did in terms of viewership compared to other VALORANT international tournaments, according to Esports Charts.

VALORANT is still a new game with a growing esports scene, having been released in 2020. Riot Games, the developer of the hero-based FPS, is meeting with organizations to implement a franchise system, and while there are a few that have been lucky enough to proceed to the next negotiation stage, other organizations have been ruled out and a mass exodus is already underway.