Riot’s new tactical shooter Valorant is still in beta, but that hasn’t stopped players from flooding to Twitch in order to catch a glimpse of the team behind League of Legends’ next game. Over 1.7 million viewers tuned were watching the game on Twitch at its peak, according to PC Gamer, watching those lucky enough to have made it into the closed beta.
Big name Twitch streamers and professional esport players such as xQc, Pokimane, DrDisprespect, Surefour, and more have been streaming the beta around the clock since it began early last week. They have even been provided with beta keys to give away live on stream. While Riot allowed streamers to roll out some content and footage last week, it’s the real-time footage that players want to see.
Valorant peaked with about as many viewers as Fortnite did during the black hole event during the black hole event back in Fortnite: Chapter 2. The black hole event, which ended in Fortnite being rebranded as Fortnite: Chapter 2 after its map was destroyed, was a major milestone for the game, while these viewer numbers are reflective of the hype Valorant has built up in the lead up to release.
It still remains to be seen where Valorant ends up compared to the genre titans like Overwatch or Team Fortress 2, but with this many people just tuning in to watch the beta, Valorant may be in for a busy launch.
Valorant is set to release in summer 2020 on PC, but Riot has yet to announce a more specific release date.
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