VCT 2025: Americas Stage 1 shows viewership decline

VCT Americas, the highest competitive tier of VALORANT in North and South America, has seen a drop in peak viewership in the first stage for the second consecutive year.

VCT Americas League 2025 Stage 1 saw a total of 390,841 peak viewers, according to esports data company Esports Charts. This marks another major decrease compared to the previous year, which peaked at nearly 500,000 people.

Average viewership has also gone down from 241,142 to 209,221. Compared to 2023, however, it’s a marginal increase (205,618).

The most-watched series of the tournament ended up being the Grand Final between Sentinels and G2 Esports, followed closely by the playoff series between Sentinels and the Brazilian team MIBR, which stopped the count at 386,390.

Despite the 20% decrease in peak viewership from 2024, average viewership held up better thanks to strong viewership in most playoff matches. Although Sentinels lost the Grand Final against G2, the esports team continues to be the most popular one: the team was featured in four out of the five most-watched series, with G2 also taking part in three of the top five matches.

The higher numbers are also driven by the presence of former pro player Tarik ‘tarik’ Celik during co-streaming. His streams peaked at nearly 76,000 people (75,990) and held an average viewership of 32,367. That being said, even Tarik saw a major decline from the 106,511 peak viewership he had in 2024.

In comparison to other regional leagues, VCT Americas is in close contention with VCT Pacific when it comes to viewership in the tier-one ecosystem.

The latter has hit a higher peak so far (410,963), even though average viewership is lower (164,985). VCT EMEA, on the other hand, has hit a peak of 246,100 and averages slightly less than 125,000 viewers. That being said, both VCT Pacific and VCT EMEA have yet to conclude their respective Stage 1.

The remaining regional league, VCT CN, only managed to hit a 76,804 peak during the series between EDward Gaming and BiliBili Gaming. Please note, however, that the data collected from Esports Charts does not account for Chinese viewership, so numbers are likely going to be much higher in reality.

With Stage 1 over, G2 Esports, Sentinels and MIBR will be waiting for the other top teams from other regional leagues and face off at the upcoming VCT Masters Toronto, starting on June 7th.