Which VCT Kickoff event was the most popular in 2025?

VCT Kickoff 2025 drew in VALORANT fans from all over the world — but one region’s Kickoff had far and away the most viewers.

The first tournament series of this year’s VALORANT Champions Tour calendar, VCT Kickoff took place from January 11th to February 9th across four regional leagues: EMEA, Americas, Pacific and China. With all regions now concluded Esports Insider is looking at which event was the most popular among viewers and how it compare to last year’s Kickoff.

VCT China, which was added in 2024, stands out due to its early start, ending ahead of all other regions. 2024 Championship winner Edward Gaming secured this year’s Kickoff trophy in a best-of-five (BO5) series against Trace Esports on January 25th.

According to esports data platform Esports Charts, VCT China appeared to have the lowest viewership by far, with the site reporting just 63,467 peak viewers during the Lower Bracket Quarterfinals between EDG and XLG Esports. It is important to note, however, that Esports Charts does not track audience numbers in China, where most of the region’s fans are located.

VCT EMEA and Pacific saw relatively similar popularity to one another, with 334,145 and 380,345 peak viewers respectively.

The most watched series in Pacific was the Lower Bracket elimination match between XLG Esports and popular team Paper Rex. Interestingly, in the EMEA counterpart, the match debuting Apeks and Gentle Mates’ new rosters attracted the highest audience numbers. This is most likely due to the highly anticipated opening performance of the first female player in tier-1 VCT, Apeks’ member Ava ‘florescent’ Eugene.

In terms of total watch hours, different rosters dominated the two leagues. Korean organisation T1 (4.6m watch hours) was most popular in Pacific, while Team Liquid (3.9m) took the spotlight in EMEA.

VCT Americas’ viewership is the clear leader this year, recording 553,842 peak viewers. The top-performing series was the Playoffs Lower Bracket Final between Brazilian team MIBR and Sentinels. This comes as no surprise since Sentinels has always been a fan favourite within the VALORANT community, with 6m watch hours generated during Kickoff 2025.  

Moreover, MIBR (6m hours watched) gained significant popularity since the signing of Championship-winning athlete Erick ‘aspas’ Santos ahead of the 2025 season.

Although VCT Americas also saw the most viewership among the Kickoff 2024 regions, this year’s audience numbers are notably lower. Last year’s Kickoff Grand Final between Sentinels and LOUD was watched by 823,008 peak viewers.

Although this viewership difference is most apparent in Americas, this trend applies to all other VCT regions. For instance, 419,206 fans tuned into the 2024 Playoffs Semifinals between Fnatic and Karmine Corp.

Possible explanations for the viewership decline are the retirement of VALORANT veterans and the signing of star players by less popular organisations. This includes an intense viewership decline in Japan after the country’s star player, Koji ‘Laz’ Ushida, retired. Additionally, several teams with smaller fan bases had advanced to late tournament stages in the regions, potentially affecting Playoffs and Grand Finals viewership.