Hey everyone, Leo here on behalf of the VCT Team.

We’re coming to the end of 2024, and I want to take a moment to reflect and celebrate what we accomplished together.

Want just the highlights? I got you. TL;DR:

• 2024 was our most successful season to date

• All International Leagues saw solid growth in viewership and engagement

• Pacific got its first-ever global event trophy thanks to Gen.G

• Champions Seoul broke records with 9.1M peak viewers and 44.3M unique viewers

• EDG made history winning the world championship in their league’s debut year

• Over 40 teams joined Challengers through Premier

• Game Changers Championship broke records reaching 466K peak viewers

• Florescent became the first-ever Game Changers player to join International Leagues

• Thanks to players the VCT shared $78.4M with teams, $44.3M from digital goods alone

This was our best season yet. Record-breaking, by almost every measure. We’ve been saying for some time that the VCT is the fastest growing esport in the world. Well, 2024 solidified VALORANT as the most watched FPS in the world, as well as one of the most popular esports across all titles and genres. This was a big year of expansion for the game, in new regions and platforms, and the sport grew with it.

We don’t take any of it for granted and are humbled that you chose to be part of this community. When you show up, watch and engage with the sport, you show us that the VCT is worthy of your time and passion and give us the confidence to continue investing for the long haul. Thank you!

Growing International Leagues

This was the second year of International Leagues and the partnership system, with the exception of China, which was in its first year. All leagues saw growth in viewership and engagement, which is very encouraging and validating.

Going into the next season we’re implementing a number of changes to ILs, including the expansion of each league to twelve teams with the addition of the new Ascension teams. A big welcome to 2Game, Apeks, Nongshim Esports (formerly Sin Prisa Gaming), XLG, and Boom Esports!

Best Global Events to Date

2024 was our very first time in three new locations – Madrid, Shanghai and Seoul – and a year of progress in our quest to create VALORANT-wide moments that bring the entire community together in a celebration that’s much bigger than just the competition.

Masters Madrid kicked off the year in the best possible way, setting what was at the time the record for most-watched VCT event ever, with 3.1M peak concurrent viewers. Finals were nothing short of incredible, with the launch of Clove and a series that went the distance with Sentinels coming out on top, beating Gen.G 3-2. SEN City took the toughest road, grinding through the lower-bracket and taking home the first trophy of the season. A huge shoutout to TenZ and Sacy for an incredible career and legacy built in the VCT – you’ll always have a home here.

The second Masters of the year took us to Shanghai, China where a community still relatively new to VALORANT welcomed the world with open arms. Fans filled out one of the most iconic venues in China, the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai, selling out tickets in 22 seconds and breaking the record for the largest live attendance at a VCT event ever. Masters Shanghai was an incredible celebration that took over the city with events, activations, and a rave party – and culminated at a thrilling Grand Finals that saw the launch of Abyss and Gen.G beating Team Heretics 3-2, making Pacific proud and bringing the first-ever global event trophy to the region.

Last but certainly not least, the season finale brought us to the birthplace of esports, home to VCT Pacific and some of the world’s most passionate fans. We kicked things off with the best 16 teams in the world at the COEX Artium, in the heart of Seoul, complete with a dope fan fest and PC bangs takeover. The top 4 teams in the world – EDG, Team Heretics, Leviatán, and Sentinels – made it to the big stage at the brand-new Inspire Arena to play in front of a large and awesome crowd.

Grand Finals capped the event with our most ambitious opening ceremony yet, taking fans on a journey through a year of VALORANT, celebrating Clove, Abyss, Vyse, and the launch on console. It was a beautiful collision of all things VALORANT – game, sport, community, and culture. You could call it a supernova (wink). EDG and Team Heretics then proceeded to give us one of the best series in VCT history, going the distance with five maps, with China taking the trophy and crowning ZmjjKK the first-ever VALORANT Champions MVP, an incredible feat on the debut year of the league.

Champions Seoul was the most successful VCT event to date, reaching 9.13M peak viewers and 44.38M unique viewers during Grand Finals, over 5x the viewership of Champions LA the year before. Chinese fans made up a good portion of the viewership, and the event may hold the high-water mark for some time.

Fresh New Talent

It was also a remarkable year for emerging talent in the VCT. Challengers, designed to develop the next generation of talent for our sport, measures its success by looking at the influx of new players and teams into the top-tiers of competition, and how fast they can get there.

In 2024 we saw over 40 teams qualifying from Premier into Challengers, three of which went all the way through Ascension, and one, Sin Prisa Gaming from Korea, punched their card to VCT Pacific in 2025. But promoting as a 5-stack is just one way to do it; some players use Challengers as a stage to showcase their skills and move on individually. Over 60 players competing at ILs this year (38% across all leagues) were playing in Challengers in 2023.

Some of these teams and players went on to become some of the most competitive in our sport. DRG made it to Masters Shanghai; G2 made it to VCT Americas Grand Finals, Masters Shanghai, and Champions Seoul; johnqt led Sentinels to the Masters Madrid title; and of course, Los Niños from Team Heretics, with four incredible players who came from Challengers across EMEA, got together under the Spanish banner and made magic at Champions.

Cases like Sin Prisa and Team Heretics show us that great players will find their way to the top and can do that relatively quickly. The players from Sin Prisa were competing in the contender division of Premier in April of this year, and won Ascension in September. Just five months between Premier and joining VCT Pacific.

Access leagues are challenging, mainly due to the sheer number of teams and players fighting for a spot at the top. Competition is fierce, slots are rare, and there’s no margin for error. While that’s inherent for a sport as competitive as VALORANT, we acknowledge that there’s still work to be done to make the environment as healthy as possible while you’re giving it a shot to go pro.

That’s why we continue to invest millions annually in Challengers and have implemented a number of improvements to enhance both the viewing and competitive experience, including year-round competitions (no more long breaks), affiliate teams, two-way player contracts, consolidated leagues to increase talent and viewership density, a new promo/relo mechanism that allows Ascension teams to defend their slots at ILs, and academy teams bringing new job opportunities and larger fan bases to Challengers.

An Exciting Offseason

This offseason has been busier than ever, with over 30 events happening all over the world. In addition to fan favorites such as Ludwig x Tarik and Red Bull Home Ground, this year saw the introduction of new tournaments, such as the Radiant Asia Invitational, and the Spotlight Series, which for the first time ever brought mixed-gender rosters to the stage. The first event happened in EMEA during Paris Games Week, with Americas (Dec 6-8) and Pacific (Dec 19-22) to follow.

It was also a great year of progress for Game Changers. Teams battled regionally throughout the year to reach the Game Changers Championship in Berlin, which was expanded to 10 teams and once again broke records, reaching over 466K peak viewers during the Grand Finals between Brazil’s MIBR and the now 2x champion, Shopify Rebellion. MeL led the rebels to a convincing 3-0 win, which also saw Florescent receiving the Game Changers Championship MVP, unanimously selected with 100% of the votes from the panel.

All-in-all, this year showed us great traction toward our mission of opening the doors of our sport and bringing players together. We received reports of multiple Game Changers players trialing out for Challengers and International League teams, resulting in Florescent being the first Game Changers player to compete at ILs by joining Apeks in VCT EMEA for the 2025 season. Congratulations on the history-making move!

Thriving Economy

The growth of VALORANT this year has also translated into a massive success for esports digital goods. Thanks to you and the millions of players who showed up in droves to buy VCT content in-game, we were able to share $44.3M from digital goods with teams. Coupled with stipends and prize pools, the VCT shared a grand total of $78.4M with its 44 teams, a staggering number that shows the passion and dedication of our community.

Add to that the teams’ own revenue sources such as sponsorships, merchandising, and fan membership programs, and you can have an idea of how big the VCT economy is and how the sport is able to offer great opportunities for everyone involved.

Thank You

We deeply appreciate your passion, time, feedback, and all the energy you put into our sport. There’s no VCT without you.

In 2025, we’re celebrating our five-year anniversary, a milestone that not every game gets to celebrate, and we can't help but to look back at all the amazing things we’ve accomplished together. 2024 will be remembered as an incredible season, where we grew, set new records, created new stories, and learned a ton as a community. I hope you’re proud.

Wishing you an incredible end of the year and that you spend time with your loved ones.

See you next year!