Valorant has since its release in June 2020 become one of the fastest-growing games in esports, when it comes to popularity. The game has been well received with both the public and the press with The Guardian giving it 4 out of 5 stars.
Valorant has similarities with both Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Overwatch. In both Valorant and CS:GO the game consists of two teams with five players where one team is attacking and the other one is defending. And just as in Overwatch there are multiple classes and characters in Valorant.
Although it has only been around for a little more than a year, Valorant has made a major breakthrough within esports and has become one of the most popular games. According to Dexerto.com Valorant has had at least 12 million active players each month in 2021. In July there were almost 15 million active players.
This means Valorant is far more popular than Overwatch, which in July had around 7 million players. CS:GO is still ahead with about 36 million active users in July of 2021. But at the same time figures are showing that the numbers of CS:GO players dropped in the first months of this year. The big question is of course if this is a temporary dip or a long-term trend?
But, by far, the biggest FPS game right now is Apex Legends, which has a total of 100 million active players, according to Dexerto.com.
Increased interest in betting on Valorant
With more Valorant players there is of course also an increasing interest in Valorant betting. Only a week or two after the game was released in June of 2020 the searches for ”Valorant betting” started on Google. Since then the searches for ”Valorant betting” have steadily increased. Most searches are made in the US followed by the UK.
Even though Valorant has fast become popular it’s still not one of the biggest esports when it comes to betting. Most betting sites focus mainly on CS:GO, Dota 2, and League of Legends. But as Valorant continues to grow it will probably also be more common at the betting sites.
If you specifically looking for odds on Valorant tournaments and leagues a good tip is a look for a betting site that puts a little more emphasis on esports betting. Some betting sites even have an entire section dedicated exclusively to esports odds.
More viewers than CS:GO
Valorant is, without doubt, one of the most interesting games that have hit the market in recent years. With CS:GO on the decline, Valorant definitely has the potential of becoming the leading FPS game in the coming years and perhaps also one of the leading titles in the industry overall.
In professional esports, there are already signs that Valorant has surpassed CS:GO in popularity. Reports say that Valorant VCT events reached a peak of 740,000 viewers, while the most popular CS:GO event peaked at 540,000 viewers. Worth noticing though is that there are far more CS:GO events than Valorant events, but there’s no doubt that Valorant is on the rise among esports viewers.
