Riot Games announced Thursday that it recorded record viewership for Valorant Champions Tour Masters Madrid (VCT Masters Madrid), making it the most-watched VCT event in the league’s history. This milestone serves as a lead-in to VCT Masters Shanghai, which will take place May 23 – June 9 at the Mercedes-Benz Arena. The Mercedes-Benz Arena is certainly no stranger to esports events; it served as the home of the Dota 2 Shanghai Major in 2016, Dota 2’s The International 2019, and the 2023 League of Legends Pro League (LPL) Spring Finals.
According to data provided by Riot, VCT Masters Madrid recorded an Average Minute Audience (AMA) of 1.1M, a 97% increase over the VCT Masters Tokyo last year, peak concurrent viewership of 3.1M (48% more than Masters Tokyo), and 2.1M AMA for the finals. With these numbers, VCT Masters Madrid has set a new global event record as the most-watched Valorant esports event since the league’s launch.
“Masters Madrid surpassed our expectations, and we’re using that momentum to implement exciting updates to our next event,” said Leo Faria, global head of Valorant Esports. “We are introducing a new segment that will increase competition stakes by giving higher seeded teams the power to choose their opponents following the Swiss stage, thus placing their fate in their own hands.”
The final list of teams participating in VCT Masters Shanghai will be determined this weekend as Stage 1 of the 2024 VCT comes to a conclusion, with the Masters Shanghai Group Draw taking place on May 12 that will set the early matches for the tournament.