LOUD’s 3-1 win over Team Vitality drew almost 1.5 million peak viewers, the highest figure for any Valorant match this year and enough to put Shanghai among the three most-watched Valorant events ever.
The VALORANT Champions 2026 grand final between LOUD and Team Vitality peaked at almost 1.5 million concurrent viewers, according to Esports Charts. The figure excludes Chinese streaming platforms.
Before the final, the highest peak of the Valorant year was the 1.07 million viewers for the Masters London grand final in June. Sunday’s final passed that by more than 400,000.
Esports Charts’ first figure for the final, published on Sunday afternoon, was 1,444,705. On its tournament page, the peak has since been updated to 1,491,483.
Third on the all-time list
With the updated figure, Champions 2026 is the third most-watched Valorant event by peak viewers. It finished just behind Champions 2022, the event where LOUD won their first world title, and just ahead of last year’s Champions in Paris.
| Rank | Event | Grand final | Peak viewers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Masters Madrid 2024 | Sentinels vs Gen.G | 1,687,842 |
| 2 | Champions 2022, Istanbul |  LOUD vs  OpTic Gaming | 1,505,804 |
| 3 | Champions 2026, Shanghai | LOUD vs  Team Vitality | 1,491,483 |
| 4 | Champions 2025, Paris |  NRG vs  Fnatic | 1,473,642 |
| 5 | LOCK//IN São Paulo 2023 | Fnatic vs LOUD | 1,443,103 |
LOUD played in the grand final of three of the five events on the list.
The biggest Valorant events of 2026
| Event | Peak viewers |
|---|---|
| Champions, Shanghai | 1,491,483 |
| Masters London | 1,071,916 |
| Masters Santiago | 883,064 |
| Esports World Cup | 247,785 |
The second most-watched match in Shanghai also involved LOUD. Their upper quarter-final against Paper Rex peaked at 886,656 viewers, ahead of T1 vs Paper Rex on 781,892.
Peak up, average down
Not every number went up. Champions 2026 averaged 383,530 viewers and 38.3 million hours watched, according to Esports Charts. Champions 2025 averaged 453,528 viewers and 46.3 million hours watched.
The Portuguese-language audience was the big riser. Its peak grew by 89.18% from last year, Esports Charts reported.
