August 17th, 2022, Rishad Dsouza
Global Fan Profiles data reveals that VALORANT has developed a small but significant following among the total Japanese esports audience from March to June.
In February, practically no esports fans in Japan said they followed the franchise. That share has steadily risen to 3% as of June this year. Esports fans in this piece are defined as those who say they have any interest in esports – among more avid esports fans, VALORANT following is even higher (an average of 9% of Japanese avid esports fans following during the same timeframe).
This growth in interest comes on the back of the VALORANT Champions Tour 2022: Japan Stage 2 Challengers Playoffs, which took place in June. The tournament was won by team Northeption.
How does VALORANT fare across the globe?
While VALORANT is gaining a foothold in Japan, it already enjoys a more established fan following in some key global markets.
It is particularly popular in the Philippines where about one in nine general esports fans say they follow VALORANT in the esports space (11%). In Malaysia, about 8% of fans say they follow the franchise while a slightly lower share of them says so in India (6%).
The franchise also has a fan base in the North American markets of Canada (5%) and the US (4%). In the UK, 3% of those who indicate they have any interest in esports follow the franchise.
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Methodology: YouGov Global Fan Profiles, which includes data from 51 markets, is based on continuously collected data from several sources, rather than from a single limited questionnaire. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from India and UAE, which use urban representative samples, and Malaysia and Philippines, which use online representative samples.