Around the time of the VALORANT beta, it was a growing trend for celebrities to try their hand at FPS games. Inspired by Blizzard’s Overwatch, Riot Games’ first-person shooter managed to attract all manner of gamers for its personable characters, unique abilities, and tactical gameplay.
Nowadays, if you wander too far into the tall grass of matchmaking, it’s not too unlikely you’ll encounter a wild celebrity. If you’re lucky enough to play against some of the most famous athletes, musicians, and actors of our generation, even if you lose, it’s still a win in our books—but you have to know who to keep an eye out for.
Most famous celebrities who play VALORANT
Antoine Griezmann
A professional footballer (soccer player) for Atlético de Madrid. When Frenchman Antoine Griezmann wasn’t helping Madrid place as runners-up in the 2022 FIFA World Cup against Argentina (and what a nail-biter it was), he was spending his free time playing VALORANT.
Griezmann first ventured into esports with his own CS:GO organization, Grizi Esports, then transferred those skills over to another FPS, VALORANT. From what we’ve seen from clips of Griezmann’s gameplay, he seems to favor Viper for her Poison Cloud ability.
Simu Liu
Yes, the Barbie movie’s big star, Simu Liu, plays VALORANT. In Barbieland, he’s just Ken, but in VALORANT, he’s Jett—using the Spectre to spray his enemies down. Last year, Liu snagged an ace with Jett on Fracture. He’s rewatched his own triumph “hundreds of times,” according to tweets, but who can blame him? It’s pretty impressive.
Not only does he wield the Ten Rings as Marvel’s Shang Chi, but he also stomps out the competition as Jett. You wouldn’t want to find yourself in a VALORANT five-vs-five with Liu on a good day, that’s for sure.
Kourtney Kardashian
It only took one screenshot from an Instagram story to prove fashionista Kourtney Kardashian is committed to the VALORANT grind. It’s unclear just how capable she is, but judging from the screenshot, she has an expensive gaming keyboard, a nice setup, custom skins and melee weapons, so she’s invested.
Someone that dedicated to the cause can’t be bad, surely. Kardashian seems to prefer Raze and evidently spent a decent number of hours playing, so we’ll assume for argument’s sake that she’s a force to be reckoned with.
DJ Zedd
DJ Zedd’s collaboration with Riot gifted gamers the Spectrum collection, featuring custom Zedd tunes and sci-fi-heavy skins. Zedd himself is an Immortal-ranked player, so it doesn’t come as a surprise he’d jump at the chance to collab with Riot. He got his start in gaming with CS:GO, as many VALORANT players do, then dabbled in Overwatch for a short while, but felt that the opportunities for ‘clutch’ moments weren’t there.
When he gave VALORANT a chance, it was everything he’d been looking for in a competitive game. The German gained fame with his 2012 single “Clarity” featuring English songwriter Foxes.
Mike Shinoda
Co-founder of the iconic rock band Linkin Park, Mike Shinoda launched a Twitch channel to share his gaming experiences. He hasn’t streamed live in three years, but we’d bet any amount of money that he still picks up a controller whenever the mood takes him. He was the lead vocalist of Linkin Park until Chester Bennington replaced him in 1999.
When Bennington passed away in 2017, the band went on hiatus and never fully resumed making music. Shinoda openly admits he’s bad at VALORANT, but he loves playing as Killjoy.
Jordan Fisher
His role as John Ambrose in the To All the Boys franchise isn’t Jordan Fisher’s only major achievement. He made his video game debut as Matt in Supermassive Games’ Until Dawn, but he’s also a dedicated VALORANT player—or was. Back in 2020, when the game first came out, he was rank Diamond.
From what we see of his Twitch account, which boasts almost 500,000 followers, he was last live two months ago to stream Apex Legends. Maybe the VALORANT trend has finally died down for him.
Soulja Boy
From our understanding, Soulja Boy’s obsession with VALORANT started with a fan pointing out his resemblance to Phoenix, and the rest is history. Soulja Boy decided to cosplay as Phoenix and then chose to main him in VALORANT. Rapping sensation Soulja Boy rose to prominence with his debut single “Crank That” in 2007. He’s been a mainstay in the music industry ever since.
Apparently, he isn’t half bad at VALORANT either. He’s proven to hit consistent 3Ks and headshots out the wazoo. Soulja Boy himself believes he was the inspiration behind Phoenix’s character design. It’s never been confirmed, but we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.
Grace Van Dien
You might recognize her as Chrissy Cunningham from Stranger Things if you haven’t seen her in a VALORANT lobby already. Her character perished at the hands of Vecna, but she won’t be victim to lousy VALORANT players. The 26-year-old actress streams on the side, although she does so more as a hobby than a professional gig.
In her VALORANT highlights, Van Dien entertains the masses as Viper. She isn’t an incredible player by any means, but she doesn’t let that keep her from enjoying the pastime. Who needs aim in VALORANT anyway?
