Co-streaming has been a reliable and at sometimes dominant part of VALORANT esports viewership, and as the scene shifts into the partnership era with the VCT LOCK//IN event to kick off 2023, that trend does not appear to be relenting at all.
Halfway through the tournament following the conclusion of the Alpha bracket, the channel with the most-watched hours of the event has not been the official VALORANT channel on Twitch, but the co-stream hosted by Sentinels content creator Tarik.
According to Esports Charts, Tarik has amassed 2.81 million hours watched compared to 2.47 million hours generated by the official VALORANT channel, with the main Brazilian VALORANT channel trailing behind with 898,000 hours.
All three channels, as well as any other channels streaming the event on either Twitch or YouTube, thrived when NRG took on LOUD to close out the final round of the Alpha bracket, as the renewed Americas rivalry set a high bar with over 852,000 peak viewers during the thrilling best-of-three, more than double the average viewership for the tournament at roughly 376,000.
Co-streaming has been an incredible boon for VALORANT esports viewership, going as far back as two years ago, and Tarik has been the most familiar face leading the charge. Even before the start of VCT LOCK//IN, both he and team owner Disguised Toast have been hosting co-streams of the NA VALORANT Challengers league that have significantly outpaced the official streams in terms of watch time.
Tarik does retain a mostly NA-centric audience though, so only two NA teams in the Omega bracket compared to the three that were in the Alpha bracket could potentially result in him losing the top spot. However, the opening round match between Fnatic and Sentinels will still be a viewership goldmine for Tarik, the official channels, and pretty much anyone streaming the event.
