Ever since Valorant came out in June 2020, there has been no doubt that it has been one of the most popular, most played, and most followed esports disciplines across the world. This has ensured that despite its relatively tender age, the game has possibly overtaken some of its classic cousins like CS:GO, Rainbow Six Siege, Apex Legends, and Overwatch 2.
When it comes to a comparison between Rainbow Six Siege and Valorant, the first thing anyone who has played these games or knows a thing or two about the first-person shooter genre will say is that the latter is way ahead in almost all metrics; there are enough numbers to back that up. A good example is the streaming numbers from the recent events of both games, which overlapped to a certain degree — the Six Invitational 2023 and the VCT 2023: LOCK//IN São Paulo, respectively.
It is important to note here that while esports events in both games rely on the official streams for their broadcasts, those from Valorant do so a lot more as that is part of the appeal of its esports scene. Community casting plays a much larger role in helping the title's streams reach massive numbers of audiences globally during important events, releases, and updates.
Rainbow Six Siege content creators, too, make use of official streams, but community casting does not come into play to such a high degree here. This is perhaps a big reason why Valorant has so many more people watching its official streams, and why there are so many interested in its well-organized esports scene.
Let us keep in mind that the Six Invitational 2023 was held from February 7 to 19 in Montreal, while the VCT 2023: LOCK//IN São Paulo started on February 13 at the Ginásio do Ibirapuera in São Paulo and will go on till March 4.
As seen in the image above, the ongoing Valorant tournament has already outgunned its Rainbow Six Siege counterpart on all vital counts across channels covering these competitions, despite the latter getting over on February 19. This is seemingly in keeping with the general idea that Riot Games’ tactical hero shooter is the bigger and more viewed game. However, if we delve deeper into the figures of the two competitions, the results among the main channels are pretty surprising.
Comparing main channels reveals that both games are not as far off as thought
The above image is a great example of Valorant being more popular and in demand among fans of the FPS genre, be it regular streams or those during tournaments. During the days that the Six Invitational 2023 and the VCT 2023: LOCK//IN São Paulo coincided, which lasted a good week, it is clear that in terms of Unique Authorized Viewers, Rainbow Six Siege’s main channel did not stand a chance when comparing their peaks.
Unique Authorized Viewers (UAV) is the number of individuals authorized on Twitch to watch the stream(s) directly on the platform. Viewers are counted as UAVs when they have spent more than a minute on the same stream.
This number, again, makes for good reading for Valorant fans, who know that their discipline remains one of the most watched across all games on platforms like Twitch and YouTube Gaming. However, that does not paint the right picture in terms of the overall number and how effective each competition was for its respective game’s main channel on a famous streaming platform like Twitch.
Important tournament metrics a positive for Rainbow Six Siege and its main Twitch channel
When we study other key metrics during the time when both events went head to head, it is clearly a different story from what everyone would think it would be. Contrary to the popular notion, Rainbow Six Siege’s main channel saw more days with a higher PV count than Valorant over the seven days, five to two. Only the first day of the Valorant tournament saw a higher PV number, alongside a slight advantage on the fifth day, i.e., February 17.
While it might be surprising, the fact that there were more concurrent viewers for Ubisoft’s title for more days than for Riot’s should speak volumes to both the popularity and staying power of the game and the event, which serves as its world championship. Most interestingly, more of the Six Invitational 2023’s best PV days came during its head-to-head clash with the VCT 2023: LOCK//IN São Paulo, not during the initial few days when it was the sole event running.
The most astonishing statistical turn in favor of the Six Invitational 2023 was Average Viewers. This Rainbow Six Siege tournament dominated this head-to-head between the two main channels, as it had more watchers on average than what the VCT São Paulo has managed so far. If this would have been told to a Tom Clancy fan last week, they would have struggled to believe the fact, but here we are, and the numbers don’t lie.
Again, despite competing with Valorant’s big-ticket competition, the Six Invitational 2023 had more days with higher AV numbers during this phase than before February 13, when the LOCK//IN began. It seems like a healthy number of Tom Clancy fans decided that with other esports tournaments starting, they had better watch their favorite game's competition to catch up on the happenings and results.
We must also mention another crucial stat, Followers Gain, where Rainbow Six Siege’s peak numbers (first two days of the event) were much higher than Valorant’s main channel (second and third days). The Six Invitational 2023’s peak day of February 8 was 35% better than the VCT 2023: LOCK//IN São Paulo’s best day of February 15, showing that interest in the R6 world championship was pretty high among fans and viewers, especially during the event’s initial stages.
Valorant may have comfortably beat out Rainbow Six Siege’s challenge during their overlapping run, but that’s understandable as the latter entered its later stages post-February 11, when the number of new followers started dropping continually.
In essence, a surface reading may show that Valorant’s event helped its main Twitch channel dominate its Rainbow Six Siege counterpart, but there is always a deeper reading into the stats of such events. While we can conclude that Riot’s PC offering continued to grow and live up to its loft expectations, Ubisoft's veteran game proved there is still life in the old dog and that its viewership numbers remain healthy, if not exceptional.
