Riot Games’ new title named Valorant was in clear terms designed to come and compete against the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. However, nobody predicted that it would be a very effective competitor from the onset. But information in circulation currently reveals that even before Valorant was fully released, while it was still in Beta, there was some level of drop in the revenue and the number of active players in CS:GO.
One area that Valorant would have a huge stretch to go to the lengths of overtaking go is all the side activities that come with it. One area to look at is the value of CS:GO skins. Some of these can fetch a high value and many players use them as a currency. For instance, on CSGOBook.com players can upgrade their skins and items by gambling them, something which has been popular for years, but in 2020 has increased massively amongst the community.
But the most notable thing is that this drop is coming after CS:GO witnessed it’s all time high in player count and earnings in April.
CS:GO Figures Have Been Dropping, Whilst Valorant’s are Rising
The volume of attention that Valorant closed beta and official launch attracted was beyond what the Riot Games group ever envisaged. Because of the popular demand, the studio kept expanding access to the beta on many occasions. The games’ launch has recorded a huge success since then. Meanwhile, a look at an analysis of the gaming industry’s performance in 2020 by Superdata reveals that even when Valorant was still in closed beta, many players were jettisoning CS:GO and embracing it.
The player numbers and earnings of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive dropped from an all-time high in April while the competing title Valorant was getting ready to launch, concludes the report of May. It went ahead to posit that the number of CS:GO users dropped by 6%, while revenue also dropped by 9% after the game experienced an upward spiral for months. While this was happening, their players were stolen by their rival tactical shooter game that was developed by the same Riot Games that made League of Legends.
In July, the data about the performance of these games in June will be out, and that will reveal whether the trend continued in June or whether there was a reverse. But the truth is that analysts and experts in the field believe that the trend will most likely continue, especially when you look at how successful the game launch was. When you look at the size and pedigree or riot games, you will understand why Valorant was always going to do well. But then, CS:GO is also a multiplayer title with solid roots, especially in esports.
Riot has informed interested parties about Valorant’s Ignition esports tournament, and in view of this, the Ranked Play commenced in-game live. What all these are pointing to is a grand plan by the riot games to dislodge CS:GO and take its place in the esports world. Fans will have their fingers crossed as they allow the market to play out and reveal the direction of growth of the new game, and see if anything will make the players get back to CS:GO after having a brief stint with the new Valorant title. Of course, it’s good to recall what happened in the case of the Apex Legends, which was launched with a huge fanfare, recorded a huge success at the beginning, but failed to hold its own as time went on. In the first week of the launch of the game, it witnessed figures that made it compete favorably over Fortnite, but the attraction of the new title waned quickly and players returned back to Fortnite.
Valorant Ranked Play Goes Live and Opens More Regions
Information coming from riot games is that the Ranked Play of Valorant is now live in-game. The launch took place through the night, and within a few hours; other regions of the world were given access to the Ranked. It comes with the same mode as in beta, though with a new top rank, some new icons, and some other smaller tweaks.
You Can Now Enjoy Valorant Ranked Play
It was in the past weeks that riot games informed the gaming world that Valorant would go live in a few days. The studio, however, never gave a particular date for that. It was a few hours before the game went live that players got their first warning, after which the game’s official twitter handle told the world that Valorant has gone live. But the game did not go live in regions like CIS, TR, RU and EU on its first attempt. It was later the same night that the game was billed to go live at 08:00 PM PT.
The Ranked Play for Valorant is titled Valorant Rated, and this does not have much difference from the game’s first arrival in the closed beta. But in the weeks after that, Valorant tried making some changes, and they intend to make even more changes after launching the game officially. For example, one of the changes involved the idea of renaming VALORANT rank Radiant, because many people believe that the original name is confusing. There has been a redesigning of the iconography of the rank, and improved color clarity has been ensured, so as to help players differentiate them.
Meanwhile, what seemed like the biggest change is in jettisoning that rule that players cannot play together with fellow players if they are not in the same rank with them. In the beta edition, players were not allowed to play alongside others whose ranks were not close to theirs. However, in the bid to make playing with your friends easier, they had to ease the restrictions. Though they did not remove it completely, they increased the gap allowed between ranks, so that people can play with others with different ranks, but not when the gap is too wide. After the launch, the information we got is that the studio is working to increase the level of visibility that players can enjoy over their rank progress and game stats.
