Popular streamer Michael "Shroud" Grzesiek's co-stream of the VCT Masters Regional NA tournament pulled over seven times the viewership of the official VALORANT channel stream at the start of Friday's broadcast. Shroud started the event with 183,000 audience members in attendance, while the official stream only boasted 23,000 at the start of the broadcast.  

Once the event got going, Shroud maintained a significant lead in viewership. Shroud's VCT stream peaked around 242,000 viewers, while the VALORANT Twitch channel only pulled around 56,000 viewers, which leaves Shroud with over four times the peak audience.

The fact that Shroud is pulling a larger viewership than the official stream speaks to the power of influencers on Twitch and the value of the co-stream model for accruing esports viewership. Though VALORANT is published and supported by Riot Games — one of the largest esports companies in the world — many viewers are clearly attracted to the more personal experience of co-streams with personalities like Shroud, Pokimane, and Ninja. 

Riot production issues plague VCT Regional Masters streams

The audience that gathered together to watch the VCT Regional Masters NA tournament on Friday afternoon was treated to some classic NA production issues at the start of the broadcast.

Throughout the first 15 minutes, viewers were greeted by a black screen. When the game eventually did a show on stream, it was revealed that the audience missed the first map of the Sentinels versus Luminosity match. There was also some audio and stuttering issues on the stream as well.

The VCT Regional NA tournament is scheduled to take place throughout this weekend and next weekend, concluding with the Grand Final match on Sunday, Match 21st. The tournament can be viewed on the official VALORANT channel, the VALORANT_Esports_NA channel, or on co-streams from Myth, Shroud, Pokimane, and Ninja.