Despite Twitch success, Dr Disrespect believes Valorant is ‘not that fun to watch or spectate’

Valorant has dominated Twitch viewership ever since the closed beta commenced on April 7, but Dr Disrespect believes that the ‘skewed’ viewership numbers are overstating the interest in Riot Games’ popular new first-person shooter.

With the excitement surrounding Valorant and the expectations that it’ll surpass many existing esports titles, the game reached 1.7 million peak viewers on Twitch on Thursday, April 7, placing second in the streaming service’s all-time viewership records.

The tactical shooter couldn’t surpass Riot Games’ League of Legends viewership record but Twitch smashed its peak viewership record on the day as 4.2 million peak viewers tuned in on the day.

Dr Disrespect streamed almost 30 hours of Valorant gameplay during the first two days of the game’s closed beta and reached 1,470,402 total views with 32,556 average viewers.

However, despite the game’s early success on streaming platforms, Dr Disrespect believes that viewership numbers are ‘skewed’ due to the nature of the closed beta and Twitch drops that encouraged viewers to watch gameplay.

Speaking to fans during a ten-hour stream on Thursday, the Twitch streamer compared Valorant to Overwatch, explaining that while the game is fun to play, it isn’t enjoyable to watch.

“I have to say, I feel like this game’s not that fun of a game to watch or spectate in the same sense that Overwatch is really not that fun to watch,” Dr Disrespect said.

“But I really enjoy playing Overwatch. Yesterday, I played this game for 17 hours and I’m still wanting to play more because there’s a competitive aspect that’s so attached to this game.

“But from a viewing or spectating standpoint, I just wonder once this game launches, no closed beta, and no drops, you know…”

“There’s drops enabled, so the whole viewer count has been skewed…”