[Riot Moon Young-soo reporter] Riot Games’ first-person shooting (FPS) game ‘Valorant’, famous for ‘League of Legends (LOL)’, is looking for the top of the PC room. Immediately after the launch, the game, which was once evaluated for failure, led the background of ‘reverse driving’ and marketing with continuous updates and streamers.
According to the game tricks on the 19th, the game industry, Valorant surpassed 4%of the PC room share for the first time since Korea’s service on the 17th. The game’s share was 4.08%, surpassing the competitors of long-term PC room rankings such as Overwatch (4.07%), Maple Story (3.48%), and StarCraft (2.38%). Looking at the shooting game genre, it is the third place after ‘Sudden Attack’ and ‘Battleground’.
Valorant is a FPS game developed by Riot Games and was released in June 2020. Various combat agents around the world, with superhuman power against the background of the near future, contain the story of fighting against the huge forces that threaten peace. It was differentiated by using tactical play using the unique skills of various guns and each character’s unique skills. In particular, Riot Games, which has been ranked No. 1 in the domestic PC room popularity with League of Legends, was released.
However, Valorant showed sluggish results such as being pushed after being pushed after being pushed out in the top 10 PC room ranking. Sudden Attack, Battleground, and Overwatch seemed to repeat the trains of the last FPS games that disappeared without crossing the walls of the existing shooting game strong. Compared to the League of Legends, the No. 1 game, this aspect was not more prominent.
Valorant’s rise began in the second half of 2021. For the first time, the company has been steadily drawing a rising curve since July this year, which entered the 3%share of the PC room, and the popularity ranking has been steadily maintaining the top 10 since June. Valorant’s monthly PC room share (1.85%) also increased more than doubled compared to the same period last year. As of July 2022, the average monthly user and game use time also rose by 94%and 92%year-on-year, respectively.
This upward trend is due to the accumulated Riot Games’ operational know-how, which has been servicing League of Legends for a long time. The company continued to update agents, maps, and skins, and steadily produced Korean agents ‘Jet’ music video with Korean hip-hop artists such as ‘Lil Boy’ and ‘Miran’. He also built a clean game environment through the anti-cheat program ‘Vanguard’. Various ‘nuclear’ programs are considered to be the biggest challenge to reduce the popularity of the FPS genre.
Marketing through famous streamers was also effective. Riot Games focused on notifying the game by holding a Valorant competition centered on streamers specializing in shooting games. The company explains that the streamers who entered Valorant as a promotion have a new fun and are showing their own game broadcasting and attracting users.
Thanks to these efforts, Valorant began to be imprinted on gamers in their teens and 20s who play the most FPS game. Last year, Riot Games had never heard of Valorant in a survey conducted by the top 10 gamers, but the recent survey fell to 8%. It means that awareness has increased significantly.
