VALORANT Mobile debuts in China as sixth most-watched mobile game

VALORANT Mobile is off to a strong start in China, and was the sixth most viewed mobile game during its launch week, per Niko Partners’ China Games & Streaming Tracker.

The game, which was released on August 19th, racked up a cumulative six million views across DouYu, Huya, and Bilibili in its first week, the data shows.

VALORANT Mobile’s strong release was anticipated, as the game had accumulated over 70 million pre-registrations. It debuted at #1 on the iOS download chart and has also featured in the top 10 throughout the launch week on the iOS game revenue chart.

Data from Android isn’t available as the Google Play Store isn’t available in China with users relying on third party application stores.

Niko Partners told Esports Insider that VALORANT Mobile is “performing within expectations”, while noting that China has been central to the title’s development and testing.

Currently, VALORANT Mobile is only available in China. Developed by Riot Games with Tencent’s Lightspeed Studios, the global release date for the game hasn’t been announced yet.

Its arrival in China follows the growing success of VALORANT on PC, which recently crossed two million peak concurrent players. It was also the fourth-most watched title in H1 2025, per Niko Partners.

“We believe that VALORANT Mobile will extend the success of the VALORANT IP in China, just as League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics (Battle of Golden Spatula in China) standalone mobile games did,” said Daniel Ahmad, Director of Research and Insights at Niko Partners.

VALORANT Mobile is published by Tencent, which already dominates the mobile shooter genre in the country with games like Peacekeeper Elite, Delta Force, CrossFire Mobile, Arena Breakout, and COD Mobile.

As VALORANT Mobile prepares to take on established mobile shooters in the market, Riot Games has announced plans for the first esports tournament for the game.

The game’s first national series was announced earlier this week with a prize pool of CN¥3m (~£309,000) up for grabs. Among the qualifying pathways for the game are back-to-back tournaments on streaming platforms such as Bilibili, TikTok, Huya Live, Douyu, and Kuaishou.

The national series will culminate in a National Finals in December at an international skateboarding competition called the Aranya Grand Masters.

The competition features four pathways to qualify for the National Finals with a strong focus on grassroots engagement through collegiate tournaments and an in-game qualifier as well.