Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Entertainment
Jack Webb

Valorant is now live around the world, with new map and character

Valorant is now live (Picture: Riot Games)

Riot Games' highly anticipated shooter game Valorant is now live around the world.

Gamers in most regions can create an account and download the free-to-play PC game.

The game went live to some fanfare, with a launch cinematic, a new map and a brand new character added to the game.

Players who were part of the beta will notice some differences, such as small tweaks and all-new additions in the patch notes.

Reyna is the first new character joining the roster of characters. She's a character who has to essentially level up to get better during the match.

According to one designer: “If she doesn't get kills, though, she's bad. Like, near-useless. You're making a big bet picking Reyna.”

Valorant pits two teams of five players against each other to win a round-based, attackers vs defenders gunfight.

With lethal and fast TTK (time to kill), this tactical shooter is akin to Rainbow Six Siege, Counter-Strike and Overwatch.

Valorant went into closed beta testing in April and proved to be a massive hit among the first-person shooter community.

The game made history on its first day, breaking Twitch records with 34 million hours-watched in a single day, also surpassing 1.7 million peak concurrent viewers on the video-streaming platform.

Riot Games is committed to preserving the core tenets of the tactical shooter genre and upholding the competitive integrity of the gameplay experience.

According to Riot, over the course of Valorant’s two-month beta testing period, an average of nearly 3 million players logged on each day to play.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.