Riot Games recently unveiled an exciting update at Unreal Fest 2024 in Seattle, revealing that Valorant has skyrocketed to an impressive 35 million monthly players. The announcement came from Anna Donlon, the senior vice president and head of the Valorant studio, as she shared the stage with palpable enthusiasm.
"Valorant has been on a rocket ship since launch, and it’s truly humbling," Anna expressed. "Here we are, four years later, enjoyed by over 35 million players worldwide across all types of PC, and now available on PlayStation and Xbox. We’re not just bringing gameplay to gamers; we’re hosting major eSports tournaments globally and crafting incredible musical collaborations with talents like Zedd and Grabbitz, among others."
Anna emphasized the hard work of the exceptional team behind Valorant, stating, "We have an extraordinary group of world-class developers—Unreal developers—whose expertise in the engine provides the foundation for creating the best experiences. Our Riot teams are dedicated to making Valorant a significant part of gamers’ lives for decades to come."
Discussing the transition to consoles, Anna highlighted the vital role of the Unreal Engine technology. "Millions of players are now enjoying Valorant on consoles, largely because of our relationship with Unreal," she noted. "Without Unreal, I don’t think this game would have been possible. The Unreal Engine equips us with console SDK integrations, rendering implementations, and optimized platform-native input handling, allowing us to focus on delivering an exceptional gaming experience."
Reflecting on Valorant’s journey, she mentioned, "Initially, we believed Valorant would be PC-centric, but as player demand grew, we couldn’t ignore the requests: ‘Val on console, when?’" The passionate response from a global, diverse, and eager community exceeded all expectations.
In another exciting development, Anna shared news about moving Valorant from Unreal Engine 4.27 to Unreal Engine 5. "We literally squeezed every ounce of capability out of UE4," she stated. "Transitioning to UE5 is a significant undertaking for a live game, but it’s absolutely essential."
While she assured that the update wouldn’t drastically alter the game’s core experience immediately, she teased intriguing possibilities. "Our developers are certainly cooking up something I can’t disclose, but they’re exploring ways to expand the Valorant universe into thrilling new playable experiences. We’re truly lucky to harness everything that UE5 has to offer, and the potential it opens up for our developers is something we’re genuinely excited about."
As for Unreal Fest 2024, this year’s showcase provided not only highlights from Riot but also important announcements from Epic Games regarding new features in Unreal Engine 5.5. Epic revealed that starting January 1, 2025, developers could benefit from a reduced royalty rate, alongside the launch of the Fab platform, which aims to unify multiple digital asset marketplaces.
The buzz surrounding this event indicates that both Valorant and the future of game development continue to be bright. For more insights and updates from Unreal Fest Seattle 2024, viewers can catch the full event coverage on the Unreal website.
