Just a few days after launching its Closed Beta, Riot Games’ blockbuster title VALORANT has shattered numerous viewing records on the streaming platform Twitch. The new record for this game was set with 1.7 million viewers at the same time on this streaming channel.
The appeal of VALORANT has led the gaming community worldwide to focus on how they can acquire a test account for the game. The most common method is for Riot to distribute beta keys through the live streams of popular streamers who are experiencing the game, or players can register directly with Riot and wait for luck.
However, the number of keys is limited, while the demand from players seems endless. As a result, many VALORANT test accounts have recently been sold on eBay at extremely high prices, driven by the urgent desire of the gaming community to “play it right away”.
The reason a VALORANT account is sold for such an exorbitant price is that Riot has currently released a limited number of 75,000 beta keys. This number, compared to the 1.7 million viewers on Twitch at the same time, is quite modest.
Meanwhile, the timeline for the Open Beta of the game remains unclear, and gamers do not know when they will be able to experience this free game on a global scale. Therefore, many players are not hesitant to spend 3 – 4 million VND to experience this product early.
Additionally, there are many customers of this account selling service who are also streamers, and at a time when VALORANT is so hot, it makes sense for them to invest in attracting viewers.
Of course, due to the varying prices, accounts sold for over 12 million VND attract little interest, with the price considered “reasonable” and most common for a VALORANT account being around 1.8 – 2.5 million VND (about 80 – 110 USD). Meanwhile, the starting auction price for an account is usually set at 40 USD (about 950,000 VND), but the final auction price often ends up being 3 to 4 times higher.
It can be seen that even at these prices, they are still exorbitant compared to the cost of any AAA game. However, the aforementioned accounts are still in a state of “selling out”, indicating that the demand from the gaming community is very high. It’s not surprising that the game launched right during the pandemic, and gamers being at home has increased their desire to buy and experience games more than usual.
Some opinions argue that this is merely a PR stunt by Riot, akin to “buying and selling to themselves”, yet the fact that VALORANT reached 1.7 million viewers on Twitch is indeed “no joke”.
Without delving into the pros and cons of the gameplay, one must admit that Riot’s media team is doing an excellent job in creating the immense appeal of VALORANT at this moment.
Regarding this matter, Riot Games stated that they would strictly handle cases of selling beta keys on online shops, but how they will do this is unknown, as tracing the origins of these accounts is already a challenging problem.