tarik explains why most Valorant fans watch his stream over main broadcast
Lance Skundrich/Riot GamesFormer CS:GO pro turned Valorant content creator Tarik ‘tarik’ Celik explained in a recent interview how he is able to eclipse the main esports broadcast in terms of viewership and hours watched.
tarik has been one of the biggest drivers of viewers towards Valorant esports in 2023. The content creator is the biggest channel in terms of hours watched for Valorant Champions 2023 and outperformed the main esports broadcast channel by a healthy margin.
This isn’t a new development either. tarik co-streamer almost every game of the VCT Americas league and also surpassed the main broadcast across Twitch and YouTube in terms of hours watched with over 9 million hours, according to Esports Charts.
While the Valorant World Championship has seen a dip in viewership as a whole for its third edition of the tournament, tarik’s numbers have remained strong and far and ahead of his peers.
In an interview with Forbes, the Valorant streamer revealed how he has managed to amass a gigantic following that watch along with main broadcast with him.
tarik reveals how his co-stream eclipsed the main Valorant stream
Valorant has a host of co-streamers across different languages and regions for its different leagues and international tournaments. tarik was one of the earlier adopters of the co-streaming format for the esport and has been on a meteoric rise ever since.
In a recent interview, he explained the different between what he brings to the match broadcast as oppsed to the official stream from Riot Games.
“When I co-stream I’m just trying to have a good time and call it like I see it… I don’t need to give anywhere near as informative a broadcast as the official channels do. I’m really just hanging out with the community, we’re way more relaxed and are looking for the entertainment of the event, not just hyper-analyzing the competition,” tarik said in an interview with Forbes.
He also explained that he is less formal than the main broadcast and also has the ability to interact with his chat and viewers in a way that the Valorant esports production cannot.
tarik also claimed that the producers of the Valorant esports braodcast listen in on his co-stream while working the event to be up to date on the community and what it wants from the broadcast.
“They really care and obviously they see the benefit me and my community bring but they’ve been nothing but supportive in allowing me to do my thing,” he said.
tarik is expected to continue to co-stream the rest of the tournament, the event ends on August 26. The streamer could also make an appearance at the Los Angeles-based event to co-stream in person, similar to what he did last year for Valorant Champions 2022.