Riot Games is gearing up to bring esports to the VALORANT store after three years of waiting, the studio has confirmed this week, leaving players eager to support their favorite teams—though it will likely cost a pretty penny.
Today, VALORANT esports global head Leo Faria confirmed that team-branded weapon skins are on their way, and should hit shopfronts sometime “next year.”
These skins, announced by Faria in a June 20 interview with Sports Business Journal, will likely carry a hefty price tag similar to other premium skins already released into VALORANT’s growing microtransaction ecosystem over the last 36 months.
VALORANT’s new esports project is far from the first time developers have combined competitive gaming and the mainline shopfront. Riot’s original hit, League, already dolls out skins for championship players, while Overwatch introduced skins representing the various associated esport teams midway through 2018. Rival shooter title Counter-Strike has long carried long-carried team-themed stickers, adding them in a 2014 update.
While VALORANT may be late to the esport skin game, the devs will be guaranteed to see countless team skin purchases.
VALORANT Champions 2022 saw a 1.5 million viewer peak, according to escharts.com. This was almost a 500,000 peak viewer increase on the same event the year prior. Riot earned $20 million from the VCT LOCK//IN bundle in March too, suggesting there are plenty of eager players already reaching for their wallets.
As the hero shooter’s esports scene continues to expand, more and more fans are likely to snap up these upcoming skins in the distant future.
Riot has not yet announced a date for the first VALORANT esports skins.
