Valorant Mobile officially announced by Riot Games

On the tactical shooter’s first birthday, Riot Games has officially confirmed reports of Valorant mobile. 

Riot’s tactical became available to play on June 2, 2020. The game has been out for one year and is booming among the fans of FPS games, but the developer is now also targetting mobile users, Valorant executive producer Anna Donlon announced. The executive producer explained that a well-optimized game is their top priority, which is why nothing is set in stone so far. The team may even scrape out the plans if the Mobile version is any less than its PC variant. 

“We didn’t start out with ‘we’re making Valorant on mobile,’ we started out with ‘can we make Valorant on mobile?’ For us, whatever you get out of playing on PC, you should get out of playing Valorant on mobile. But we have to recognize that the mobile player’s needs are different.” Anna Donlon told Polygon.

The news shouldn’t come as a surprise, as rumors of Valorant coming to mobile devices have been swirling for a while. However, the Valorant team has finally spoken up with Riot Games revealing that a mobile version is in the works. Unfortunately, few details were revealed and no exact launch date has been announced. 

The developer stressed that the mobile version would be different from Valorant on PC, but the competitive experience will remain the same. Riot Games isn’t trying to shift PC players to its mobile version, which is why crossplay won’t be available. 

“We’re absolutely just as committed to keeping the PC experience at the quality level it is or higher, and we’re not going to compromise it in order to address the mobile market,” Donlon said. 

Valorant currently has a large player base and a rapidly growing esports scene. Valorant’s first LAN event recently managed to garner an average viewership of more than 800,000 people with a peak of over 1 million. The shooter’s instant success among the PC players is undeniable, but Riot Games isn’t stopping there. 

The developer hasn’t revealed a release date, but for now confirmation that a mobile version is on the cards is enough for avid Valorant players. A console version is also in development but few details were given.

What’s Valorant’s player counter in 2021? 

Riot Games confirmed that its first-person shooter Valorant has reached 14 million monthly active PC players and 500 million games played in its first year. The developer shared the numbers on Valorant’s first anniversary to showcase the game’s success in a short period.