Valorant will rotate game modes after Replication ends

Fariha Bhatti Published 22/05/2021

Replication mode is finally approaching its end but the developer has a new exciting update already planned out.

Valorant’s brand new game mode Replication will complete its run on May 25th, but it’s not going away forever. Replication will return as a result of the new Valorant update that’ll keep bringing past game modes back into the game.

“After Replication comes down, we’re going to transition to a new approach for making modes available to you. Rather than making all of our modes more frustrating, we’re choosing instead to offer a select number,” senior producer Lisa Ohanian said.

Simply put, players will be able to keep playing their favorite game modes in rotation. The update will come into effect from May 26yh and bring one of the previous modes back. Replication, Escalation, and Snowball Fight will remain active in Valorant for players to enjoy all modes. Each mode will replace another after an interval of about two weeks.

The developer also explained that having all game modes active was also an option they tossed around but they scraped it off to keep competitive queues quality in check. Having too many games active at one time may heavily impact ranked queues, where finding a match at Immortal rank is already a tall order. To prevent this issue and still serve the casual Valorant players, the rotation format will be implemented.

While the update certainly doesn’t write off the possibility of a new game mode, Replication was likely the final installment for the next few months at least. Riot Games will be experimenting with the rotations for a while now before reassessing the game and introducing new features.

“We’re planning to keep going like this for a few cycles, at which point we’ll reassess what to do longer-term and how some of our other cool things in the works are going. We have some ideas, but frankly we’d like to pay attention to how you feel about this approach first,” Ohanian said.

The good thing is, you can now enjoy your favorite game modes in Valorant that were earlier released for a short period. The game publisher will post updates regarding which game mode is going live for two weeks.

How many game modes are in Valorant?

Valorant currently has five game modes: Competitive, Unrated, Spike Rush, Replication, and Deathmatch, along with a Practice Range. Overall, Valorant has nine modes if you include Snowball fight and Escalation since the two games will reappear after the rotation update.

Currently, only Replication is available to play, but after the upcoming update, players can enjoy all modes for a short time.

Fariha Bhatti

About Fariha Bhatti

Fariha Bhatti is a long-time gaming writer who loves competitive FPS games and slots with particularly fun themes. She got her start playing classic games developed by SNK, from legendary fighting game series The King of Fighters to challenging platform franchise Metal Slug. She now spends most of her time playing Valorant and Counter-Strike 2 while working her way through new slot releases to find her next favorite. Fariha has been published at PCGamesN, TalkEsport and ONE Esports.

View full profile