Valorant makes over $18 million from two weapon skins with Champions bundle

Jacob Hale
Valorant breeze map blurred with Champions Logo and Vandal

According to reports, the 2021 Valorant Champions skins made $18.7m from the sale of just two weapon skins, as the collection celebrated the inaugural Valorant Champions tournament to crown the best team in the world.

Released during the first-ever Valorant Champions tournament, the Champions Collection featured a gold-emblazoned Vandal and karambit melee skins, setting players back 6260 Valorant Points (roughly $70).

The first of their kind skins came with a special finisher and a glow that is active when you’re top fragging in the match. These special limited-time skins were used to show support for the esport as Valorant Champions sought to crown its first team of world champions.

Valorant Champions 2021 tournament skins wallpaper
The inaugural Valorant Champions tournament was celebrated with in-game skins.

After only two weeks in the store, Riot revealed that the Champions Collection had made $15m in around two weeks. However, According to a report by Upcomer, the skin collection made a staggering total of $18.72m during the two and a half weeks they were available.

Significantly, half of the total amount of money made from the Champions collection was set to be shared out among the 16 teams in attendance at the premier event.

This means that $9.36 million was split between the 16 teams, with each organization taking home a sweet $585,000 bonus.

Ultimately, how each team decided to spend the money was down to them. Of the 11 teams Upcomer reported to share the revenue of the skins, two gave the majority of the money to the players.

Seven organizations reportedly decided to keep the majority of the money, and one decided to keep the entirety of the revenue.

Update: Acend Club management have disputed these revenue share figures reported by Upcomer, claiming they are not correct. 

Team Share (Organization/Players)
Acend 75%/25%
Fnatic 80%/20%
Team Liquid 70%/30%
Envy 50%/50%
Sentinels 50%/50%
Cloud9 25%/75%
Furia 60%/40%
Vivo Keyd 20%/80%
X10 100%/0%
Team Secret 85%/15%
Vision Strikers 70%/30%

Crowdfunding in this fashion isn’t uncommon in esports, but Valorant has certainly put other esports on watch with this. Each year, Dota 2 crowdfunds for its historic The International prize pool, with tens of millions of dollars on the line.

On a smaller scale, Apex Legends managed to raise $1.5m for the ALGS Championships.

If this becomes the norm for Valorant at their major events, or even just at each year’s Valorant Champions, we could see money in the esport skyrocket even more.

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About The Author

Jacob is Dexerto’s UK Editor and Call of Duty esports specialist. With a BA (Hons) in English Literature and Creative Writing, he previously worked as an Editor at Ginx TV. Jacob was nominated for Journalist of the Year at the 2023 Esports Awards. Contact: jacob.hale@dexerto.com.