It’s been a while since Riot introduced VCT capsules in the game. For those who don’t know, for every capsule sold, the respective team or organization gets a 50% cut from it. From the outside, this looked like a really small number. As weeks passed, organizations slowly announced the number of bundles they sold, and the numbers are huge. There’s a reason Zelsis from Sentinels was advertising the SEN bundle almost everywhere. Through the VCT capsules, teams have been making a ton of money by just qualifying in major Valorant tournaments. From what’s been shown so far, these bundle revenue figures can probably contribute significantly to running a competitive Valorant team. Keep reading to find out how Valorant is slowly becoming a sustainable title, unlike what it was a few years ago.
Paper Rex Sold the Most VCT Capsules as of March 21st
On March 21st, Riot announced that Paper Rex sold the most bundles. Many were surprised by the fact that they managed to overtake Sentinels in sales, despite the whole team advertising the bundle 24/7. Sentinels went hard on advertising, even making sure to inspect the SEN classic pistol every time they got a kill with it. Despite those ad stunts, Paper Rex, being the most consistent team from Asia, managed to sell more bundles than Sentinels. Sadly, the number of VCT bundles sold is still not confirmed. We’ll have to wait for the organization to announce those details.
For teams like Paper Rex, the VCT bundle revenue will significantly help the organization. This revenue will help pay player salaries and cover tournament expenses. Despite appearing lightweight, esports organizations face many expenses. Initially, selling physical merchandise like team jerseys was pretty much the only way to make money. The addition of VCT capsules has changed everything. Teams like Paper Rex can now push for a sustainable esports ecosystem, allowing them to expand more if needed.
🚨BREAKING — EDward Gaming have successfuly sold over 74,000 team bundles in VCT CN's Live Shopping campaign on Douyin (TikTok China) in just 4 hours.
This is estimated to generate over $600,000 in revenue for EDG. BLG came in second in sales.
🔽 More details in the comments pic.twitter.com/iBax1w8Pzg
— VALO2ASIA (@VALO2ASIA) May 15, 2024
Edward Gaming Sells Over 74,000 VCT Bundles in Just 4 Hours
The release of VCT capsules in China was delayed by over 2 months. Once the bundles went live, China hosted a VCT capsules campaign on TikTok, and it blew up instantly. EDG announced that they managed to sell 74,000 bundles within 4 hours of launch. To put it into perspective, the organization made over $600k USD in just 4 hours. While Paper Rex likely made millions over the first 2 months, EDG’s figures in 4 hours were outstanding. Other Chinese teams were added to the team bundle, but EDG’s sales figure probably topped them all.
Does the introduction of in-game team merchandise change everything?
Games like Counter-Strike help teams raise money with their in-game items. It took a while for Riot to get their system in place, but now it looks like it was all worth the wait. Selling team jerseys involved a lot of logistics and wasn’t feasible for every organization to sell worldwide. Fortunately, in-game digital assets do not require these steps and make it easier for any international fan to support their teams. Finally, we might see teams investing more in Valorant rather than pulling out of the scene completely. The Guard was one such team that had to downsize despite winning a major LAN event. All in all, the path to sustainability for Valorant esports is much brighter than it was a year ago.
