Riot shared over $100m with VCT teams in 2025

Bryan Francis Published December 18, 2025

2025 has been quite an incredible year for VALORANT Esports. The game won its first-ever Sports Emmy for Outstanding Esports Championship Coverage. Various VALORANT tournaments took place in different parts of the world with major fanfare.

NRG Esports became the winners of VALORANT Champions 2025. In a press release, Riot Games announced that it has shared over $100 Million with VCT-Partnered Teams during the VCT 2025. Let’s take a look at all the major takeaways and their impact as we head closer to the 2026 season of VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT).

Lucrative payouts for VCT partnered teams

A major source of revenue for VALORANT has been through the skin bundles that are released within the game. Each bundle is being released with new features and effects in the game. Since 2021, VALORANT has been releasing an exclusive VALORANT Champions skin bundle. A part of the profits from the bundle selling would be shared with teams that qualified for the tournament. During VALORANT Champions 2025, it was reported that the VALORANT Champions 2025 skin bundle made around $40 million in the first 2 weeks of its launch

Image: Riot Games

In a press release by Riot Games, the organization said it shared $105.2 million between the 44 VCT Partnered Teams that took part in VCT 2025. Out of that amount, around $86 million came from the sale of digital goods like the VCT skin capsule and VALORANT Champions 2025 bundle.

Riot Games hasn’t made the amount shared with each team public. One can assume top VALORANT teams like G2 Esports, Paper Rex, FNATIC, EDward Gaming, and Sentinels would be in the list for the top 10 teams. An interesting point to note is that Riot Games has shared that teams that qualified for VALORANT Champions 2025 earned over $500,000 just through qualification.

Riot Games sheds light on the new format of VCT 2026

Riot Games has also provided a follow-up on the new format of the VCT in 2026.

• Teams that will be taking part in the VALORANT Challengers leagues will be given an opportunity to qualify for VALORANT Champions 2026 in Shanghai.
• This allows teams to stand a chance to win $500,000 just through qualification.
• Teams that qualify for their regional VCT Stage Two Play-ins phase will receive a sum of $75,000 to help manage travel and logistic expenses.

Riot Games has already announced the new format for both VCT Pacific and VCT EMEA.

Finally, VALORANT has hinted that for the 2026 VCT season, the VCT team capsules will consist of skins for a weapon other than the classics. If true, it will be the first time that we see exclusive FNATIC or Paper Rex edition skins for weapons like Phantom and Vandal.

Featured image: Riot Games / Valorant Esports