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.
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.
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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.
Through your support the Champions Collection has raised more than $7.5M for qualified Champions teams!
You can continue to support participating teams until the Champions Collection leaves the store on December 13. pic.twitter.com/A2nAT8GOjB
— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) December 8, 2021
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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.
