gaming
Bulletins

Valorant is coming to smartphones, maybe even before it hits consoles

Riot Games is bringing its tactical shooter to smartphones.

An image of Valorant hero Jett, one of the available characters in the tactical shooter.

Riot Games's Valorant is coming to smartphones, but there's no planned release date.

Image: Riot Games

Riot Games is the latest major game developer to target the mobile market, with tactical shooter Valorant coming to smartphones at some undefined point in the future. The news, reported by Polygon, means Valorant may be arriving on mobile before it even gets a console release, indicating just how important the market could become to competitive gaming over the next decade.

Valorant first released on PC one year ago today, and marked Riot's first major release after League of Legends, which came out in 2009 and has since cemented the studio as a global esports heavyweight. Riot said Valorant now has around 14 million monthly average players, and the developer is building out the global infrastructure to turn the game into a leading competitive player in the esports scene.

Targeting mobile has become a popular strategy for major console and PC developers of late. EA is releasing a mobile version of its battle royale Apex Legends, and Activision Blizzard has found success with a mobile variant of Call of Duty. Honor of Kings, published by Riot owner Tencent, is among the most popular mobile games in the world, having been created as a mobile-first title in the same genre as League of Legends. And PUBG, the early battle royale hit that ceded much of its popularity on console to Fortnite and others, has since become a major moneymaker on mobile, earning more than $5 billion in the last three years.

Nick Statt

Nick Statt is Protocol's video game reporter. Prior to joining Protocol, he was news editor at The Verge covering the gaming industry, mobile apps and antitrust out of San Francisco, in addition to managing coverage of Silicon Valley tech giants and startups. He now resides in Rochester, New York, home of the garbage plate and, completely coincidentally, the World Video Game Hall of Fame. He can be reached at nstatt@protocol.com.

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