If you were lurking on Twitch back in the spring of 2020, you probably remember the absolute chaos. It felt like every single person on the internet was begging for a "drop." People were leaving their computers on overnight, muted, just hoping to wake up to that sweet, sweet notification that they’d been invited to the club. But if you ask a casual fan when did Valorant come out, they might give you three different answers depending on who you ask.
The truth is, the game didn't just "appear." It had a weird, staggered birth that started years before anyone even knew what a "Radiant" was. Honestly, it's kinda wild to think about how long Riot Games sat on this secret before they let us touch it.
The Official Birthday: June 2, 2020
Let’s get the big one out of the way first. Valorant officially came out on June 2, 2020. This was the day the "Version 1.0" patch hit the servers and the game became free-to-play for basically everyone with a PC. Well, almost everyone. While the US, Europe, and most of the world got in on day one, gamers in China actually had to wait until July 2023 to get their own official servers. Talk about a long delay.
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When it launched in June, it wasn't exactly the massive roster we have now. You only had 11 agents to choose from. Reyna was the "new" addition for the launch day, joining the original crew like Jett, Phoenix, and Sage. If you play now, you’ve probably forgotten how empty the map pool felt. We only had Ascent, Bind, Haven, and Split. That was it. No Breeze, no Icebox, and definitely no Abyss.
But Wait, What About the Beta?
This is where the timeline gets a bit blurry for people. Long before the June launch, there was the "Closed Beta."
The Valorant closed beta started on April 7, 2020. This was the period that literally broke Twitch. Riot did this genius (and slightly evil) marketing move where the only way to play was to link your Riot account to Twitch and watch streamers play the game. It created this massive artificial scarcity. At one point, the game hit 1.7 million concurrent viewers on Twitch, which is just insane for a game that wasn't even technically "out" yet.
The beta lasted for a little under two months, eventually shutting down on May 28, 2020. Riot took the servers offline for about five days to "scrub" everything and get ready for the 1.0 release. If you played during this time, you got to keep your exclusive player cards and gun buddies, but your rank and your skins? Gone. Reset to zero.
Pro Tip: If you see someone rocking the "Arcane" or "Beta Pioneer" cards, you’re looking at an OG. They’ve been clicking heads since the world was in lockdown.
Project A: The Secret Years
If you want to be a real nerd about it, the game’s history goes way back to 2014. That’s when the first internal prototypes started at Riot. Back then, it wasn't called Valorant. It was "Project A."
We didn't hear a peep about it until October 2019 during Riot’s 10th-anniversary livestream. They showed a few seconds of blurry gameplay and basically said, "Hey, we're making a shooter where abilities don't kill, but they create opportunities."
It was a bold claim.
Most people thought it was just going to be "Counter-Strike with magic." In a way, they weren't totally wrong, but the blend of high-stakes gunplay and hero abilities turned out to be exactly what the FPS genre needed. The developers, including guys like Salvatore "Volcano" Garozzo (who literally helped design legendary maps like Cache in CS:GO), spent years fine-tuning the movement and the 128-tick servers before we ever saw a trailer.
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The Console Arrival: A New Era
For years, the answer to when did Valorant come out was "only on PC." That changed recently.
Riot finally brought the tactical shooter to consoles in 2024.
- The Console Limited Beta: Started June 14, 2024.
- Full Console Release: August 2, 2024.
This was a massive deal because tactical shooters usually feel terrible on a controller. But Riot added a "Focus Mode" that mimics the sensitivity of a mouse, and honestly, it works better than it has any right to. Now, if you're on PS5 or Xbox Series X/S, you're playing the same game as the PC crowd, though you won't get matched against them in ranked. Thank goodness for that, right? Nobody wants to go up against a mouse-and-keyboard Jett with a controller.
Why the Release Date Still Matters
The reason we still talk about the launch is because of how much the game has evolved. Since June 2020, we’ve gone from 11 agents to nearly 30. We’ve gone from 4 maps to a rotating pool of over 10.
Riot treats the game like a living thing. They don't just drop a game and walk away; they patch it every two weeks. This "live service" model is why the game feels so different today than it did back on that Tuesday in June.
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If you’re just starting now, you’ve actually missed some of the most "broken" eras of the game. You didn't have to deal with the original Sage wall that was basically indestructible, or the time when Raze had two grenades that could wipe an entire team in three seconds.
Actionable Steps for New Players
If you're jumping in now, years after the hype of 2020, here is what you need to do to catch up:
- Don't buy every agent: You get two free unlocks early on. Use them on "beginner-friendly" agents like Gekko or Killjoy rather than high-skill ones like Astra.
- Learn the "Eco" system: Valorant is as much about money management as it is about shooting. Learn when to "save" (not buy anything) so you can afford a Vandal next round.
- Check the Patch Notes: Since the game changes so often, a character that was "god tier" last month might be "trash" today. Always peek at the latest update before you commit to a main.
- Use your mic: It’s a tactical shooter. Information is literally more valuable than a good aim. If you see someone, say something.
Whether you started during the Twitch drop craze or you just downloaded it on your PS5 yesterday, the game is only getting bigger. It’s moved way past its "Project A" roots and become a global powerhouse. Just remember: it all started with a few thousand lucky people watching a stream in April 2020.