[3] A free-to-play game, Valorant takes inspiration from the Counter-Strike series, borrowing several mechanics such as the buy menu, spray patterns, and inaccuracy while moving.

It was ported to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in June 2024, albeit without crossplay between PC and console clients.

[4][5][6][7] Players play as one of a set of Agents, characters based on several countries and cultures around the world.

[5] Other weapons and ability charges can be purchased using an in-game economic system that awards money based on the outcome of the previous round, any kills the player is responsible for, and any objectives completed.

Kingdom Credits can be acquired by playing games or completing daily and weekly tasks, and can be spent on unlocking new agents or cosmetic items.

VP is an in-game currency that can only obtained by purchasing it with real money,[12][better source needed] and it can be spent on cosmetic items or new agents.

If the attacking team successfully protects the activated Spike for 45 seconds it detonates, destroying everything in a specific area, and they receive a point.

[17][better source needed] In July 2020, Riot introduced a "win by two" condition for competitive matches, where instead of playing a single sudden death round at 12-12, teams will alternate playing rounds on attack and defense in overtime until a team claims victory by securing a two-match lead.

Players spawn in with a random agent as well as full shields, and all abilities are disabled during the match which indulges pure gunplay.

[23] The Escalation gamemode was introduced on February 17, 2021[24][better source needed] and is similar to the "gungame" concept found in Counter-Strike and Call of Duty: Black Ops, though it is team-based rather than free-for-all with 5 players on each team.

Just like Deathmatch, players spawn in as a random agent, unable to use abilities, as the gamemode is set for pure gun fights.

This type of ability kit allows for duelists to shine best when they are able to catch players off guard and get impact frags.

[33][better source needed] Sentinels are the defensive line, which specializes in locking down sites and protecting teammates from enemies.

On attack, sentinels can use their abilities to cut off certain parts of the map or set up 'objects' that can ensure the enemy cannot flank without being noticed.

On defense, initiators can use their abilities to provide information on where the attackers are going, as well as helping their teammates retake a lost site.

To help their team enter into enemy territory, their abilities consist of some kind of smoke, as well as molotovs, stuns, or flashes.

[33][better source needed] Valorant was developed and published by Riot Games, the studio behind League of Legends.

[41][42] To meet the goal of a lower performance barrier so more people could play Valorant, the team set notably low minimum and recommended hardware requirements for the game.

[41] Unreal's modern underpinnings also helped to solve many of the issues that Riot set out to solve from other games in the genre, and additional modifications helped to meet the game's other goal of creating a suitable competitive environment, including optimizing server performance by disabling character animations in non-combat situations and removing unnecessary evaluations in the hit registration process.

[44] Due to the increase in internet traffic during the COVID-19 pandemic, Riot has had trouble optimizing connections and ping to their promised levels.

It will initially be limited to the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan with other regions joining at later dates.

[59] Austen Goslin of Polygon praised the beta of Valorant describing it as refined and "one of the most fun tactical shooters I've played".

[60] Only another title from Riot Games, League of Legends, has had more concurrent viewers, when 1.74 million watched the 2019 World Championship final.

Emily Rand of ESPN talked about her negative experience playing on teams using the voice communication function as a female.

[66] Jordon Oloman of The Guardian explains how "the bad apples among Valorant's players expect an absurd level of perfection, and the resultant voice-chat criticism is hardly constructive.

[67][68] The game has been criticized for its anti-cheat software, Riot Vanguard, as it was revealed to run on a kernel driver, which allows access to the computer system.

OSNews expressed concern that Riot Games and its owner, Chinese technology conglomerate Tencent, could spy on players and that the kernel driver could be potentially exploited by third parties.

[69] However, Riot Games stated that the driver does not send any information back to them, and launched a bug bounty program to offer rewards for reports that demonstrate vulnerabilities with the software.

[70][71] The bounty will reward white hat hackers between $25,000 to $100,000 for reports on its vulnerabilities, with the pay being based on the severity of the exploit.

[74] In November 2020, Riot Games announced the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT), which is a year-long tournament circuit consisting of three levels: Teams will qualify directly for Champions via top places in Circuit Point Standings of their region, based on results of Challengers and Masters.