VALORANT was released over four years ago and has changed significantly since 2020. Riot has continued to add new agents and maps — and released plenty of balance updates and patches. After all this time, is VALORANT a balanced FPS?
Currently, close to 26 million active players play VALORANT monthly. Due to its competitive and teamwork-based gameplay, the game has remained at the top of play and stream charts for years.
Meanwhile, VALORANT has continued to grow into one of the most popular esports in the world as well, so we’ve started gathering even more statistics about pro players’ behaviour and choices during major tournaments to help us find out if the game is, indeed, still balanced.
What weapons are worth buying in VALORANT?
VALORANT has a wide array of weapons for pros to grab during each buying phase, but some guns are definitely more prioritised than others.
It’s been over four years, and some things haven’t changed. The Vandal and Phantom have remained the most used weapons in the entire game. They aren’t cheap but teams often revolve strategies around buying these weapons as soon as possible.
| Weapon | Kills | Headshots | Headshot Rate | Matches Used | Kills/Match |
| Vandal | 305.908 | 190.733 | 62.30% | 4210 | 73 |
| Phantom | 69.015 | 33.017 | 47.80% | 3962 | 17 |
| Bulldog | 22.722 | 10.565 | 46.50% | 3940 | 6 |
| Operator | 18.077 | 958 | 5.30% | 3261 | 6 |
| Guardian | 17.315 | 8.987 | 51.90% | 3629 | 5 |
| Spectre | 9.692 | 2.844 | 29.30% | 2844 | 3 |
| Marshal | 6.516 | 1.126 | 17.30% | 2318 | 3 |
According to Riot Games, the weapon of your choice depends entirely on your play style and skills. If you prefer close-range combat, the Phantom is a great pick. It has a higher fire rate and can easily plough down multiple enemies within seconds. But the Vandal is better for accuracy — if you’re a sharp-shooter, you can take down agents with a single headshot.
When it comes to pro players, you’ll see them gravitate towards the Vandal. With such high precision and mechanical prowess, it’s no surprise they want to take advantage of the powerful headshot capabilities.
How balanced are the VALORANT agents?
A meta is a team composition that is seen as the most impactful due to the effectiveness of the agents and the play style they have together. Some agents are more viable than others for a variety of factors.
In competitive VALORANT, Omen, Viper, Raze, Sova, and Jett are the most-picked agents. These are the same agents that were popular a few years ago when we first gathered this data (plus Killjoy!).
Omen is popular for his smokes and intel gathering, perfect for pros who want to control enemy movement and make fast decisions. Viper is another agent that has the ability to control the map. Raze is a powerful agent who deals massive damage, and Sova has an arrow that gathers useful information for his team. Jett has mobility by her side, allowing her to reach surprising places and deal damage before enemies can react.
| Agent | Pick Rate | Picks (Matches) | Winrate |
| Omen | 62.20% | 5394 | 48.00% |
| Viper | 52.80% | 4579 | 48.90% |
| Raze | 51.60% | 4472 | 48.10% |
| Sova | 40.20% | 3488 | 48.20% |
| Jett | 38.50% | 3341 | 48.50% |
| Cypher | 38.40% | 3330 | 47.80% |
| Killjoy | 38.30% | 3326 | 48.50% |
| KAY/O | 25.50% | 2210 | 46.70% |
| Skye | 23.20% | 2016 | 48.00% |
| Breach | 21.20% | 1843 | 46.10% |
| Gekko | 21.00% | 1821 | 50.10% |
| Fade | 15.70% | 1365 | 48.10% |
| Brimstone | 9.40% | 815 | 49.10% |
| Yoru | 7.68% | 666 | 48.00% |
| Sage | 6.73% | 584 | 54.60% |
| Astra | 5.37% | 466 | 48.30% |
| Harbor | 4.57% | 396 | 41.90% |
| Reyna | 3.33% | 289 | 43.30% |
| Neon | 3.31% | 287 | 47.70% |
| Chamber | 2.59% | 225 | 41.30% |
| Phoenix | 2.13% | 185 | 40% |
| Deadlock | 1.91% | 166 | 49.40% |
| Clove | 1.30% | 113 | 54.90% |
| Iso | 0.92% | 80 | 51.20% |
The truth is, the VALORANT agents will never be fully balanced. There are too many variables when it comes to all their vastly different abilities and how they work with one another on certain maps and against certain agents. There will always be agents that are more impactful than others, although Riot has continued to tweak the agents to ensure that nobody is completely oppressive and can’t be countered.
The most deadly agent abilities
In VALORANT, abilities aren’t only for eliminating enemies. But it’s still interesting to see which abilities have been the most effective at taking down opponents.
It’s no surprise to see two Raze abilities at the top. She’s not only one of the most-picked agents but has damage-focused abilities. Paint Shells are a cluster of hard-hitting grenades while Showstopper rains down rockets on a targeted area.
| Abilities | Kills | Agent | Kills/Match |
| Paint Shells | 1951 | Raze | 0.4639 |
| Showstopper | 1475 | Raze | 0.3507 |
| Hunter’s Fury | 986 | Sova | 0.2344 |
| Snake Bite | 838 | Viper | 0.1992 |
| Blast Pack | 772 | Raze | 0.1835 |
RELATED: CS2 vs VALORANT: Which game is tougher?
Sova isn’t only for gathering data. His Hunter’s Fury ability is the third-most effective when it comes to eliminating enemies. It pierces through terrain and has multiple charges, allowing mechanically skilled pros to really do damage.
Agent abilities – and how they impact the kill feed
Abilities in VALORANT are what really sets it apart from traditional FPS titles such as CS2 or Call of Duty, although the latter has displayed some colourful touches in recent years.
CS2 players enjoy purchasing Molotov cocktails, smokes, flashes and other supplies from the in-game store. VALORANT players can instead choose between agents giving them different abilities. These abilities mirror the supplies in the CS2 store many times. Nevertheless, there is also a large set of abilities with functionality unique to VALORANT, such as ISO’s “Kill Contract” or Omen’s teleportation “Shrouded Step”.
The win rate of different sides on VALORANT maps
Last year, we found out that VALORANT maps are pretty balanced, just like Counter-Strike 2. Most of the maps have almost a 50-50 split when it comes to which side wins: attackers or defenders. You’ll find a difference of only a few percents, meaning both sides have a similar chance of winning as long as they have the best strategy and skill-level.
| Map | Matches Played | Rounds | Defending Wins | Attacking Wins | Defending Winrate | Attacking Winrate | Kills |
| Lotus | 811 | 15615 | 7296 | 8250 | 46.70% | 52.80% | 115481 |
| Sunset | 669 | 12947 | 6320 | 6551 | 48.80% | 50.60% | 95023 |
| Ascent | 659 | 12706 | 6713 | 5952 | 52.80% | 46.80% | 92584 |
| Icebox | 609 | 11777 | 5706 | 6050 | 48.50% | 51.40% | 88702 |
| Split | 533 | 10464 | 5354 | 5047 | 51.20% | 48.20% | 76436 |
| Bind | 518 | 10303 | 4940 | 5306 | 47.90% | 51.50% | 74851 |
| Breeze | 329 | 6480 | 3166 | 3276 | 48.90% | 50.60% | 47148 |
Lotus is the least-balanced VALORANT map of 2024, same as it was in 2023. Defenders won just over 46% of the time in major VALORANT tournaments, while attackers won almost 53% of the time.
While this can appear troubling at first glance, it doesn’t matter much to teams, given they get to play on both sites in a match. Moreover, new maps tend to appear more uneven at the start but become more balanced as time passes and more matches get added to the statistics.
Is VALORANT a balanced game?
Overall, VALORANT is pretty balanced in many aspects. There is more than one viable team composition to choose from and even the best agents do have counter-picks that can take them down. It’s difficult due to the ever-expanding roster of vibrant agents with different abilities, but Riot Games has ensured that the game is pretty fair right now.
The weapons are not as balanced — you’ll notice some pretty favored weapons. But in general, you can thrive whether you’re fighting close-range or from a distance thanks to the power of the Vandal and Phantom. This means both play styles can shine with the right weapons and skills.
The maps themselves are also balanced, meaning you won’t be at a huge disadvantage if you are attacking or defending. This means players can focus more on strategy and skill rather than start the game at a disadvantage.
Who is Abios data for?
When creating a game website, esports betting platform, covering a game in the news or creating a content platform, it is important to understand how a game works and its mechanics. With +10 years of historical data in the largest esports titles, we can see shifts in the overarching gameplay, as well as nuances you can only spot if you have large sets of data over time.
So whether you want to cover VALORANT for the latest news article, or build a VALORANT platform to track pro play, we can help you collect the right data for your needs.
