VALORANT is Riot Games’ free 5v5 tactical shooter. Each round you get one life; you pick an Agent with a set of abilities and combine them with precise gunplay to attack or defend a site. It suits players who like slower, round-based competitive shooters where teamwork and aim matter more than build-up over a long match.
Getting the official version
- Riot: the download page on playvalorant.com installs the game through the Riot Client.
- Epic Games Store: VALORANT is listed as free, with Riot Games as developer and publisher.
- winget: Riot’s regional installers are in the Windows Package Manager repository, for example
winget install RiotGames.Valorant.NA; there are also EU, AP, KR, BR and LATAM variants.
VALORANT is a Windows game. Riot’s support page states that it does not support cloud gaming or virtual machines.
Price
The game is free. The Epic listing notes that it may include in-app purchases. You do not need to buy anything to play.
Windows 11, TPM and Secure Boot
This is the part that trips people up. Riot’s support page says that on Windows 11 the game also requires TPM 2.0 and UEFI Secure Boot. On Windows 10 you need Build 19041 or later, and the processor must support SSE 4.2 or AVX. If the game refuses to start on a Windows 11 PC, check these two firmware settings first.
System requirements (Riot support)
| Minimum (30 FPS) | Recommended (60 FPS) | High-end (144 FPS) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | Intel i3-540 / AMD Athlon 200GE | Intel i3-4150 / AMD Ryzen 3 1200 | Intel i5-9400F / AMD Ryzen 5 2600X |
| GPU | Intel HD 4000 / AMD Radeon R5 220 | GeForce GT 730 / Radeon R7 240 | GTX 1050 Ti / Radeon R7 370 / Intel Arc A310 |
| RAM | 4 GB | 4 GB | 4 GB |
Riot lists 4 GB of RAM for every tier; systems with dedicated graphics also need at least 1 GB of VRAM. ARM processors are not supported.
Fair play
Riot’s support site has a dedicated article on how it addresses cheating in VALORANT. Using cheats, “unlockers” or modified clients breaks Riot’s rules and can get the account banned. Download only from playvalorant.com or the Epic Games Store.
Questions
Is VALORANT free to play?
Yes. Both Riot and the Epic Games Store list it as free; in-app purchases are optional.
Does VALORANT run on a Mac or on Linux?
Riot lists Windows 10 and Windows 11 only, and does not support virtual machines.
Which winget ID should I use?
Pick the region you play in: NA, EU, AP, KR, BR or LATAM, as in RiotGames.Valorant.EU.
