If you’ve put even a few dozen hours into Valorant’s ranked or unrated lobbies, you’ve almost certainly run into the frustrating issue of random frame drops right when you’re about to land a game-winning clutch. Random frame drops and stutters during high-stakes ranked fights are one of the most common complaints from players across all skill levels. It’s no surprise so many players are asking for a core engine upgrade to fix these issues, and if you’ve found yourself asking when is Unreal Engine 5 coming to Valorant, you’re far from the only one. Riot has teased work on an engine upgrade for years, and we’ve rounded up all the confirmed details, leaks, and expected improvements to help you know what to expect.
What Official Teases Have Confirmed Unreal Engine 5 for Valorant?
Riot first acknowledged they were exploring an Unreal Engine 5 port for Valorant back in a 2022 developer Q&A focused on long-term game improvements. At the time, they noted that the current version of Unreal Engine 4 that Valorant runs on is heavily customized, so a full port would take years of work to get right. More recently, in a 2024 dev blog focused on performance fixes, Riot confirmed that internal testing of the UE5 build is already underway, with teams working to port over all existing game content without breaking any core mechanics. Riot has repeatedly stated that they won’t rush the UE5 port until it’s stable enough to not disrupt competitive play, so we won’t see a half-baked launch that ruins ranked lobbies for weeks.
What Improvements Would Unreal Engine 5 Bring to Valorant?
The jump from the current custom Unreal Engine 4 build to Unreal Engine 5 would bring massive changes to nearly every part of the game, without forcing you to learn new ability mechanics or adjust your playstyle. Most of the changes will be behind the scenes, but they’ll make your day-to-day play experience far smoother, even if you’re running the game on a mid-range or low-end PC. Some of the biggest confirmed and expected upgrades include:
- Better performance on low-end and mid-range hardware, with more consistent frame rates even during 5v5 fights where every player is spamming abilities at once
- More detailed map textures and cosmetic skins without sacrificing frame rate, thanks to UE5’s Nanite technology that eliminates the need for time-consuming texture optimization
- Smarter anti-cheat integration that can catch more cheaters in real time without hogging system resources in the background
- Shorter load times for maps, agent select, and post-match screens, even on older hard drives that currently take 30+ seconds to load into a lobby
Nanite technology would let Riot design far more intricate skin effects and map details without forcing players to upgrade their PCs, which is a huge win for casual players who don’t have the budget for high-end gaming rigs. The shift to Unreal Engine 5 would also fix a lot of the small bugs that have plagued Valorant for years, like floating gun skins or ability effects that clip through walls.
Why Is the Unreal Engine 5 Port Taking So Long for Valorant?
You might be wondering why the port is taking so long, especially since other popular competitive games like Fortnite made the jump to Unreal Engine 5 years ago. The simple answer is that Valorant’s core focus on competitive integrity means Riot can’t cut any corners during the port process. Moving a live service game as big as Valorant to Unreal Engine 5 is not a small task, even for a studio as well-resourced as Riot. Every single agent ability, map asset, skin, game mode, and anti-cheat feature has to be reworked and tested extensively to make sure it behaves exactly the same as it does on the current engine. Valorant’s strict 128-tick server requirement means every single mechanic has to behave exactly the same on UE5 as it does on the current engine, or competitive integrity is broken. If a smoke ability is even a tiny bit larger or smaller on the UE5 build, it would completely change how players approach sites and ruin months of ranked practice for thousands of players. Riot also doesn’t want to split the player base between two different engine versions, so the entire port has to be released as a single, seamless update for all players at the same time.
When Is Unreal Engine 5 Coming to Valorant, Based on Current Leaks?
As of right now, Riot has not shared an official public release date for the Unreal Engine 5 port of Valorant, but we do have some clues from trusted leakers who have correctly predicted past updates like new agents and map releases. Most reputable leakers agree that closed beta testing for the UE5 build will start sometime in the next 12 months, with access limited to a small group of professional players, content creators, and regular players who sign up through official Riot channels. After the beta period wraps up and all major bugs are fixed, the full public rollout will happen 2 to 3 months later, with the update being pushed to all regions at the same time. You won’t have to pay anything extra to access the UE5 build when it launches, it will be a free automatic update for all players no matter what platform you play on. Be careful of scams online that claim to sell early access to the UE5 build, as Riot will never ask you to pay for access to a beta test for core game updates.
Even if we don’t have an exact, confirmed release date to answer when is Unreal Engine 5 coming to Valorant right now, the upgrades it will bring are well worth the wait. Riot’s slow, careful approach to the port means you won’t have to deal with game-breaking bugs or unbalanced mechanics when it finally launches, so you can keep grinding ranked without worrying about an update ruining your progress. I’m personally most excited for no more random stutters when three smokes, a flash, and a shock dart all go off mid-fight, and I’ll be sharing any new official details about the UE5 port as soon as they’re announced.
