How to watch Valorant replays

There are two ways to watch a Valorant replay. The game client has a replay tab that covers your recent matches, and you can upload the .vrf file itself to watch a match back in your browser, which keeps it after the client has deleted it.

Option one: the in-client replay viewer

VALORANT has a replay viewer built in now, and for simply rewatching a recent game it is the fastest route. It is in the career or match history area of the client, on matches recent enough to still have a replay stored. You get free camera, the ability to follow any player, and playback controls.

It has three real limits, and they are the reason people look further:

• Replays expire. The client keeps only recent matches and deletes older ones as new games arrive. A game from a few weeks ago is usually gone.
• It is on one machine. The files are local. You cannot open last night's game on a different PC, or send a teammate a link.
• It produces no numbers. It is a rewatch, not analysis. You can see a fight again, but you cannot ask how often that fight happens, or where that player usually stands.

Option two: watch the .vrf in a browser

The replay file the game wrote is on your disk, and it holds the whole match as data. Uploading it somewhere that reads the format gets you playback that does not expire and numbers alongside it.

The steps:

1. Open %LOCALAPPDATA%\VALORANT\Saved\Demos in File Explorer. Paste the path directly; AppData is hidden by default. Full detail in what is a .vrf file.
2. Find the match. Files are named by match id rather than by date, so sort by modified time, or check one with the .vrf inspector, which reads the header in your browser and tells you when it was recorded.
3. Upload it to valab.
4. Wait a few minutes. Reading a match end to end is real work, and a long overtime game takes longer than a quick one.

What comes back is every round scrubbable on the map, all ten players moving with their view angles, health, shields, weapons, credits and abilities through the round, and the numbers for the match sitting alongside the playback.

You can see one without uploading anything or making an account: this is a full match, already processed and open to anyone.

Which one should you use?

For a quick look at a fight that just happened, the in-client viewer is fine and it is already there. Use the browser route when you want the match to still exist next month, when you want to compare a game against the twenty before it, or when you want to look at what the other team was doing rather than at your own screen again.

They are not really competing. One is a rewatch. The other is a record.

Can I watch someone else's replay?

Only if they send you the file. There is no public library of Valorant replays and no way to pull a match you were not in. If a teammate sends you their .vrf, it works exactly like your own, and because a replay contains all ten players, their file shows your play too.

Common problems

The Demos folder is empty or missing. Replays only appear for matches played since the feature was enabled on your account, and the folder is only created once there is something to put in it. If the path does not resolve at all, check you are looking under AppData\Local and not AppData\Roaming.

The file will not process. Usually one of two things: the file was truncated because it was copied while the game was still writing it, or it came from a game build that the reader has not been verified against. The .vrf inspector names the build in a couple of seconds without uploading anything, and catches a header that is damaged outright.

It is taking a long time. Processing is a few minutes per match and runs in a queue. Nothing is lost while you wait; the match appears when it is ready.

Next

Getting the match on screen is the easy half. Turning a rewatch into something that changes how you play is covered in how to analyze your own gameplay.