Evo has been the pinnacle of fighting games for over a decade, and after a slump in the early 2020s, the event series has roared back to life, shattering multiple records, and will hold its biggest tournament ever this August, largely thanks to Street Fighter 6.
With tournament dates set for Aug. 4 to 6 in Las Vegas, over 9,000 competitors will make their way to Mandalay Bay to compete across eight main titles and various community events.
In total, 9,182 unique players have registered for Evo in at least one featured game, an increase of 81.8 percent from Evo 2022. This means event attendance could crack the 10,000 mark. This is the most competitors competing in a bracket at any Evo event since the Evolution Championship Series began in 1996 as B3: Battle by the Bay.
That number is helmed by Street Fighter 6 making its Evo debut, shattering every record held by the event with a whopping 7,061 entrants. It is the most entered FGC title for all 71 countries with a player attending. This easily blows away Evo’s previous record of 5,107 competing in Street Fighter V when it debuted at Evo 2016.
Not only does SF6 now hold that record, but the Evo team has confirmed at least 50 percent of players from every other main title will also be competing in Street Fighter alongside their other games this year.
And, if you only looked at the 44.2 percent of players playing SF6 as their only fighting game, it would still be the top game at the event with 3,121 competitors.
Guilty Gear Strive may have fallen off from its top spot at Evo 2022, but the game is still going to see a record number of competitors with 2,481, followed by Tekken 7 at 1,580—an increase from last year, but not a record.
Paired with SF6’s intense totals, Evo’s first throwback tournament will feature Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 on the main stage and setting a new franchise registration record at 1,346 players. Marvel is one of several games directly associated with Evo’s legacy, so seeing the FGC flood the competition like this should make for a hype opener on finals Sunday.
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Rounding out the lineup, Melty Blood: Type Lumina saw 554 players register, setting a fourth record for this Evo lineup. Dragon Ball FighterZ saw a bump too, while only Mortal Kombat 11 and The King of Fighters XV dropped spots compared to 2022.
Players at Evo will get to see plenty of new content from the featured fighting games, with the developers usually putting on a show during their titles’ top eight spotlights if DLC is still being released. There will also be chances to play an early build of Mortal Kombat 1 and check out Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising.
