Street Fighter 6 is set to add some serious fuel to the fighting game community when it launches on June 2, but it looks like the promise of what the game will bring has already made it the biggest game for upcoming events—at least according to Evo.
Early-Bird registration for the FGC’s biggest event just wrapped up, meaning a majority of the players that know they are going to the event from Aug. 4 to 6 in Las Vegas have locked in their participation to save a few bucks. This also lets the Evo team share some info about which games are getting the most love from the community early on.
There are two real standouts when it comes to Evo 2023’s early registration results, with SF6 taking the top spot while Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 rounds out the top four in its first year back to the stage since 2016.
We don’t have actual numbers yet, and the final details won’t be shared until registration actually closes on July 9, but this is a good way to look at how Evo 2023’s schedule will shape up for the main event. And, as of now, that means SF6 will be the premier game while MvC will actually make it to the arena on Sunday. Here are the current entry standings for all eight games featured in the main lineup.
| Placement | Game |
| 1 | Street Fighter 6 |
| 2 | Guilty Gear Strive |
| 3 | Tekken 7 |
| 4 | Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 |
| 5 | Dragon Ball FighterZ |
| 6 | King of Fighters XV |
| 7 | Melty Blood: Type Lumina |
| 8 | Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate |
Street Fighter being at the top isn’t that surprising since the title is already at peak hype with some players already having hands-on time with the game and Capcom announcing the 2023 Capcom Pro Tour would feature a $2 million prize pool. Now the real question becomes how far it will lead over Strive and T7.
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If we look at Evo 2022, Strive was the top title with 2,158 followed by Street Fighter V at 1,324 and T7 at 1,218. And, according to Evo general manager Rick “TheHadou” Thiher, those are rookie numbers since the early registration this year is up by nearly double compared to last year’s event in the same timeframe.
Just off of those numbers and Thiher’s comment, SF6 will likely surpass Strive’s monstrous total—though it has a lot of work to do if it wants to surpass Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s Evo record 3,534 entrants from 2019, the last time Smash was featured as a main game.
Marvel 3 making it to fourth is a fantastic show of the FGC’s love for playing older games. And, if this holds up, we will see Evo’s first classic game featured on the main stage during the final day since the event changed its format in 2022, making it so the games with the most entrants will be featured in prominent spots on the schedule.
This might be a rare time where every game sees registration increase year-over-year if they were featured at Evo 2022, even if they drop spots on the overall roster. We will have to wait for those final numbers to see just how much Evo has grown since returning to the spotlight.
