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[cormack12]

Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20260617211051/https://www.polygon.com/evo-2026-fewer-competitors/

Evo is historically the largest fighting game tournament in the world and it takes place each year in Las Vegas. Capcom, Bandai Namco, and other fighting game developers also use the show to make announcements or debut new characters for their games. As such, a dip in popularity like this is a bit concerning.

When the registration numbers were shared on June 12, Street Fighter 6 had the most participants with 2,414. That's significantly less than the 4,228 people who competed in the same game at Evo 2025. Tekken 8, Guilty Gear Strive, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, and Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves all saw similar declines. Rivals of Aether 2 was unaffected, having more entrants than last year.

This caused speculation over why the numbers dropped, and there are several potential reasons why this happened. Evo 2026 is taking place earlier than usual this year, in June rather than August. There are also more Evo-branded tournaments happening around the world than before. Evo Japan happened in May, and Evo France is slated for October.

 

[Generic]

Fighting games were ruined by giga autism, nowadays they are all about memorizing hitboxes and frames.

 

[lockdown2222]

Cost of living has also gone up, might be tough for some of these people to get there, too.

 

[begotten]

The drop off makes sense because if you're attending a big FGC event like EVO, people typically just enter every game, especially SF at least.

So if other games aren't flourishing (which is what it feels like to me observing a community I used to be more involved with) then all the numbers go down.

Like NRS fumbling MK1 was bad.
Current Tekken doesn't seem that hot.
GGS and DBFZ alongside it before, are games that have been out for awhile now and were always a rung below in entrants and interest.
Then you have Smash which has been gone for awhile now which hurts.

Feels like SF6 is the only thing holding up numbers and attention for now.

 

[Hero of Spielberg]

Isn't Las Vegas really expensive now?

 

[Richard Packer]

There are so many EVOs now. The brand is diluted. Plus with the state of America right now, nobody wants to travel to America. Evo Japan had very healthy numbers and a lot of my friends chose to go there instead of EVO Vegas.

 

[NeverYouMind]

Combo Breaker is the new EVO.

 

[BennyBlanco]

Combo Breaker is the new EVO.

Esports World Cup is the most serious event because the most money is up for grabs by far. Combo Breaker is definitely the premier American event now tho.



This was so sick

 

[Cert.in.Death]

Vegas

Everybody is working their second jobs to get that Tifa DLC (or are readying their mods for when she releases).
Plus Tekken 8 being in the cannister doesn't help either.

 

[Nocty]

Cost of living has also gone up, might be tough for some of these people to get there, too.

understatement of the year right here tbh

my friend group, mostly mid 30's early 40's married couples, getting time to do stuff now is easier but them having money to do anything other than visit each others houses is getting blood from a stone. Like just about everyone I know is fucking broke as a joke. Last month I had to lend my best bud money to buy his kids food as he was short payday by 48 hours... it's rough out there. He has a decent paying job too, more so than me. Scary times

 

[Arsic]

SF6 declining in popularity can also be attributed to this. How are the player numbers compared to last year?

Time for SF7?

Capcom doesn't have another fighter where in the past they'd juggle SF and a versus title.

Marvel Tokkon looks like it could bring up a lot of people if it is done well.

Really though for me as a potential viewer, idgaf. I may catch a grand finals YT set of something but until virtua fighter 6 comes out I am sleep on all things FGC. Invincible Vs is a lot of fun but did not find a playerbase in the long term. That's what sucks about this whole fucking genre - if you aren't tekken MK or SF, then you're a discord fighter at best.