Photo courtesy of Evo

Street Fighter 6 Passes 7,000 Entrants at Evo 2023

Breaking down all registration figures for Evo 2023

Author:
Norris Howard
Updated:
Jul 13, 2023 3:53 PM EDT
Original:
Jul 12, 2023

The biggest fighting game tournament in the land EVO is gearing up for a landmark year in 2023. Already seeing record numbers for their Street Fighter 6 bracket, the organizers of EVO revealed that they have shattered their competitor registrations record from last year. EVO officials said that they've seen an 81% increase in combatants, and that their total tickets sold have crested 20,000.

EVO 2023’s entries for all their games are up this year. Street Fighter 6, in particular, set the single-game registration record with over 7,000 entries. This is nearly two thousand more than the debut of Street Fighter V way back in 2016. While SFV was the top game that year, its effect wore off rather quickly as players lamented the lack of content at launch. If these numbers are a bellwether for SF6’s life, then Capcom is sure to be pleased that the community is receiving it well.

EVO also shared that Melty Blood: Type Lumina, Guilty Gear: Strive and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 have all set registration records. UMvC3 is a really interesting tidbit considering the game is nearly a decade old and very little has been shared about the series recently. MvC is known as arguably the most important game in EVO history as it’s often been the top draw at EVO in years past and is responsible for creating some of its most memorable moments. In fact, all main brackets besides MK11 and King of Fighters have seen increases in entries, even older games like Tekken 7 and DBZ.

All of this put together could indicate a renaissance for the fighting game community, with a level of excitement that hasn't been seen since the release of Street Fighter IV in 2008. But there could be even more hype on the horizon. While this may be the debut for Street Fighter 6 at EVO, there’s still a glut of top flight fighting games that will make a splash at EVO 2024. And because of EVO’s role as a fighting game convention as much as a tournament, there are sure to be some big announcements around Tekken 8 and Mortal Kombat 1 during the weekend.

EVO 2023 vs. 2022 vs 2019 Competitor Numbers (only the top 4 games get main stage on Sunday)