EVO Final Registration Numbers Tallied, Mortal Kombat 1 Performing Below Expectations

The numbers are in and we have the final tally of who has registered for the massive fighting game celebration EVO.

As we can see, the numbers are absolutely massive for Capcom’s Street Fighter 6 and Bandai Namco’s Tekken 8, which is probably to be expected, as those two are the biggest games in the community now. It’s a good thing that EVO lasts a three day weekend, as the tournaments featuring 5000 players will definitely need every minute of that time to get through their brackets.

Behind them at a distant third and fourth place are, somewhat surprisingly, Guilty Gear Strive and Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising. Both being anime fighters, Guilty Gear Strive has been the most popular anime fighter in the community so that isn’t the surprise, the true surprise is Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising pulling almost 1500 entrants. Being a bit of a sleeper hit since its release in December of last year, it’s apparent that there is a dedicated scene to the game even if they don’t make a lot of noise.

Beyond that is the classic Street Fighter III: 3^rd Strike. Third Strike is a fighting game classic, and it was brought back this year in celebration of its 25^th anniversary. Obviously many old veterans of the community registered and gave it respectable numbers but no doubt many new players are entered and even more newbies to the scene are excited to watch just to see what all the hype is about. Unfortunately the top 8 will be filled with Yuns and Chun-lis but that’s just the reality of a 25 year old game.

And in the bottom two slots are Mortal Kombat 1 and King of Fighters 15. King of Fighters 15 is a beloved game, and it actually has a massive fanbase, but that fanbase is divided mainly into Latin America and China, and China doesn’t travel that often for fighting game tournaments. The real story here is Mortal Kombat 1. Having released just last year and with this being the game’s first EVO, this should be an invigoration for the Mortal Kombat brand, being considered one of the “big 3” fighting games in North America, but it barely exceeded the 449 players that Mortal Kombat 11 brought last year.

What this says about Mortal Kombat 1 and its community is a story for another time, but it is a sorry state for what should be a front runner for the fighting game community.

EVO is looking stacked as always, and it’s sure to be an exciting event as always. Look forward to watching it this month from July 19^th to the 24^th.