Street Fighter, Tekken, and Mortal Kombat are often heralded as the “Big Three” of the fighting game community, each of them holding a major stake within the community. And yet, despite the success of all three IPs which had a major release this past year (Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8, and Mortal Kombat 1) it seems that once again Mortal Kombat is something of the redheaded stepchild of the “Big Three” as it has been left off the lineup for EVO France 2025.
This revelation has been shocking to many, mainly Mortal Kombat players. MK1 just released last year, however it was not a smooth release, and as is Netherrealm Studio tradition the game began to hemorrhage players once the honeymoon period was over. Mortal Kombat 1 is especially egregious not only for microtransaction debacles, communication issues, and gameplay reasons, but the simple fact that the game doesn’t play cross platform for King of the Hill mode (which is the official mode for online tournament play watchability) with PC is a major blow to its community.
Despite debatably being the most solid of the three gameplay-wise the fact that both Street Fighter 6 and especially Tekken 8 have had major problems since their releases but have persisted, it seems that Mortal Kombat’s reputation along with its rough launch has jettisoned any possibility of the game surviving another year of competition. We’re at the point where Mortal Kombat 11 has more players on Steam than Mortal Kombat 1.
The outlook doesn’t look good for Mortal Kombat, and this announcement of its exclusion from EVO is mainly just the exclamation point on a story that many fighting game players have been privy to for some time now. It’s a shame such an illustrious franchise can’t seem to break out of this cycle of short lived competitive games, but that’s the reality of the situation.