The Super Bowl of fighting game competitions, Evo 2024, is taking place this year in Las Vegas on July 19 – 21. This massive, worldwide event will feature several of the hottest fighting games on the market today on its main line up, and players from around the globe will be traveling out to try and win the Evo crown.
Normal registration for the event is set to end tomorrow, and before the final big push for entrants the official Evo Twitter account has released the leaderboard ranking the eight main stage games based on how many registered participants they have. There are definitely some interesting takeaways here.
This year’s Evo main line up consists of the following eight titles: Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8, Mortal Kombat 1, Guilty Gear Strive, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, King of Fighters 15, Under Night In-Birth II Sys: Celes, and Street Fighter 3: Third Strike.
Among the pack are a nice spread of the latest triple A titles, fan favorites, and even a retro classic in Third Strike, which has a storied history at Evo. While we don’t currently have the exact numbers as registration isn’t over yet, the Evo Twitter account released the current registration leaderboard as of May 30.
At the top of the heap is none other than Capcom’s own Street Fighter 6. Though some fans started feeling like the game was growing a bit stale due to no major balance updates until nearly one year in, just last week Capcom implemented the massive Season 2 balance update along with the latest DLC character, Akuma, breathing all kinds of new life into the title.
Just this past weekend, Combo Breaker became the first major tournament to run the new patch with Akuma in Street Fighter 6, and they did so with only a couple of days lead in as the update launched right before the tournament. By the time Evo rolls around, though, players should be a lot more comfortable with the changes and the new character making for what should be a great way to close out the event.
Tekken 8 finds itself in the #2 spot for Evo entrants, and Bandai Namco’s major 3D fighter has also seen some rocky reception since its January launch this year. The game has had a significant rage quitter problem online, and some characters being a bit too strong early on soured some fans on the game a bit, though in recent months it does feel like some of the changes being made have been moving the game in the right direction — and the game is looking great competitively after Combo Breaker’s incredible grand finals.
What’s really interesting here, however, is Mortal Kombat 1’s placement on the line up. As far as entrants go, this triple A fighting game sits at #7 overall, which is fairly unexpected for one of the big three fighting games.
Mortal Kombat 1 has been plagued by a lot of different issues, from bad bugs to hiked up prices on additional content, and the game has definitely taken some hits in the eyes of the fans. Like Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8, MK1 is also at a point where things are starting to get better, but coming off of Combo Breaker where entrants were also shockingly low for the game, it seems that the incentive to compete isn’t quite as high as the other two main triple A fighters.
We will likely have a final leaderboard once registration (and late registration) closes, and things can still change. However, these placements have been pretty consistent since back in March when we saw the registration leadboard previously, so there’s a good chance what we’re seeing here will end up being the final rankings.
Normal Registration for #Evo2024 ends tomorrow at 11:59 PM PT.
Here is the current Registration Leaderboard. pic.twitter.com/gxDP1ei2AV
— Evo (@Evo) May 30, 2024