Tournament season is fully underway in the fighting game community, which means there’s a ton of exciting action hitting the stage in the coming weeks and months with a handful of new titles showing up for the first time.
The organizers for Combo Breaker 2024 just released their final registration numbers for the massively stacked event with some very interesting results and seemingly the biggest year to date.
Games like Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8, Mortal Kombat 1, Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes] and Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising are all making their Combo Breaker debut later this month with a player spread that many probably wouldn’t expect.
Out of all the new and returning titles on the long list of featured tournaments, Tekken managed to take the crown for the most entrants overall.
This is pretty much the first time since Street Fighter 6 released that it didn’t have the most players at a general fighting game major, but we can’t be too surprised in this case in particular.
Tekken 7 had consistently beaten out Street Fighter 5 for the past handful of years at Combo Breaker (690 vs. 351 in 2023 and 558 vs. 436 in 2022), and that 3D momentum has carried over to the new game.
Bandai Namco’s new flagship fighter ended up with 1,620 entrants while Street Fighter 6 finished with an also impressive 1,432, and they were the only two titles to cross the 1,000 threshold.
It also probably helps that Combo Breaker is a Master Event for the Tekken World Tour 2024, but is taking place before the Capcom World Tour 2024 season begins.
This has opened up the interesting scenario, however, where Combo Breaker organizers have asked entrants whether SF6’s balance update and Akuma should be legal despite releasing just a few days prior — though they haven’t revealed the final decision yet.
Guilty Gear Strive lost its first place from last year by dropping to third in the ranks with 863 registered players.
Granblue and UNI2 round out the top 5 as a couple more CB first timers with 674 and 606 entrants respectively, but you may notice a different recent fighting game is not up there.
That’s because Mortal Kombat 1 came in at eighth place for registration with just 274 players signed up despite this being its debut year at the major.
CB2024 Close of Competitor Reg:
TK8 1,620
SF6 1,432
GGST 863
GBVSR 674
UNI2 606
MYST 512
SSBU 405
MK1 274
XRD 238
3S 221
SSBM 194
KOFXV 187
SG 167
UMVC3 164
BBCF 159
DBFZ 146
KI 139
VSAV 117
MBTL 103
SS7 73
DNF 61
TFH 60
MOTW 60
NASB2 4833 Countries.
Midwest Worldwide.— COMBO BREAKER (@COMBOBREAKER) May 6, 2024
Mortal Kombat was beaten out by the mystery tournament event and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate while barely being ahead of Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 and Street Fighter 3: Third Strike.
These numbers are technically higher than Mortal Kombat 11’s last few previous years at CB where it didn’t even crack 100 players last year and just over 150 in 2022, but it’s still a far cry from MK11’s first year in 2019 where it had over 800 entrants.
To be slightly more fair to MK1, its predecessor did release like a month before Combo Breaker 2019 and not eight, but it shouldn’t make that massive of a difference.
It helps to paint a fairly worrying picture for Mortal Kombat’s competitive scene at the moment in NetherRealm Studios’ own backyard.
Not even being the last major offline stop and a $10,000 pot bonus before Final Kombat could push its numbers to be close to its biggest competitors.
The Road to Mortal Kombat 1 Pro Kompetition’s Final Kombat ends at CB2024! With a $10,000 pot bonus from @NRSEsports, this one will be a bloodbath.
Register today at and claim the Global Leaderboard Points you need to earn your trip to Final Kombat! pic.twitter.com/GPvdUsSYDt
— COMBO BREAKER (@COMBOBREAKER) March 14, 2024
The game’s not in a hopeless situation, especially in terms of overall sales, but it’s not looking great for MK1 either.
Evo 2024’s registration is still open though the early signs from March were about on the same level too with Mortal Kombat 1 entrants ranking seventh out of the eight mainstage titles.
Overall, however, 2024 looks to be shaping up as the largest Combo Breaker ever with just over 4,500 registered attendees from 33 countries compared to 3,400 last year that’ll hopefully continue to provide those at the venue and watching from home a top quality experience.
Combo Breaker 2024 is set to take place from May 26–28 in Schaumburg, Illinois.