The Evolution Championship Series, or EVO 2023 is on the horizon as the in-person player competition announced its final registration numbers for the iconic tournament. Shattering registration numbers from previous events, Street Fighter 6 has seen the most attention, garnering over 7000 entrants alone.
Coming on August 4th through 6th at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, EVO 2023 is the largest fighting game tournament in the world, seeing players from every corner of the globe flock to the desert to win FGC glory. This year's event sees nearly double the amount of entrants from 2022's event with 9182 players registered to compete across the eight official games in the tournament (compared to 2022's 5052 players).
Capcom's recent and much-lauded entry in the Street Fighter series, Street Fighter 6, dominates the board with 7061 players entered to compete in the main event. This shatters every other tournament's registration with the next nearest being Guilty Gear -Strive-'s respectable 2481 players. Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 returns to the main line up this year with a solid 1346 players, all of which will be shouting "When's MAHvel?" all weekend I'm sure (myself among them, by the way).
EVO's website also highlights that this debut tournament for SF6 also shattered the previous record for the last Street Fighter entry's debut tournament at EVO, seeing the current registration number hurtle past Street Fighter V's 5107 registered players in 2016. Street Fighter 6 also sees some of the largest crossover with the other games in the tournament, yet despite this would still be the largest event at the tournament with 3121 unique entrants.
While none of the games at EVO are MMOs, it's important for those of us who love PvP in our games, as it exemplifies why competition in gaming is such a fantastic spectacle. Last year's event reminded me why I love multiplayer PvP events, whether online or in-person, and this year looks to shape up to be just another reminder of why.
