Evolution Championship Series, or EVO, continues to break records, this time becoming the all-time record-holder for the most unique competitors among all esports events.
EVO 2024, an offline tournament for fighting games such as Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8 and more, is being held next month in Las Vegas, Nevada, and is already coming off a record-breaking year. Last year saw the most entrants in an open-bracket FGC tournament for Street Fighter 6. However, this year's unique competitor total breaks 2016's record of 9,833 competitors.
Individual games, such as Tekken 8 and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, have set individual franchise records at the event, with Tekken set to debut at EVO this summer. With over 10K entrants, the tournament also announced that there are 16,231 bracket entries, meaning many of those entrants are competing in more than one main game. The tournament also hosts a community showcase tournament, as well as side tourneys, BYOC competitions and more.
The numbers here are staggering, especially for an esports scene that is traditionally more grass roots than other esports leagues such as the Call of Duty League or the League of Legends Esports league, which are run and funded by their respective developers. EVO has started to shift this way with Sony partially owning the tournament now alongside RTS, an esports venture co-founded by creator Imane "Pokimane" Anys.
EVO 2024 will be held in Las Vegas on July 19th-21st.
