We’ve already said it before but Evo just keeps getting bigger and bigger.
The biggest fighting game tournament in the world just keeps getting bigger as Evo 2024 breaks a new record for unique competitors. Sign ups for their mainstage games concluded earlier this week and their preliminary count revealed something truly impressive.
That’s right, Evo 2024 will have over 10,000 unique competitors duking it out later on July 19-21. The organization reported that it’s specifically 10,224 unique players out of a total of 16,231 bracket entries. This beats out last year’s number of 9,221 unique entrants and sails past the previous record held by Evo 2016 at 9,833.
These are staggering numbers, even by Evo’s usual standards. In fact, their declaration of Evo 2024 breaking the all-time record number of competitors is downright historical. We can’t predict the future but it’s likely that this record isn’t going to be broken again anytime soon.
The Stars Align
As for how Evo has managed to topple its own record once again, it’s likely due to three things. The first is the sheer momentum created by last year’s Evo event. Last year’s Evo was such a huge celebration of fighting games and its community that people couldn’t help but be excited for the next one. It also helped that it was the debut year of Street Fighter 6, which was a colossal success in itself.
Speaking of which, the second reason is that it’s going to be the debut year for Tekken 8. While the overall sentiment for the competitive side of Tekken 8 has been rocky, there’s no denying that it’s still a great game. People are still eager to see the best Tekken players clash and there’s no bigger stage than Evo.
The last reason is that this Evo is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the legendary Moment #37. As a result, Street Fighter 3: Third Strike was once again brought in as an Evo mainstage game. Despite the game being decades old, it still has a massive following and you can be sure that Evo 2024 has attracted both old and new competitors who are hungry to play on that big stage.
Banner photo from Evo.
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