Evo 2026 is struggling to attract as many competitors

The final registration numbers for Evo 2026 have been released. While thousands are still signed up to compete in tournaments for games like Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8, there’s a notable drop-off for returning titles when compared to last year.

Evo is historically the largest fighting game tournament in the world and it takes place each year in Las Vegas. Capcom, Bandai Namco, and other fighting game developers also use the show to make announcements or debut new characters for their games. As such, a dip in popularity like this is a bit concerning.

When the registration numbers were shared on June 12, Street Fighter 6 had the most participants with 2,414. That’s significantly less than the 4,228 people who competed in the same game at Evo 2025. Tekken 8, Guilty Gear Strive, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, and Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves all saw similar declines. Rivals of Aether 2 was unaffected, having more entrants than last year.

Although Evo didn’t bring much attention to the lower registration numbers, people certainly noticed across Bluesky, X, and Reddit. This caused speculation over why the numbers dropped, and there are several potential reasons why this happened. Evo 2026 is taking place earlier than usual this year, in June rather than August. There are also more Evo-branded tournaments happening around the world than before. Evo Japan happened in May, and Evo France is slated for October.

Earlier this year, the company that runs Evo was fully acquired by Saudi Arabian company RTS, causing backlash. People from other countries may also feel that it’s not safe to visit the United States under the current administration, and those within the United States might not feel like they can afford traveling to Las Vegas for the event right now. With all of those factors in play, the lower number of Evo 2026 participants becomes a bit more understandable.

While there are fewer registrants this year, we’ll know whether Evo is declining in popularity with viewers as well when it airs later this month. Evo 2026 takes place between June 26 and 28.