Evo Japan 2026 claims it’ll be the “biggest” Tokyo-based Evo yet this May, but I think that means Tekken 8 is cooked. And maybe fighting games in general.
Street Fighter 6 had 7,158 entrants, making it the biggest fighting game tournament of all time. In fact, this number is just because the Street Fighter 6 tourney reached the event’s cap. There is no denying that Street Fighter 6 is big in Japan, seeing as they have been happily paying for pay-per-view Top 16’s for a while now.
But every other fighting game seems to be suffering.
Evo Japan’s Registration Numbers are… Not Great
Tekken 8 had just 833 entrants. And it’s no surprise, although a drop from over 7,000 players to under 1,000 players between the first and second-most registrations is quite jarring. It shows just how much healthier the SF6 esports scene is. Meanwhile, pros have been struggling to enjoy Tekken 8 for a while now.
Season 2 brought some shockingly horrible changes to the game that took away many defensive strategies and made the game much more aggressive and simplistic. While fighting games have been moving towards more beginner-friendly content, this definitely didn’t sit well with competitive players.
Season 3 promised to revert some of these horrific gameplay updates, but failed to do so. At this point, players felt like Capcom was not paying attention to their concerns at all. Hasan “JoKa” Rehman is one of many examples of a pro who could no longer take it, quitting the esports scene in March 2026.
“Season 2 was probably the worst patch in fighting game history,” JoKa said. “I didn’t agree with the direction Season 2 was heading in. But with Season 3, they’ve doubled down on things. There are some great changes, but other changes that are insane and completely unnecessary.”
Top player Arslan Ash is still going strong, especially after moving to Japan to compete in Tekken. But I’d say the overall playerbase is dwindling, especially in the competitive scene. It’ll be tough to keep the game alive with just a handful of popular veterans.
I attended Evo a few years in a row, including the debut of Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. It was a pretty epic Top 8, and it was great to watch. But that game already sits at just 368 entrants a year later. 2XKO was desperately hyped by Riot Games, but that was at 365 entrants. All games, aside from Street Fighter 6, have only a few hundred entrants. And this is in the country that basically made fighting game esports a thing.
Saudi Arabia recently took control of Evo and plans to turn it into a major circuit with events worldwide, culminating in a championship event. But are there even enough pros to make that happen? And are there enough fans watching?
I think it’s a buzzword to say that a game is “dying.” I’ll admit that. But I do think that fighting games are sinking back into obscurity. They’re becoming niche once more. The FGC has always been on the outside, never getting to the levels of games like League of Legends and Counter-Strike 2. Not even Overwatch. But I think the attempted push is coming to an end. TOs are likely running out of gas, causing FGC to go grassroots once more.