The biggest fighting game tournament is a little smaller this year — but still exciting

Evo 2025, the biggest fighting game tournament in North America, starts this weekend. If you tune into one of the nine different Evo Twitch channels, you’ll see some of the top players in the world compete in fighting game staples like Street Fighter and Tekken and newer games like Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves and Rivals of Aether II. The fighting starts today and lasts till late Sunday, August 3rd. Though this year is smaller, with fewer entrants than last year, there’s still plenty of reasons to watch.

While Evo remains one of the most highly attended fighting game tournaments in the world, this year, the number of entrants is slipping. Last year there were over 10,000 attendees — setting a record for the highest number of unique competitors in a fighting game tournament ever. This year, that number is significantly lower, with the number of entrants falling to just over 8,500.

There could be a number of explanations for this. Economic volatility driven by inflation and policy has made the cost of living rise precipitously. When people have to think twice between groceries and a trip to Vegas (where Evo is annually held), the trip to Vegas typically loses out. Evo has also expanded, adding tournaments first in Japan, then France, and now Singapore, giving international players more of a choice of which events to attend.

Safety is potentially another reason why players are staying away. Evo is an internationally known and recognized tournament, and players from all over the world compete in this event. But in the US, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been conducting raids across the country, ostensibly to arrest immigrants for deportation. But there have been numerous reports that legal residents, US citizens, and even tourists with valid visas are being arrested and detained for months or even illegally deported. In an email to The Verge, the Las Vegas Convention Center director of communications Erica Johnson wrote, “The [Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority]’s policy is to abide by all federal, state, and local laws and cooperate with the lawful execution of those.” Evo did not respond to requests for comment.

Some notable international players, though, have decided to brave crossing the US border. Arslan “Arslan Ash” Siddique from Pakistan is registered to attend Evo, returning again to compete for another Tekken championship. Matías “Scorpionprocs” Martínez and Nicolás “Nicolas” Martínez, Chilean twins known for dominating Mortal Kombat tournaments, will also be competing.

The games themselves might also be contributing to reduced turnout. Tekken 8 has the second-highest number of entrants after Street Fighter VI, but the game’s second season was so poorly received by players that Tekken executive producer Katsuhiro Harada wrote, “I personally do not think this backlash is at all unjustified.” That frustration with the game might have led to its Evo player count being cut nearly in half, from 4,646 players in 2024 to just 2,521 this year.

Whatever the reason, this year’s Evo will be a slightly smaller but no less exciting affair that’s worth watching. Take a look at the schedule here.

Even though Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves received criticism for some of its character choices, I’m generally excited to watch any game I haven’t seen before. Evo 2025 is also adding two new streams to the schedule for people to watch any of the smaller games that are always featured at Evo but not large or notable enough to get main event stage billing. Also, my absolute favorite competitor, Dominique “Trans Rights” / “SonicFox” McLean, will be there, and I’ll watch them whenever he’s on.

Here’s some other things to look out for: