EVO 2019: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tops registration with nearly 3500 entrants

The final registration numbers for Evo 2019 are out, and Nintendo’s all-star fighter leads the way with record numbers of registrants.

With less than a month until it takes over the Las Vegas area, final registration numbers for the Evolution Championship Series (aka Evo) have been released with some record-shattering results.

As put out by tournament head Joey “Mr. Wizard” Cuellar on Twitter, this year’s event promises to be the biggest in its history. Seven of the nine main stage games will feature over 1,000 entrants, and even the lowest-registered main game is higher than other “last-place” games in recent years. It also comes at a time where organizers are considering restructuring payouts to benefit the larger pool of players.  

Leading the charge is Super Smash Bros. Ultimate with just a hair under 3,500 registrants. The mark shatters not only Evo records but is well above the largest tournament ever for any Smash. By comparison, Super Smash Bros. Melee‘s biggest tournament was at Evo 2016, where it had nearly 2,500 entrants, and the Wii U title’s largest tournament drew similar numbers at the same event.

With no Melee presence on the main stage this year, it’s entirely possible players from that community migrated over to the wildly-popular Ultimate. Cuellar even polled Twitter on what game should take the coveted spot of being the last set of finals to take place on Sunday, and the demand for Ultimate to do so was overwhelming. For a Smash title to take the place of a Street Fighter game would be a massive break from tradition, so it’ll be interesting to see what comes of that.

Speaking of Sunday finals, Street Fighter V edged out Tekken 7 for second place, despite the latter having a lead at the beginning of July. BlazBlue: Cross-Tag Battle’s Top 8 will also take place that day, but it had the lowest registration numbers of any main stage game this year. As previously mentioned, however, it’s still higher than other games in that position have been in previous years.

Samurai Shodown is the other big standout, as it will now be the largest SNK tournament to take place at Evo, and will be the fourth-biggest tournament of the entire weekend. SNK and Athlon Games have even added a $30,000 pot bonus to celebrate the occasion. If you’re on the fence on whether or not to check out the newest iteration, check out our review here. 

It surprisingly beat out Mortal Kombat 11, 2019’s best-selling game as of this writing, which will still have just over 1,500 entrants. Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st] and DragonBall FighterZ both got nearly 1,200 registrants respectively, rounding out another solid year for Arc System Works titles at Evo. Finally, Soulcalibur VI will have just under 750 entrants after laying relatively low since its release last fall.

Evo will emanate from the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas from Aug. 2-4. There will be various ways to watch via Twitch for both main stage games and the plethora of side tournaments that will also be taking place throughout the weekend.