Dragon Ball FighterZ Is The Most Popular Game At Evo 2018

July 20, 2018

As the biggest fighting game tournament of the year, Evo acts as a barometer for where the fighting game community's collective heads are at with the genre. One of the metrics used to see what games the FGC thinks are worth competitive attention is by how many entrants each game has and this year the stats are fairly interesting.

Tweeted by Evo chief Joey Cuellar, also known by his online handle MrWizard, we have the number of entrants for Evo 2018 per game with registration now officially closed.

For those with Twitter embeds blocked, Dragon Ball FighterZ is at 2530 entrants, while Street Fighter V is at 2421 as the next highest game. This makes Dragon Ball FighterZ, the 3v3 cel-shaded anime fighting game from ArcSystemWorks, the most popular fighting game at Evo.

The main reason why this is significant is that this is the first time since at least 2012 that Street Fighter has been dethroned as the biggest game at the show. The classic fighter is the headlining game every year, ending the show and usually bringing in the most well-known names in the fighting game community and a couple of big surprises. This year, it has ceded that title to a Dragon Ball game.

The Twitter account SRK Stats put it into a little bit more context.

Also interesting to note that Super Smash Bros. for Wii U has exactly one more entrant than Super Smash Bros. Melee, the 2001 Gamecube title. This comes after Cuellar has expressed concern over whether Melee will continue to be showcased at Evo beyond this year due to issues with time, overlap, and there already being too many Smash games. With Super Smash Bros. Ultimate coming out this year, it seems like this is certainly the last Evo for the Wii U game and possibly for Melee, as well.

There was also a big dip in the number of Injustice 2 registrants from last year when the game made its debut. With rumors swirling about a new Mortal Kombat game, it might also be Injustice 2's last year at the event.

Ultimately the numbers are just hints at what the community is heading toward and a new game like Dragon Ball FighterZ has more momentum behind it than an older title like Street Fighter V, which makes complete sense. It will be interesting to see what the landscape looks like next year.

Evo 2018 takes place August 3 - 5 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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