For comparison’s sake, EVO 2019’s second most popular game is Street Fighter 5 with 1,929 registrations. That’s followed by Tekken 7, Samurai Shodown, Mortal Kombat 11, Dragon Ball FighterZ, and Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st], each with over 1,100 registrations. Registrations in total have increased over 25% compared to EVO 2018, where the top game was Dragon Ball FighterZ with 2,575 registrations.
The second largest Super Smash Bros. tournament was EVO 2016, where Super Smash Bros. for Wii U had 2,662 registrations. EVO 2016 will continue to be the biggest overall event for Super Smash Bros., as it had both the Super Smash Bros. Wii U tournament as well as a Super Smash Bros. Melee tournament with 2,372 registered fighters. Neither tournament individually compares to this year’s EVO 2019 tournament, of course.
2019 will also mark the first year since 2012 that Super Smash Bros. Melee won’t be featured at EVO. The reasoning for ending Melee’s streak at EVO wasn’t provided but should be understandable given the staggering popularity of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. While there’s no denying that Melee is still popular, retiring it has allowed the new Super Smash Bros. game to reach an unprecedented height.
While registration for EVO 2019 has ended, the event itself is still several weeks off. EVO Championship Series 2019 will begin on August 2 and will run through August 4, with thousands of players being whittled down to just a scant few across two days. The only players remaining on August 4 will be the top 8 of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Street Fighter 5, Tekken 7, and BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle. The other games will wrap up their tournaments August 3.
EVO 2019 can be watched for free on Twitch via a broad range of official and side livestreams. Stay tuned for more information on the schedule as EVO 2019 approaches.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is available now exclusively on the Nintendo Switch.
