Evolution is the biggest fighting game tournament in the world and draws crowds both to the desert heats of a Vegas summer and online via streaming. Once the tournament organizers announce which games will be played at Evo, they throw open the doors to entrants, and the numbers can often tell us a lot about how competitively viable a game is, or at least how the community seems to feel about it.

Joey Cuellar, known in the fighting game community as Mr. Wizard, tweeted out the numbers for the various games last night.

Smash Bros. Ultimate did particularly well this year, likely owing to there no longer being a split between the latest Super Smash Bros. game and also Super Smash Bros. Melee. It’s also likely that Ultimate is just considered more viable than Super Smash Bros. for Wii U was, and that more people have Switches to play the new game and want to join.

Samurai Shodown also did surprisingly well, as SNK fighters tend not to bring huge numbers in U.S. tournaments. At the time of its announcement for Evo, the game hadn’t released or even had a date, but you can read our still recent review here. 

Dragon Ball FighterZ saw the most precipitous drop from last year, going from above Street Fighter V’s numbers to now quite a bit below it. The new numbers likely speak to the community’s frustration with the staleness of the game’s scene since last year’s showing.

UNIST, or Under Night In-birth Exe: Late[st], did surprisingly well for a dark horse choice. Anime fighting game fans have long-clamored to get representation on the show’s major docket, and seem to have come out in droves to prove that choice correct.

Evo 2019 takes place August 2 – 4 in Las Vegas.

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