The world’s premier competitive fighting game tournament is almost here, and for the first time in years, it looks like Street Fighter 5 has been dethroned from its top spot of having the most number of registrations. Instead, this year, the most popular game at the tournament seems to be Arc Systems Works and Bandai Namco’s Dragon Ball FighterZ, which has 2,530 fighters registered for the event.
Street Fighter 5 still took second place, with 2,421 registrations, while Tekken 7 saw year on year growth, with 1,504 entrants. Super Smash Bros. fell dramatically this year- presumably because of dwindling interest in Melee, and because the Smash Wii U scene is getting ready to move on to Smash Ultimate, which comes out later this year. Smash Wii U had 1,303 registrants, while Melee almost matched it with 1,302 registrants. They were trailed by BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, Guilty Gear Xrd, and Injustice 2, which had 1,148, 621, and 356 registrations respectively.
Given how spectacular Dragon Ball FighterZ is to look at, and just how much fun it is to watch matches in it, it’s no surprise that it seems to have led the pack on registrations this year. Will things change next year, especially with a new Smash game, which presumably consolidates the audiences for Melee and Wii U? That remains to be seen. For now, Dragon Ball is king.