Entry cap for Smash not reached

EVO Japan will be starting 2020 out with a bang as one of the first major events of the year. Several of the most popular fighting titles on the market today are set to be featured on the six-game line up, and there will be even more action by way of side tournaments.

Registration is now closed for EVO Japan 2020, and the final entrant numbers have been divulged. Unsurprisingly, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate leads the pack, and it ended up with more than double the number of players of the second-highest ranked game.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is making its EVO Japan debut next year and is coming right out of the gate swinging. Nintendo's crossover brawler has the highest number of entrants on the line up, coming in at 2,987 registered competitors.

With close to 3,000 entrants, Smash Bros. Ultimate has more than double the amount of players in its tournament than the second-highest ranked game, Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition. Street Fighter 5 sits at 1,462 entrants, making it and Smash the only two games to exceed 1,000 at this event.

Throughout the course of the registration process, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate had strong support, taking the lead in entrants early. In fact, EVO Japan actually had to put an entry cap into place solely for Smash Ultimate, with the highest number of allowed entrants being 3,072 — which the game did not reach.

Four of the games on the 2020 line up are returning titles from 2019, and entrants for each have gone up since last year. Like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Samurai Shodown is also making its EVO Japan debut.

EVO Japan 2020 entrant numbers Super Smash Bros. Ultimate — 2,987 Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition — 1,462 (2019: 1,024) Tekken 7 — 960 (2019: 512) BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle — 554 (2019: 224) Samurai Shodown — 532 Soul Calibur 6 — 507 (2019: 288)

EVO Japan is taking place on January 24 through 26, 2020, at the Makuhari Messe in Chiba.