EVO 2022 was a massive, in-person comeback for one of the world’s biggest fighting game tournaments with almost 6 times the average viewership compared to the previous year.
EVO is one of the biggest fighting game events in the world. Having been a fixture in the fighting game community for over 20 years, EVO has gained a legendary status amongst FGC tournaments.
However, due to the in-person nature of fighting games and how much it brings to the experience, EVO got hit hard by COVID restrictions on gatherings and travel.
Evo 2022 has come to a close.Thank you to all of our participants, viewers, and partners who have made Evo's return to in-person competition unforgettable.Join us again at Evo Japan March 31-April 2, 2023. pic.twitter.com/6ywbvncSk4
— Evo (@Evo) August 8, 2022
EVO’s first in-person tournament since 2019 had a massive in-person turnout, with thousands of fans cheering in the arena. But that turnout was nothing compared to online viewership.
According to a recap of Twitch viewership on Gamesight, average viewership at EVO 2022 was up almost 6 times in comparison to last year’s tournament.
EVO 2021 averaged around 11,000 viewers at any given time, while EVO 2022 averaged 64,799. This increase is already huge on paper, but those are just the numbers across the full event.
Peak and average viewership numbers for Day 3, a day filled with top 8 fights, had much higher average viewership numbers.
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The main stage events for top 8s on Day 3 of EVO peaked well above the 64k mark. Here are the top 3 according to Gamesight’s post.
- Guilty Gear -Strive-
- Average concurrent viewers: 94,296
- Peak Viewers: 111,803
- Tekken 7
- Average Concurrent Viewers: 107,472
- Peak Viewers: 132,333
- Street Fighter V
- Average Concurrent Viewers: 129,815
- Peak Viewers: 156,601
Concurrent viewers for EVO’s most anticipated matches were almost double that of the average across the event, and, with average viewership numbers so close to peak viewership, people that tuned in for top 8s tended to stay through the entire bracket.
Across the entirety of Day 3, EVO’s viewership averaged at almost 100k.
With character reveals like Bridget for Guilty Gear -Strive-, Kimberly and Juri for Street Fighter 6, and a teaser for Tekken 8 featuring Kazuya Mishima, EVO cemented itself as more than just a tournament.
There were also some great audience moments like the DBFZ Cell yell when the audience and competitors came together to recreate an iconic moment from Dragon Ball Z.
While EVO 2022’s peak was just shy of 2019’s, these viewership statistics put the cherry on top of what was an extremely successful return to form for EVO.