Worth noting that, like large swaths of other parts of the industry, the Saudis now own Evo. It hasn’t changed yet, but Ronaldo ended up in Fatal Fury, so…

Evo Japan

• 2XKO
• Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves
• GranBlue Fantasy Versus: Rising
• Guilty Gear Strive
• Hakuto No Ken
• The King of Fighters XV
• Melty Blood: Type Lumina
• Street Fighter 6
• Tekken 8
• Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes]
• Vampire Savior
• Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. World Stage

Evo Las Vegas AKA just “Evo”

• 2XKO
• BlazBlue: Central Fiction
• Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves
• GranBlue Fantasy Versus: Rising
• Guilty Gear Strive
• Invincible Vs
• Rivals of Aether II
• Street Fighter 6
• Tekken 8
• Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes]
• Vampire Savior
• Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. World Stage

Evo has historically kept a roster of about 8-9 games, but last year they experimented with an “extended roster” of an additional 8 games, bringing the total up to 16. This year, they seem to be doing 12 games, and hopefully that means the less popular games among them get more attention than they would on an extended roster. The minimum prize pool for Evo Vegas is $500k, split across all 12 games, divided proportionally by entrant numbers; in past years, this was provided by a sponsor like Chipotle, and the math worked out very similarly, so as of right now, this doesn’t smell like unsustainable Saudi money pumping the numbers up.

This seemed like a strange time to announce the Evo lineup to me, since the Game Awards are happening two days after this announcement, and release dates are sure to come along with it. Given that Invincible Vs is in the lineup, it means that they shared with Evo that the game will be out before June, but publicly, the release date won’t be announced until the Game Awards. Notable absences, however, include the likes of Marvel Tokon and Avatar Legends. Avatar Legends is small time, so it was never guaranteed an Evo roster slot, but if Marvel Tokon doesn’t appear here, that surely means it isn’t releasing until the second half of 2026. It’s also strongly suspected that Injustice 3 is right around the corner, and the implications from this roster are similar. Vampire Savior is occupying the “throwback game” slot this year, and there’s just a smidge of hopium that its inclusion in both Vegas and Japan might mean DarkStalkers will return; I’m sure rooting for that to happen, but I don’t suspect it’s super likely.

For me personally, I’m a big fan of Guilty Gear Strive, and I’m glad to see just how resilient its competitive scene is. Most fighting games would have long since waned in the 4+ years that that game has been going strong. I also really, really can’t stress enough how much Invincible Vs is checking all the right boxes for me in all of its pre-release materials. I got hands on with it too, and it still feels like it’s made just for me. I had not encountered any of Invincible before this game was announced, outside of a few memes that are especially popular among fighting game players, but now that I’ve seen most of the show at this point, it’s ridiculous that the show, also, is seemingly made just for me in the way it deconstructs super hero tropes. If it doesn’t do the same thing with Marvel vs. Capcom or fighting game tropes in the game’s story mode, I’ll be disappointed in the missed opportunity, but I’m really looking forward to seeing what this game looks like at the highest level of competitive play.