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Smash Ultimate sets new EVO record for concurrent viewers

Just one year after the last time the EVO concurrent viewership record fell, it was broken again. This time by main event Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Ozzie Mejia

August 4, 2019 10:27 PM

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EVO proves to bring the hype for fighting games year after year. And it feels like each year, the event outdoes itself in terms of home viewership numbers. This year is no different and the latest viewership record fell during the main event of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Smash Bros Ultimate has set the record for the highest peak viewership in EVO history for any game at over 279,000

Smash 4 lyfe #EVO19 pic.twitter.com/yTdc3PyrLu

— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) August 5, 2019

According to esports guru Rod "Slasher" Breslau on Twitter, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate broke the EVO concurrent viewership record by surpassing 279,000 viewers during the Top 8. This comes only one year after the last time EVO broke the same record. That happened during Dragon Ball FighterZ, which peaked at 258,000 concurrent viewers.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's Top 8 featured a parade of some of the game's best players from around the world. After running through top names like France's William "Gluttony" Belaid, Japan's Tetsuya "Raito" Ishiguro, and American player Ezra "Samsora" Morris, the Grand Finals came down to Gavin "Tweek" Dempsey and Leonardo "MkLeo" Lopez. Tweek was up 2-0 and needed only one more game to clinch the tournament. However, Leo roared back with Joker and took the next five games to close out EVO 2019 as the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate world champion.

This is where it should be noted that Dragon Ball FighterZ, despite that record-breaking performance last year, was relegated to a Saturday afternoon Top 8 this year. Even with that unenviable time slot, the Top 8 still proved to be an incredible spectacle, culminating with Goichi "GO1" Kushida avenging last year's Grand Finals loss to Dominique "SonicFox" McLean.

Maybe for EVO 2020, both games can get a Sunday slot to duke it out for all the viewership marbles? Whether that happens remains to be seen.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?