S'pore to host 'World Cup' of fighting video games in 2026

STB working to deliver a compelling and impactful’ edition of e-sports tourney Evo

- lan Cheng

The Republic will host the 2026 edition of the Evolution Championship Series e-sports tournament, widely regarded among gamers as the World Cup of fighting games.

The announcement was made on July 21 (July 22 Singapore time), the final day of the annual competition - also known as Evo - in Las Vegas.

The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) confirmed that it is working with Evo 2026 organisers to "deliver a compelling and impactful edition" for participants and fans.

"With several highly popular fighting game titles within one marquee tournament, we are excited to host Evo in Singapore in 2026," said Ms Ong Ling Lee, STB's executive director for sports and wellness.

Fighting games are a broad genre of video games in which players, choosing from a variety of characters, go head-to-head in one-toone combat.

A player wins when an opponent's character is knocked out, or if the player's character has more health points when time runs out.

Tournaments featuring such games can be held online or in person. The most famous franchises of the genre include Street Fighter, Tekken, King Of Fighters and Mortal Kombat.

Evo 2024 in Las Vegas, which had a collective prize purse of US$240,000 (S$321,000), was attended by over 20,000 fans and more than 10,000 competitors from 64 countries.

The 2025 edition will be held in Nice, France, marking the first time it will be physically hosted outside the US. Singapore will be the first Asian country to hold the main Evo tournament in 2026 not to be confused with Evo Japan, a separate offshoot event that takes place yearly there.