Super SmashBros. posts nearly 280,000 concurrent viewershipBreslau callsout Nintendo on failing to provide fundingSmash seriesfans continue to demand better competitive treatment of the game
SuperSmash Bros. breaks Evo viewership record, posting some 279,000concurrent viewers for the game’s finals on Sunday, August 4.
Super Bros. Smashes Evo Viewership All-Time Record
Super Smash Bros. has achieved a new height, completely dominating the viewership numbers at the The Evolution Championship Series 2019 (EVO), the world’s longest-running fighting game event to date.
A fairly new entrant in the competitive segment, interest for the game peaked and marked a record-high engagement from the audience. Nintendo’s latest Ultimate chapter wasn’t necessarily met with much excitement when it arrived in December, 2018, as the company had been trying to balance between a casual and professional experience too much.
Yet, interest in the event took Evo by storm, with the viewership driven by none other than Super Smash Bros. Hosted between August 2 and August 4 in Las Vegas, Nevada, the game’s finals peaked at 279,000 concurrent viewers, which is the largest number that any Evo finals have managed to draw.
British daily TheGuardian had boots on the ground helping readers live throughthose glorious moments on Sunday.
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
The newsthat Smash Bros. achieved an important milestone were broken by Rod“Slasher” Breslau, an industry observer who is intimatelyfamiliar with the entire competitive gaming scene and postsinsightful opinions on daily basis.
The Biggest Esports Name in Attendance at Evo 2019
Some of thelargest organizations in the history of competitive video gaming hadtheir people join the event with Team SoloMid’s Gavin ‘Tweek’Dempsey and Echo Fox’s Leonardo ‘MkLeo’ Lopez Perezmeeting in the closing round ofthe event.
MkLeo had a tough run with the player climbing to the finals with his PGRU rank well deserved indeed. He did lose two rounds outright, crumbling before Tweek’s offensive plays, which promised an early finish. Yet, MkLeo found a way to counter TSM’s member and reversed the entire game for a bracket reset.
Once there, MkLeo seemed to have no trouble claiming the next three games and leaving Tweek baffled at the pure skill of his opponents. As a result, Echo Fox’s star left the scene with over $21,000 to his name, having established his dominance.
Taking a Slash at Nintendo
Asis his custom, Breslau called out Nintendo for offering nocompensation for their game in terms of prize money and leaving itall up to Evo’s organizers to foot the bill. Breslau was quiteoutspoken about the issue, addressing Nintendo directly in a Tweet:
“Nintendo’s failure to provide prize money and stability for the competitive community is the only thing keeping Smash Ultimate and Melee from being a top tier esport.”
Itdidn’t get much better from there on, as Breslau expressed hisincredulity at the fact that Nintendo didn’t at least offer to coversome of the expenses some of the players had incurred, not even fortheir stay at the hotel:
Nintendo's failure to provide prize money and stability for the competitive community is the only thing keeping Smash Ultimate and Melee from being a top tier esport
Nintendo support Smash you cowards https://t.co/IVRVRKbKXV
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) August 5, 2019
Breslau’saccusation sounds very reasonable when given the fact that t lodislot he gamewas the fifth most selling game in the United States in 2018, eventhough it was released in 2018.
Meanwhile,some have not been happy to describe the Smash Bros. series as amember of the fighting games community, both the Ultimate and Meleechapters have well-established fan based that have been showing astrong support for the game and pressing Nintendo to do more.
Polygonhas offered an insight into why Nintendo structures its officialSmash Bros. tournaments the way it does, but even then – fans needmore. Nintendo will have to do much better in future.
