Highlights
- Mortal Kombat 1 is rebooting the franchise with new gameplay changes, like the Kameo system, which is expected to reinvigorate the competitive scene and attract more players.
- The competitive fighting game scene, including Evo, is experiencing a wave of growth with popular games like Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8. Mortal Kombat 1 will face stiff competition but has the potential to be a major player at Evo 2024.
- The success of Mortal Kombat 1's competitive scene will depend on sustained support from developers with carefully crafted patches and updates. The months leading up to Evo 2024 will be crucial in ensuring a strong player turnout at the event.
Mortal Kombat 1 is right around the corner. As one of the biggest fighting game franchises in the industry, the release of a new entry always brings fans, both new and old, back to the genre. Mortal Kombat 1 is especially exciting because it is rebooting the franchise once again and introducing a plethora of gameplay changes, such as the addition of the Kameo system. With new mechanics, a huge roster, and a lot of excitement around the fighting game genre right now, MK1 is primed for success. While most fighting game fans play casually, Mortal Kombat has a competitive scene, and the launch of a new game will certainly impact fighting game esports.
The pinnacle of competitive fighting games is the Evolution Championship Series, known colloquially as Evo. Founded by Tom Canon, one of the lead developers for Riot Game's upcoming Project L, Evo began in California in 1996 under the name Battle By The Bay. Originally an approximately 40-person Street Fighter tournament, the event would eventually move to Las Vegas and expand, reaching over 1000 entrants by 2009. 2023 was the tournament's biggest year, with the newly released Street Fighter 6 hosting over 7000 competitors. Mortal Kombat 11 has been a staple of Evo since its release, but has been one of the event's smallest tournaments these past few years with under 500 entrants.
Mortal Kombat 1 Will Reinvigorate Competitive Play
While the most recent Mortal Kombat tournament at Evo was one of the event's smallest, MK11 had over 1500 players during its first year at the event. This drop-off can be attributed to a number of factors. NetherRealm fighting games tend to have a shorter lifecycle than Tekken or Street Fighter, but this one struggled (at least in the competitive realm). MK11 focused a lot more on grounded and deliberate gameplay, similar to that of Street Fighter 5. It eventually became clear that each character had been simplified and had only a few optimal options at high-level play. This made competitive Mortal Kombat 11 repetitive for many top players, and the surrounding community quickly shrunk in spite of the game's overall commercial success.
Mortal Kombat 1 seems to have learned from the faults of MK11. The gameplay is, at least at first glance, more open-ended, and characters have a more diverse range of options. Kameo Fighters also add new layers of depth and potential for player expression. Mortal Kombat 1 is priming itself to have a more complex meta with plenty of room for player freedom, and with so many eyes on the genre at the moment, it could easily be the series' biggest entry. This enhanced freedom and room for expression should help create a vibrant competitive community around the game. Based on early impressions, Mortal Kombat 1 has the potential to elevate the series' competitive scene to new heights.
Mortal Kombat 1 Faces Stiff Competition
The next Mortal Kombat game is primed for success, but Evo 2024 isn't for another 10 months after its release. While the game will almost certainly outperform MK11 and pull the series' largest crowd at an Evo to date, the game faces stiff competition. Street Fighter 6 is hugely popular, and its competitive scene is thriving. Tekken 8 is also just months away. For Mortal Kombat 1 to have a chance at being Evo 2024's biggest game, it will have to sustain its competitive scene, and its developers will have to support it with carefully crafted patches and updates. Evo tournaments often reflect the competitive health of a title, so the months between launch and Evo 2024 will be crucial to the game's player turnout at the event.
While predicting the state of competitive Mortal Kombat come next year's Evo is a tall task, it is almost certain that it will be the biggest tournament the series has seen in recent years. With the huge wave of growth around Street Fighter 6 and the genre in general, Evo 2024 will likely be the biggest Evo yet. Even if SF6 entrant numbers drop off, Tekken 8 and MK1 will likely more than make up for it. Fighting games have grown a lot this decade, and Mortal Kombat 1 will assuredly be an important part of the genre's competitive scene for the foreseeable future.
Mortal Kombat 1 releases on September 19 for Nintendo Switch, PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
