The Esports World Cup, a multi-title esports competition, has announced the return of Street Fighter 6 for its upcoming 2025 edition.
Taking place next summer in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the fighting game is the fourth game title to be added to the 2025 event, following the addition of FPS games Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Call of Duty: Warzone, as well as mobile game Honor of Kings.
The prize pool for EWC’s Street Fighter 6 tournament for 2025 has yet to be revealed.
While the tournament wasn’t part of the official Capcom Pro Tour 2024 roadmap, the 2024 edition made headlines thanks to its $1m prize pool (~£796,000), split between the top 32 players who qualified.
Legendary Chinese player Xiao Hai came out on top to take the title, gaining 1000 championship points for KuaiShou Gaming and winning the $300,000 prize pool (~£236,920).
The Esports World Cup is part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 programme. With massive prize pools for all game titles involved, as well as the creation of the EWC Club Program, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has seen gaming and esports as an important opportunity to diversify its economy and provide revenue for esports organisations as they navigate the esports winter.
That being said, the strong backing and involvement of the Saudi Arabian government in key esports stakeholders and companies, such as ESL FACEIT Group and Chinese tournament organiser Hero Esports, has been viewed as a controversial move by sections of the community. This is largely due to Saudi Arabia’s human rights record.
