Capcom will give its first Street Fighter 6 champ a massive million-dollar prize

Image for Capcom will give its first Street Fighter 6 champ a massive million-dollar prize
(Image credit: Capcom)

Who wants to be a millionaire? Not me, I suppose, since every time I try to play a fighting game it feels like my brain has been carbonated, but someone at next year's Capcom Cup certainly will. At the end of the ninth season of its Street Fighter 5-focused Capcom Pro Tour event, which concluded last Sunday, Capcom announced that next year's Street Fighter 6 tournament will up the prize pool from $300K to $2 million.

$2 million is the prize pool for the entire event, but $1 million of it will go to the winner of the Capcom Cup, the final event of the Pro Tour. To put that into perspective, this year's prize pool was split across a whole bunch of players, with $120K, $50K, and $20K going to the first, second, and third-place players respectively. 

A million bucks isn't a fortune by esports standards, where Dota and Fortnite players compete for prize pools in the tens of millions, but it's a lot for the fighting game community. This year's first-place player was a Dominican Street Fighter virtuoso by the name of Saul Leonardo "MenaRD" Mena, and Liquipedia lists his approximate total winnings from competitions at around $400K. Even a super-famous figure like SonicFox sits somewhere around $700K. The opportunity to take home $1 million, then, is a wild outlier for fighting games.

Capcom hasn't said when the next Capcom Pro Tour will be, but given that the last one just ended, it's still some ways away. Most likely, players will have some time to familiarise themselves with Street Fighter 6 after that game releases on June 2, and the million-dollar Capcom Cup will happen around the same time next year, in February 2024.

We're pretty intrigued by Street Fighter 6 around here. Street Fighter 5 launched to a tepid reaction in 2016 thanks to slim content pickings and buggy netcode, but Capcom seems like it's learnt from its mistakes. We're talking an eighteen-character roster, rollback netcode, and a meaty campaign at launch. There's even a new "Dynamic" control scheme so helpless button-mashers like me don't look quite as ridiculous whenever we try to play. I don't think I'll be taking home a million bucks anytime soon, though. If only there was an international Morrowind tournament.

Joshua Wolens
News Writer

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.

Read more
Mai in Street Fighter 6 with flaming fans
Mai in Street Fighter 6 isn't just good—she has me howling for Capcom vs. SNK 3
Capcom producer Ryozo Tsujimoto
I'd be a nervous wreck, but Monster Hunter Wilds' producer is 'very confident' following up Capcom's bestselling game ever
v-bucks
Fortnite has 58 creators that got paid over $1 million in 2024, and 7 of those made over $10 million
Virtua Fighter 5 key art
Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. isn't just a PC port of a 19-year-old game: it's the reason a diehard fighting game community can 'finally reach out and play with each other across the world'
Mindwave screenshots
After only 31 days, the breakout WarioWare-like game Mindwave has raised over $440,000 thanks to a brilliant demo, which you can still play now
marvel rivals characters screenshots
'The team wants every kind of player to enjoy the game': Marvel Rivals director wants to foster a competitive scene, but not at the expense of fun
Latest in Action
Monster Hunter Wilds' stockpile master studying a manifest
Monster Hunter Wilds' new gyro controls are a fantastic option for disabled and able-bodied players alike
Commander Shepard in Mass Effect 3.
Mass Effect's Jennifer Hale, who played femshep, 'saw no line' before she recorded them for Bioware's flagship trilogy: 'It was all cold reading on the spot'
A hunter hefts a massive Mega Barrel Bomb in Monster Hunter Wilds.
Monster Hunter Wilds players can't stop blowing themselves to smithereens with its rollable barrel bombs
A hunter poses with a large hammer as their palico cheers nearby in Monster Hunter Wilds.
Monster Hunter Wilds weapon tier list
Naoe looking at the wrist blade in Assassin's Creed Shadows
Ubisoft backflips, says Assassin's Creed Shadows will support Steam Deck at launch, but I doubt I'll actually want to play it there
character creation in Monster Hunter Wilds
The best Monster Hunter Wilds mods
Latest in News
Will Poulter holding a CD ROM
'What are most games about? Killing': Black Mirror Season 7 includes a follow-up to 2018 interactive film Bandersnatch
Casper Van Dien in Starship Troopers
Sony, which is making a Helldivers 2 movie, is also making a new Starship Troopers movie, but it's not based on the Starship Troopers movie we already have
Assassin's Creed meets PUBG
Ubisoft is reportedly talking to Tencent about creating a new business entity to manage Assassin's Creed and other big games
Resident Evil Village - Lady Dimitrescu
'It really truly changed my life in every possible way': Lady Dimitrescu actor says her Resident Evil Village role was just as transformative for her as it was for roughly half the internet in 2021
Storm trooper hero
Another live service shooter is getting shut down, this time before it even launched on Steam
Possibility Space concept art.
Possibility Space owners sue NetEase for $900 million over allegations it spread 'false and defamatory rumors' of fraud at the studio that ultimately forced it to close