The Capcom Cup began in 2013 with Tremendous Avenue Fighter IV: Arcade Version because the Japanese writer sought to professionalize and take extra direct possession of its hit combating franchise’s aggressive scene. It expanded into multi-month excursions main as much as the large finals, with all the greatest matches streamed totally free on-line. And it’s continued that method, till now. Capcom introduced this week that the 2026 finals for Avenue Fighter 6 can be a pay-per-view occasion, and followers should not blissful. “No one should be deprived of the opportunity to enjoy the pinnacle of Street Fighter,” Evo 2025 winner Saul Leonardo “MenaRD” Mena II wrote on X in response to the information.
The 2-time Capcom Cup champion hails from the Dominican Republic and famous, as many execs have, that locking esports behind a paywall significantly impacts followers from areas the place the monetary boundaries are already larger. “I find it hard to accept,” he wrote. “I understand that in Japan, this is considered normal, and fortunately, the community is still able to support each other in this way. However, in many regions, including my own, there is hardly even the leeway to play this game.”
納得しがたいです
日本ではこれが普通だと理解していますし、ありがたいことにコミュニティはまだこの方法で支え合えています。
しかし、私の地域を含む多くの地域では、このゲームをプレイする余裕すらほとんどない。ストリートファイターの頂点を楽しむ機会を阻まれるべきではない。… https://t.co/DAVzvxvUWu
— WBG MenaRD🇩🇴 (@_MenaRD__) September 28, 2025
The Capcom Cup 12 Finals will happen on March 14, adopted by the Avenue Fighter League World Championship on March 15. Each will happen dwell on the Ryōgoku Kokugikan Sumo Area in Tokyo, Japan, the place entrance row seats will price roughly $135. In a serious break with the previous, nevertheless, even digital viewership can be ticketed this time round. The pay-per-view ticket value can be roughly $40 for each days. Anybody who doesn’t need to pay should wait till every week later to stream the matches on-line totally free.
The transfer caught many aggressive Avenue Fighter execs without warning. Subsequent 12 months’s Capcom Cup sports activities a $1,282,000 prize pool, unchanged from the prior 12 months, regardless of the brand new earnings stream. “If this decision is final, then I hope at the very least a % of the PPV earnings be used to support the prize pool to improve the payout distribution for the players,” Arman “Phenom” Hanjani wrote on X.
The difficulty is that whereas Capcom funds the CC Finals, they completely don’t pay to run all the tournaments the place individuals qualify for Capcom Cup. Particular person TOs and communities in nations around the globe function these occasions. Capcom advantages from the hardwork of these TOs and…
— 女 Molly_Bee (@MollyAmberBee) September 29, 2025
It’s additionally unclear how the PPV requirement will influence the remainder of the aggressive scene’s content material creators who historically co-stream occasions. Others have puzzled why Capcom doesn’t simply attempt to extract extra money by way of Capcom Cup-specific in-game outfits and different cosmetics. “I don’t know why they’re not doing this anymore. I used to buy the CPT costume pack every year, everyone wins and everyone is happy,” wrote Adel “Big Bird” Anouche.
Followers are equally bewildered, pointing to all the native occasions that feed into the Capcom Professional Tour however aren’t instantly financed by the writer. “I thought Capcom organized this circuit as a marketing tool for the game,” one wrote on Reddit. “Makes no sense to charge viewers to watch it. And esports is, unfortunately, still way too niche for that to be profitable.”
Whereas Avenue Fighter is very large in Japan, many are anxious the transfer to PPV for such an enormous occasion will simply find yourself excluding individuals in different components of the world. Does Capcom care? Apparently not.
