Smash Bros has just become the biggest fighting game stream of all time. During the Smash Bros Melee live finals viewing figures peaked at over 140,000. Evo co-founder Tom Cannon has said that it makes it “the most watched fighting game in history”. Thankfully Nintendo reversed its earlier decision to not allow the game to be streamed at the event.

Source:http://mynintendonews.com/2013/07/15/smash-bros-becomes-biggest-fighting-stream-in-history/

That probably ensures it a comfortable spot in the tourney for years to come.

Also, hopefully Namco Bandai is able to churn out a tournament-level successor.

How many were watching it exactly? During the Marvel vs. Capcom Grand Final, there were about 136.000 people watching

I'm guessing Nintendo really heaved a sigh of relief when they noticed this. I'm sure next year EVO won't have a problem with any of Nintendo's goombas.

140K

http://www.dsogaming.com/news/ultimate-marvel-vs-capcom-3-evo-stream-breaks-viewership-records-over-140k-concurrent-viewers/

@NintendoAmerica 133K viewers. New World Recrod for the FGC in viewers on @TwitchTV and 200k world wide.

— TriForceGameMaster (@EMP_TriForce_GM) July 14, 2013

@NintendoAmerica 133K viewers. New World Recrod for the FGC in viewers on @TwitchTV and 200k world wide.

— TriForce GameMaster (@EMP_TriForce_GM) July 14, 2013

@NintendoAmerica its at 120k and its Grand Finals now. Oh... guess what Nintendo... it's at 100k on the nico stream. So that's 200k.

— TriForce GameMaster (@EMP_TriForce_GM) July 14, 2013

And just like that it lost the "record" to Marvel.

Marvel vs Capcom reached well over 130K so this is no longer. Last time i was on SF4 also had 120k

This just shows the growth in Twitch.TV 

To be fair, Smash Bros Melee is significantly older.

In the FGC, that doesn't matter one bit.