Evo 2026 is ongoing with tons of reveals — here's what we've learned

From Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game to Tekken, we're rounding up everything being announced at Evo 2026

The fighting game tournament Evo 2026 is taking place in Las Vegas this weekend. While it's mostly focused on tournaments for titles like Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8, Evo also serves as a Summer Game Fest of sorts for fighting game announcements each year. 2026 is proving to be no different, as it has already been the backdrop for exciting Rivals of Aether 2 and Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game announcements.

As announcements are interspersed between matches and multiple Evo streams run concurrently, it can be hard to keep track of everything revealed at Evo. To help, this article will be updated throughout the weekend with every major fighting game reveal from EVO 2026.

Dead or Alive 6 Last Round teases its first new fighter

Koei Tecmo released Dead or Alive 6 Last Round on June 25 and was already teasing the first DLC fighter at Evo. It’s a new character named Minato, and she’ll be added to the game sometime this summer. The Evo teaser does not show the fighter in action, just spotlighting the Miyabi stage as Minato talks to NiCO in the background.

Rivals of Aether 2 gets a roadmap for 2027 and beyond

Aether Studios showed up to Evo with a roadmap for the next several years of Rivals of Aether 2 updates. Later this year, we can expect two new characters, two more events, and workshop support for items and characters. In 2027, Rivals of Aether 2 will hold four events, add two new fighters and two echo fighter-like “Remix Rivals,” implement eight-player matches, and give players the ability to spend currency to create custom color mixes for their outfits.

In 2028, Aether Studios finally plans to bring the fighting game to consoles with the first chapter of Rivals of Aether 2’s single-player story mode. Beyond that, it’ll continue to iterate on Steam Workshop support, add buddies into the game, and potentially bring in guest characters from other franchises.

Tekken is getting a cartoon

One of the weirder announcements of this EVO is that Tekken is getting a cartoon adaptation. Tekken! Cartoon's teaser trailer features a more cutesy art style and stars chibi-like versions of Alisa Bosconovitch, Kazuya Mishima, Kuma, Paul Phoenix, and Yoshimitsu. Not much else is known about this Tekken animation at this time, but it's certainly very different from anything we've seen from this franchise before.

Gameplay Group and Paramount Games opened pre-orders for Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game during EVO, ahead of its July 23 release date. The pre-order trailer mostly serves as a simple overview of the game, but reveals four of the five Year 1 Pass characters at the end: Iroh, Ty Lee, Lin Beifong, and Bolin. The fifth DLC fighter will be voted on by those who pre-order the game.

According to developers during an Evo Showcase panel, Iroh will be a counter-focused character, Ty Lee will be a rushdown character, Lin Beifong’s moveset will be built around metalbending, and Bolin will combine mechanics seen in other firebender and earthbender characters. At the end of its segment, we learned the five options players can vote between for that fifth fighter: Tenzin, Kuvira, Amon, King Bumi, and Asami Sato. Based on audience reaction, Bumi seems like a likely frontrunner.

Stay tuned for more announcements as Day 2 of Evo 2026 begins at 1 p.m. ET.