EUIC breaks competitive Pokémon record, becomes franchise’s biggest international tournament ever

Pokémon is one of the world’s biggest media brands, and its products have a competitive scene that continues to grow year after year. With 2024’s Europe International Championships (EUIC,) the franchise broke its record for the biggest official tournament ever across all games and age ranges. 

EUIC 2024 is now the “largest in-person tournament” that The Pokémon Company International (TPCI) has ever hosted, pulling more than 4,500 competitors across four different games and each age bracket, a Pokémon spokesperson confirmed to Dot Esports. This doesn’t mean it is the biggest turnout for each category individually overall, though it is for at least one of the offered titles. 

Just like in 2023, EUIC has four different games on display—the Pokémon TCG, Pokémon VGC, Pokémon Go, and Pokémon UNITE. Using a combination of Liquipedia, Victory Road, and general information from TPC, we can see attendance for all four titles was up for 2024. Here is a direct comparison between Master division player count this year and last year, though numbers might not be final for EUIC 2024: 

While UNITE doesn’t have exact player numbers available, EUIC 2024 hosted an open bracket before the group stage began, meaning more overall teams attended the event to compete this year. If the other totals are accurate, TCG attendance jumped by more than 1,000 players, and the VGC broke its own record for the most-attended tournament for a second time this year. 

In January, Wolfe Glick managed to win the Charlotte Regional Championships, which was noted as the biggest VGC tournament ever with 845 players. EUIC has seemingly topped that by over 100 players and now sets the stage for the North American International Championships (NAIC) to potentially do it again when it runs from June 7 to 9 in New Orleans.