SNK World Championship 2026

Series Information

Organizer:

SNK

Location:

World

Start Date:

2026-01-29

End Date:

2026-??-??

Links

The SNK World Championship 2026 (SWC 2026) is the 4th season of SNK's official global circuit of tournaments.

Format

The 2026 SWC season features a significantly updated structure, introducing a point ranking system alongside various tournament tiers. The point ranking system offers an additional reward to all ranked players, where every point earned in qualifiers is also converted directly into prize money ($1 per point). Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves is the headlining title, with its qualifiers being divided into Legend, Master 1, Master 2, Master 3 and Online events. In addition, direct invitations will be given out to the reigning SWC champion and winners of other particularly notable events throughout the season.

While the global leaderboard and some direct invitations are also present for The King of Fighters XV and Samurai Shodown, these games follow a scaled-down version of the circuit. For these two entries, the highest tier of tournaments is Master 2, and no online events will be hosted for them. Art of Fighting 3 returns as a legacy title, to be held during the championship weekend.

A Last Chance Qualifier is scheduled to take place at the finals for the circuit's primary games. In total, 32 players will qualify for CotW, with the number of finalists for KoFXV and SS2019 yet to be announced. Additional qualifiers and their dates will continue to be updated by SNK throughout the season.^[1]

Ranking Point Matrix & Prizing

Players earn points based on placements in each qualifying tournament (excluding the LCQ). All points are also converted into prize money at a rate of 1 point = 1 USD. There are no caps on the amount of tournaments players can enter and earn points from.