What is Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves? Introducing the exciting new fighting game coming to the Esports World Cup 2025

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Joining the Esports World Cup this summer, Fatal Fury: City of Wolves is debuting as a brand-new esports title this year. In this article, Esports Charts takes a closer look at the game — which, surprisingly, features Cristiano Ronaldo as one of its playable fighters.

The Esports World Cup has already established itself as the largest tournament series in esports, featuring over 20 competitions across a variety of games and boasting multi-million dollar prize pools. In 2025, the series is set to grow even bigger, thanks in part to an expanded lineup of titles. One of the newest additions is Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, a fighting game developed by Japanese studio KOF Studio.

About Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves

Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves is the latest entry in the iconic fighting game franchise that first launched in the 1990s. The Fatal Fury series has spanned everything from classic arcade cabinets to modern consoles. Released in April 2025, City of the Wolves not only carries the franchise forward, but also reintroduces several unique gameplay mechanics from earlier titles. The roster includes a mix of familiar faces, with some fans may recognize from The King of Fighters and Capcom’s Street Fighter series.

One standout feature of City of the Wolves is the addition of RPG elements and character customization. The game offers a full story campaign where players can take on missions, level up their fighters, and tweak their appearance. The roster even includes a few star-studded cameos: players can step into the ring as legendary soccer icon Cristiano Ronaldo or renowned DJ Salvatore Ganacci. Ronaldo dazzles opponents with flashy footwork and a powerful soccer ball, while Ganacci unleashes rhythmic combo attacks in sync with the beat.

Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves at Esports World Cup 2025

Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves is joining Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8 as the third fighting game featured in the Esports World Cup 2025. The City of the Wolves tournament is scheduled for July 7-10 and will feature a $1 million prize pool.

The City of the Wolves tournament in Riyadh is set to feature 16 elite players. These competitors will qualify by placing highly in a series of smaller events leading up to the main stage, including the SNK Official Tournament at EVO Japan 2025, Brussels Challenge Major Edition 2025, Combo Breaker 2025, CEO 2025, and more. Several high-profile esports stars have already punched their tickets to Saudi Arabia. Among them is legendary Chinese player Zeng ''Xiaohai'' Zhuojun: a multi-time EVO champion and one of the top contenders in The King of Fighters franchise. Joining him is Japan’s Shoji ''Fenritti'' Sho, who is celebrated for his championship runs in Dragon Ball FighterZ and BlazBlue.

Xiaohai / Photo: EWC

It’s no surprise that many of the City of the Wolves competitors will come from other fighting games — a common trend in the genre. Since many titles share similar mechanics, it’s typical for pro players to compete across multiple games at once. Xiaohai, for example, won the Street Fighter 6 championship at the 2024 Esports World Cup and is set to defend his title again this year.

Participant list for Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves tournament at Esports World Cup 2025

Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves in livestreaming

In 2025, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves broke into the top six most-watched fighting games on streaming platforms. Between January and May, the game racked up more than 2.75 million Hours Watched. While that figure trails behind genre giants like Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8, KOF Studio’s latest release still outperformed notable titles such as Super Smash Bros. Melee, Naraka: Bladepoint, and Guilty Gear -Strive-.

In 2025, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves peaked at 34,193 concurrent viewers on Twitch. Some of the year’s most popular streams of the game came from creators like Din ''Agent00'' Muktar and Mofareh ''drb7h'' al Asiri. The title also caught the eye of well-known content creator Miles ''Maximilian_DOOD'' Christiansen, who emerged as the game’s most-watched streamer, racking up almost 400,000 HW across his broadcasts.

Most watched Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves streamers

Esports World Cup 2025 will take place in Riyadh from July 8 to August 24, with a total prize pool of over $70 million across all events. Esports Charts will be closely tracking every EWC 2025 tournament, regularly updating results and viewership stats on the event pages.