SNK World Championship 2025 Set for Late October; Prize Pool Exceeds $4M

SNK Corporation announced on Sept. 19, 2025, in a press release that the SNK World Championship 2025 will take place at DreamHack Atlanta from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2. The prize pool of the whole tournament is over $4 million, divided among the four games in the circuit.

While the $4-million prize pool has been at the center of attention on social media, over half of it is allocated to the top finishers of SNK’s latest game, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. Here’s the prize pool for each game:

• Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves: $2,500,000
• The King of Fighters XV: $1,000,000
• Samurai Shodown: $500,000
• Art of Fighting 3: $100,000

The prize distribution for Samurai Shodown and Art of Fighting 3’s top finishers is divided by logical increments; however, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves and The King of Fighters XV have large variances between placements.

First place for the Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves bracket pockets $1.5 million, whereas second place gets $300,000. The prize distribution hasn’t gone unnoticed online, however, and has been a central talking point in the fighting game community, because they expected a much fairer distribution.

For example, the latest Counter-Strike 2 major tournament, BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025, had a $1.2-million prize pool. The distribution was $500,000 to the first place, which constitutes 33% of the whole prize pool, and the second-place team received $170,000, which is 11% of the prize pool.

In the upcoming Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves tournament, the first-place winner gets $1,500,000, which is 60% of the prize money, almost double the Counter-Strike 2 major tournament, and the second-place finisher gets a measly $300,000, which is 12% of the total prize pool.

SNK also mentioned that the last-chance qualifiers will happen at DreamHack Atlanta. Two spots remain available for Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, one spot for The King of Fighters XV and four slots for Samurai Shodown are up for grabs.

Gaming.News has reached out to SNK for comment.