Yu-Gi-Oh! just broke two world records for the biggest-ever trading card game tournament
Konami’s massive TCG breaks one of its own records and clinches a new one at Championship Series Japan TOKYO 2024.
Yu-Gi-Oh! is one of the world’s biggest trading card games, but did you know it held Guinness World Records for tournament participation size? Chalk one more medal (or trophy? What does Guinness hand out?) for publisher Konami, who managed to break their previous record and set another at Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series Japan TOKYO 2024.
Held at the Tokyo Big Sight (aka the Tokyo International Exhibition Center) on April 28th and 29th, the event marked the first time in the YCSJ’s ten-year tenure that stretched across two days. In that time, Konami reports that 7,443 attendees registered for the competitive tour, which set the Guinness World Record for the most entrants in a TCG tournament. The record judging organisation defines entrants by the number of people who played against each other during the same block of time at the same venue.
That massive clump of Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG duelists all special summoning monsters and activating trap cards additionally topped another record previously held by Konami. YCSJ TOKYO 2024 earned the honour of largest trading card game tournament (counting everyone who played in the single tournament event), surpassing the 100th Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series held in Long Beach, California back in March 2012.
Guinness officials were on-hand to present Konami with its certificates (ah, that answers my previous question) during a special ceremony, which accompanied the crowning of YCSJ champion Yutaro Takahashi. Saying you beat out a record-setting 7,442 other duelists is a heck of a brag, but a press release characterised the winner with a measure of humility: “I am happy to be a champion! It was thanks to the practice with my friends whom I met through ‘Yu-Gi-Oh! OCG.’ I will do my best to win the next event as well!”
Not all recent Yu-Gi-Oh! News is happy, as the publisher recently updated its rules in such a fashion that non-native duelists can’t place in higher rungs of competitive play or win tournaments. Konami has yet to confirm or deny that this was the intended consequences of the 2024 rules update, but it might be tough or impossible for those living abroad in Japan to ascend past a certain point of organised play.
If you want to stay up to date on all the expansion and booster sets coming to the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG this year, Dicebreaker has you covered. Interested in some of the top cards from the latest set - Legacy of Destruction? We’ve got that, too.