The 2025-26 edition of the ARC World Tour expanded to feature more events and higher levels of competition than ever before across Guilty Gear -Strive-, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, and UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II Sys:Celes. Now, the top players for each game will gather in Goyang, South Korea to battle it out for their share of $250,000 and the title of world champion at the ARC World Tour Finals.

The actual ARC World Tour Finals are set to run from March 20 to 22, encompassing the main event and the Last Chance Qualifier brackets for all three games.

Streams for the event will be hosted on various official Arc System Works accounts, with broadcasts for most of the tournament in Korean, Japanese, English, and Chinese (Mandarin). You can find a full stream schedule for all three days on the official ArcSys website or on socials.

Guilty Gear -Strive- at the 2025-26 ARC World Tour Finals As the main game featured on the 2025-26 ARC World Tour Finals, the top 16 Guilty Gear -Strive- players in the world were invited to compete in the $100,000 event.

Eight of those players qualified by taking home wins at some of the biggest Platinum-tiered events of the year, including Kshuewhatdamoo’s win at Evo 2025 in Las Vegas and Tiger_Pop’s victory at Evo France 2025. The remaining eight qualified via the GGST Global Leaderboard.

It is important to note that, despite qualifying with a win at Ultimate Fighting Arena 2025, Atir "Zando" Yosef will not be attending the tournament. Despite the change in initial roster, no runner-up was invited to replace Zando and the Last Chance Qualifier for GGST remained locked at two spots available for the main event. The GGST LCQ will take place on March 21, with 16 players facing off in a double elimination bracket to see which two will move on to the ARC World Tour Finals.

There is also a chance for a repeat champion this year, with last year’s winner RedDitto appearing as one of the Global Leaderboard qualifiers.

Heading into the ARC World Tour, general consensus for many top players is that Happy Chaos is the character to beat, though that shouldn’t be shocking considering how consistent he has been since his release all the way back in November 2021. This gives an early edge to Tiger_Pop, Jack, Leffen, and Daseinologist if you put any weight on tier lists and recent tournament results, where Happy Chaos has won three out of the five largest tournaments dating back to Evo France in October—though Tiger_Pop eventually won that event using A.B.A in most matchups.

However, even with Happy Chaos still running the show in a sense, the spread of competitors this year is known for using a diverse lineup of characters.

You can never count out character specialists like Daru_I-No, either, especially when his namesake is considered very strong in the current meta, and both MetallicCake and Kshuewhatdamoo are also playing the character. In addition, Tatuma’s Sol Badguy is never to be overlooked, NitroNY hasn’t switched up on Leo, and RedDitto is still rocking his lethal Ramlethal.

Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising at the 2025-26 ARC World Tour Finals This is Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising’s third straight year as a featured game on the ARC World Tour, where it features the same format and $100,000 prize pool as Guilty Gear -Strive-.

Of the 16 invited players, Evo Japan 2025 champion Kasausagi and Frosty Faustings XVIII winner Monarch are among the eight who qualified by conquering Platinum events. Meanwhile, other challengers like Zane, Fitizen, and Sykyll made it in through the Global Leaderboard. There are also still two spots up for grabs in the GBVSR LCQ, which will take place on March 21.

Unlike some of the other games featured on the ARC World Tour, GBVSR has had a somewhat recent meta shift with the release of Ilsa on Feb 10, bringing an end to the Season 2 Character Pass, though this hasn’t translated to many big wins for the drill sergeant yet.

Monarch’s Metera has been on a tear over the last year, bringing him wins at MAX MODE 2026 and Frosty Faustings XVIII in just the past two months leading into the ARC World Tour Finals. There aren’t many players that will pull out a pocket archer despite how powerful she is because, much like GGST, the character spread for GBVSR is impressive.

Vaseraga is one the highest ranked characters in the current meta, and debagame took home the Cygames Cup 2026 using the shadow warrior to claim a spot at the championships, much like JF at Battle Coliseum 2025. Likewise, Shio and Pixi will show off the best of Lowain, and there are three different players who might utilize the insatiable Beatrix, either as their primary or secondary character, due to her consistency.

Finally, don’t sleep on Socky’s Katalina or the general menace that is Cagliostro in the hands of both Zangief_Dream and Space!

UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II Sys:Celes at the 2025-26 ARC World Tour Finals For the second straight year, UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II Sys:Celes is back as the opening game of the ARC World Tour Finals, featuring a new format that helps it fit in with the rest of the competition. UNI2 will see seven players qualified via Platinum events and a single LCQ finalist all fighting for their share of $50,000.

And, just like with Guilty Gear -Strive-, there is a chance for a repeat champion in UNI2. Senaru once again qualified for the event after defending his Evo title for a second straight year at Evo 2025.

Unlike the other games, UNI2 will only start running on March 21, beginning with its LCQ, since there are only eight total players that will be featured in the main bracket. An additional LCQ spot was opened up following Izayah "BigBlack" Davis being unable to attend due to “unforeseen travel-related issues.”

UNI2 is in a unique spot, as the ARC World Tour Finals bracket only includes eight players, there hasn’t been a major update to the game since Izumi released last August, and the last big patch was last October.

Eltnum is the only character with dual representation in the main tournament bracket, depending on who makes it in through the LCQ, and has the highest chance of winning it all, since both OmniDeag and last year’s champion Senaru are piloting her. Outside of that, every player uses a different character, tending to stick with their main such as Jaca on Orie or Neffros on Linne, both of which have remained consistent choices for those players for more than a year now.

Defiant is the only outlier, with his character choice rotating between Londrekia, Hyde, Ogre, and potentially more depending on the matchup.

What else to expect from the 2025-26 ARC World Tour Finals? While the main appeal for the 2025-26 ARC World Tour Finals is the high-level action surrounding the featured games, Arc System Works and its partners are doing a lot around the main stage to keep attendees and viewers entertained.

Throughout the weekend, attendees will have access to various game demos for new releases, existing games, and updates for older titles in the venue:

Damon and Baby Absolum BlazBlue: Central Fiction Double Dragon Revive River City Saga: Journey to the West Goritaire

The biggest draw for most fans will be the new MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls build, which will feature the playable Unbreakable X-Men lineup. This means Wolverine, Magik, and Danger will all be playable for the first time ahead of an upcoming set of closed betas and the game’s August 6 release. In preparation for this version of the game, ArcSys announced upcoming changes to the game on March 17.

Guilty Gear fans have a lot to look forward to beyond the competition too, as ArcSys confirmed that a new character reveal and the trailer for -Strive-’s upcoming 2.0 release will be shown off once Top 8 concludes.

Also, while it isn’t a guarantee, ArcSys could end up revealing some new information about content for Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II Sys:Celes, or some of its other upcoming projects during the final day. At the very least, a special live musical concert will close out the event featuring various artists, including NAOKI.