Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2025 comes to Paris

The Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2025 will be held for the first time in Paris, France. In addition to tournaments for the Yu-Gi-Oh! collectible card game (TCG), the event hosts esports competitions for its video game titles Duel Links and Master Duel.

World Cup 2025 marks a return to Europe for the first time since 2019, when the event took place in Berlin, Germany. Notably, the event would be the last to be held before the pandemic resulted in a four-year hiatus for end-of-season competition.

The event will serve as the conclusion of the 2024/25 Yu-Gi-Oh! season and will take place at the Maison de la Mutualité from August 29-31, 2025. The most recent Yu-Gi-Oh! season began in August 2024 and features a total of 20 events that form the Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series. Prior to the World Championship, events will be held in Providence (Rhode Island) and Quito (Ecuador) in May.

The end-of-season competition has as its objective to crown the best Duelist in four categories: Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links (Speed Duel format), Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links (Rush Duel format) and Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel.

For now, only 14 competitors have been confirmed for the four tournaments that will take place at the World Championship. Among them are Sebastian “Shelmy” Villarroel, defending Duel Links champion, and Ruben Penaranda, TCG World Champion in 2024.

In recent years, the popularity of collectible card games has skyrocketed, with fans looking to obtain the most desired cards from a whole host of franchises. While Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! remain some of the most popular, esports franchises have also begun to expand into the collectible card game sector. In March, Riot Games unveiled Riftbound, a collectible card game inspired by its popular MOBA League of Legends.