Capcom may be hinting at Akuma's official Street Fighter 6 release date, gameplay trailer likely coming this weekend

Fans have been waiting not so patiently for the arrival of Akuma in Street Fighter 6 for almost a full year now, but it's looking more like that timer may soon have an end point in sight.

Capcom just recently launched a new promotion in SF6 that appears to further point towards Akuma's release date, as a gameplay trailer drop is looking more likely for this weekend too.

Street Fighter is currently giving away an additional Rental Fighter Ticket to let players try out one of the "existing" Year 1 DLC characters in Rashid, A.K.I. and Ed, which by itself doesn't mean much.

What is of interest, however, is the end date of the little campaign since it's slated to end on May 22, which basically indicates that Akuma will not be hitting the game on or before that point.

May itself is still looking like the most probable window for the demon to rage his way onto the stage considering a Japanese resort is getting an early play preview event for Akuma at the start of the month.

Try out Rashid, A.K.I. and Ed!

We're giving out a Rental Fighter Ticket that will let you try out one of the existing Year 1 characters! Retrieve this from your NEWS.

You can only retrieve this until 5/22 so don't miss out! pic.twitter.com/FDlcTHWYoM

— Street Fighter (@StreetFighter) April 22, 2024

With the Monster Hunter anniversary Fighting Pass now over, next in line is probably the Akuma Arrives battle pass, and those usually last around three weeks.

For previous DLC, they also typically ended the passes like a week before the character actually drops too, so we're presumably looking for at least a four-week period before Akuma kicks down the door.

Next, let's take into account the launches of the past three characters with Rashid coming to SF6 on Monday July 24, A.K.I. was next on Wednesday September 27 and Ed on Tuesday February 27.

This points to us that the Akuma Fighting Pass will come around the end of April / beginning of May and end potentially at the same time as that Rental Fighter Ticket promotion.

All of this backs up our previous prediction that Akuma is going to release between May 27–29 to cap off Year 1 content for the game.

While there is no hard confirmation yet, pretty much all signs are pointing to Akuma's actual gameplay trailer coming this weekend as well at Evo Japan 2024.

Up to this point, Capcom has consistently avoided making fighting game announcements at tournaments since SF6 launched, but there was an exception to that with A.K.I.'s teaser and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover at Evo 2023.

They already showed off Akuma's teaser over a month ago at Capcom's own streaming event, but time is running out for the full thing.

As mentioned before, the play preview event is coming at the start of May, so his actual trailer has to come before then.

It'd be more bizarre to not have a Street Fighter announcement at an Evo, especially when it comes to SF6's most anticipated character thus far.

With Street Fighter finals scheduled to end around 9 p.m. in Japan on Monday, April 29, that would put his estimated trailer drop time around 5 a.m. PDT here in the West unless they do it before top 6.

The bigger question at this point may be if Capcom will show any teases for Year 2 there as well and if the new balance changes are coming with the demon or after.

Either way, we should be learning a lot more about Akuma in SF6 in less than a week.

You can also check out our previous discussion about Akuma's release and game changes we're expecting for Season 2 below.