The National Hockey League (NHL) announced Monday details on its annual esports initiative for EA’s latest NHL game. Registration for the EA Sports NHL 24 World Championship will officially open in December, with official play kicking off in January using EA Sports NHL 24–which releases on multiple platforms on Friday (Oct. 6).
The EA SPORTS NHL 24 World Championship will be produced by NHL24WC partner DreamHack Sports Games, with Battlefly providing support for the online portion of the competition throughout the 2024 season, and while players can compete online using Xbox Series X|S or PlayStation 5, in-person events will be played on Sony’s console.
This season’s World Championship will feature six players total (four from North America and two from Europe) advancing to a World Final event to compete in-person for a world championship title, a championship belt, and a grand prize.
The road to the championship will be a mix of in-person/online esports tournaments for each of the 32 NHL Clubs, with both the Club Champion and Club runner-up automatically qualifying for the North American Championship knockout round, where they will receive a higher seeding than online open qualifiers.
The North American tournament will also feature an in-person NHL 24 WC qualifying event at the 2024 Rogers (Canada) / Honda (U.S) NHL All-Star Weekend (Feb. 1-4, 2024) in Toronto. The top four players from this event will win top-seed positions for the NHL 24 North American Console Finals phase.
This season’s 2024 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series esports event will not be a qualifier for the world championship. The Club Championship winner from the New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, and New Jersey Devils will compete in a mini-tournament live during the weekend to determine the Stadium Series Champion, who will receive a commemorative trophy.
In addition to qualifying during the traditional Online Open Play phase, European competitors will get two Open Play events (New Years Tournament and EU Chel Challenge), with the winner and runner-up for each console (PlayStation 5 / Xbox Series X|S) automatically advancing to Bracket Play with a higher seed standing.
All events will be played on PlayStation5 / Xbox Series X|S, but in-person events for the North American Championship, European Championship, and World Final will be played on the PlayStation 5 console.
The NHL24 World Championship will conclude in April to correspond with the end of the NHL’s regular season. Additional information will be announced in the coming weeks.
More details on the 2024 season can be found on the official tournament website.