The New York City Pinball Championships is a world class pinball tournament. The event is open to players of all skill levels and ages. It is a multi-day qualifying tournament followed by a day of finals. During qualifying on Friday and Saturday players purchase tickets to play individual games on the tournament machines. Players may purchase as many tickets as they like.

The Main division, Classic division, and Women’s division use the single best game format. Each player's best score on each machine in their division of play is tracked and those scores are ranked against all of the other competitor's scores on that machine. Players then receive an aggregate of their machine rankings to determine their overall qualifying position in their division.

At the end of qualifying, a set number of people will be eligible for the finals. Main division will have 24 qualifiers, plus an additional 24 qualifiers in B division on Sunday. Classics division will have 24 qualifiers with finals played on Saturday. Women's division will have 8 qualifiers with finals played on Saturday.