In all the Dragon Ball series there is a World Martial Arts Tournament on Earth, occurring every 5 years (which later changes to every 3 years after the 21st Tournament). The tournament features Earth's strongest fighters as well as the regular participation of the Z Fighters. Besides the title of World Martial Arts Champion, the winner of the tournament would get the considerable amount of 500,000 zeni (later increased to ten million zeni) as a prize, although in the revived World Martial Arts tournament, they apparently send it by mail than actually giving it to the winner directly.

In the tournament, anyone who comes into contact outside of the ring, is knocked out for more than ten seconds (which is counted by the commentator), or gives up automatically loses. The tournament forbids any use of weapons or protective body gear (although natural weapons, such as bear claws, are allowed). Poking someone in the eyes or hitting them in the groin is also not allowed. The most important rule is that killing the opponent is not allowed. Disobeying any of these rules results in disqualification from the tournament. However, more than one villain in the manga has entered the tournament with more interest in killing someone against whom they have a vendetta than in winning the prize.

The tournament has two parts: the preliminaries and the tournament itself. The preliminaries are held indoors and without an audience. In the preliminaries, all the contestants are divided in several groups, usually eight. These eight groups fight in mini-tournaments with a one-minute time limit for each match (matches that last longer than one minute are decided by points). The eight winners, one of each group, move on the the actual tournament.

In the World Tournament Saga, the tournament replaced the preliminaries with a punching contest to reduce injuries. Fighters would punch a machine, which would then calculate the strength of the punches. The sixteen who scored the highest moved on to the actual tournament. The bracket was also modified such that the champion of the previous Tenkaichi Budokai would be guaranteed a slot in the championship match.

The participants fight in pairs; the order of the fights is decided by each participant taking a random number from a box. As there are usually eight participants, the tournament has three levels: quarter-finals (4 fights), semi-finals (2 fights), and the final fight. It is later increased to sixteen fighters in the World Tournament Saga. The winner of each fight goes on to fight with the winner of the other fights, with a tree diagram showing the order of the fighters, going up on the aforementioned levels, ultimately leading to the championship bout against the former champion.