On December 24, 2016, Fujii Sōta played his first game as a professional shogi player, against Katō Hifumi. He was fourteen years and two months old, a second-year junior high school student. He broke the record for the youngest professional, which had stood for 62 years.
On October 11, 2023, at twenty-one, he completed the set of all eight major titles, the first player in history to hold them all. It had taken him seven years as a professional.