It was eight years between the release of Street Fighter 4 and Street Fighter 5, which launched in 2008 and 2016, respectively. Even then, many Street Fighter fans said Street Fighter 5 arrived too early and that Street Fighter 4 deserved more focus. Now, in the midst of a pandemic that's stunted the Street Fighter 5 competitive scene, Capcom seems poised to move forward. How fans will react is a mystery, given past controversies. But the Street Fighter 6 announcement may be arriving sooner than many expect.A strange countdown was published on Monday by Capcom on its official website. The Capcom countdown is currently shown to have 5 days and 8 hours remaining before it reaches 0. That's on February 20 at what's believed to be 10:00 PM PT. There are no notable messages, images, or anything else of reference on the website outside the countdown itself. It's a big mystery. However, there are several persuasive arguments outside the countdown itself that the announcement will be Street Fighter 6. The first bit of evidence is that February 20 coincides with a major Street Fighter-related event. The Season Final of the Capcom Pro Tour for Street Fighter 5: Championship Edition runs from February 17 through February 20. That means that the countdown will likely end as the Season Final is playing out. Capcom is known to make fighting game-related announcements during big tournaments, and this is just such a situation.
Second, a notable Capcom-adjacent Twitter account retweeted the announcement of the countdown from Capcom. The Capcom Cap-Jams account, the team responsible for recent Street Fighter game music, shared the post along with a couple of pairs of emoji eyes. This could very well just be Capcom brands trying to build up excitement for the reveal, but the countdown wasn't retweeted by the Resident Evil or Monster Hunter accounts, at the very least.
Lastly, Street Fighter 6 was a name included in the massive hack that Capcom suffered in late 2020. The leak showed that Capcom planned to release Street Fighter 6 in 2022. Plans can change, though, and the leak isn't wholly reliable, but that timeline matches up with a possible announcement coming up.
That the countdown is potentially for Street Fighter 6 is entirely a rumor, of course. There's no clear indication that the announcement is for Street Fighter 6, or that it's even Street Fighter-related. It does seem the most likely possibility for what Capcom would be ready to reveal as of February 2022, however.
Street Fighter 6 is rumored to be in development.