Fighting games have been undergoing a bit of a resurgence in the last few years. Although the genre never really died out, it did weaken somewhat during the early PS4 and Xbox One era, when some of the biggest titles at the time received tepid critical reception. These days, however, fighting games are probably the most popular they've been in ages. Guilty Gear and other niche franchises have finally broken into the mainstream with titles like Guilty Gear: Strive, and older games such as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate have very active fanbases to this day. Meanwhile, some dormant IPs, like Virtua Fighter and Fatal Fury, are making comebacks.
Although the fighting game market is really large nowadays, there are still only three multi-platform franchises in the genre that reign supreme: Street Fighter, Tekken, and Mortal Kombat. These series have played a key role in the creation of the modern fighting game genre, and they've consistently topped the sales charts since their respective debuts. Surprisingly, Street Fighter, Tekken, and Mortal Kombat received new mainline installments in 2023 and 2024, all of which came out less than eight months apart from each other. These games have been pretty successful, but some have fared better than others.
June 5 is Going to Be a Big Day for Street Fighter 6
Street Fighter 6 fans should circle the first Thursday of June on the calendar, as Capcom's mainline fighting game will see a major update.
Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8, and Mortal Kombat 1 All Launched Less than a Year Apart from Each Other
Street Fighter 6 Was a Big Critical and Commercial Success for Capcom
The first of these three titles, Street Fighter 6, came out on June 2, 2023 for PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows PC. Unlike its 2016 predecessor, Street Fighter 5, this Capcom-developed game was met with very positive reviews at launch. Street Fighter 6 garnered an astounding 92/100 rating on OpenCritic, and it was nominated for various categories at several year-end awards shows. The critical success of the game translated into commercial success, as well. Street Fighter 6 sold over one million units just five days after its release, and by December 2024, it had sold over 4.4 million copies on all platforms.
Mortal Kombat 1 Sold Five Million Copies in Less than Two Years
Shortly after Street Fighter 6 was released, Warner Bros. And NetherRealm Studios launched Mortal Kombat 1 on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC. This game, which made its debut on September 19, 2023, acted as a reboot of the Mortal Kombat franchise and was set in a new timeline that took place after the events of 2019's Mortal Kombat 11. Although the game received fairly good reviews, the general sentiment towards the game kind of soured over time, as many fans grew upset over Mortal Kombat 1's aggressive monetization practices. Nonetheless, it sold nearly three million copies in under two months and eventually reached the five million copies sold mark by January 2025.
Despite Some Post-Launch Struggles, Tekken 8 Has Sold Decently
The newest entry in the Tekken franchise, Tekken 8, was the last title in this fighting game trifecta to be released. It came out exclusively for PC and current-gen consoles on January 26, 2024, and it received glowing reviews across the board. Much like Mortal Kombat 1, however, the game's reception has been somewhat damaged lately by developer Bandai Namco's questionable post-launch Tekken 8 support and monetization strategies. Tekken 8 is the worst-selling title out of the 'Big Three' fighting games. It sold over two million units in its first month, but it only managed to sell a total of three million copies by February 2025.
The fact that Tekken 8 sold less than Street Fighter 6 and Mortal Kombat 1 shouldn't be that surprising, considering that it's only been on the market for one year and is available on fewer platforms.
Mortal Kombat 1 is the Best Selling Fighting Game of the Last Few Years
Out of the three titles mentioned above, Mortal Kombat 1 is actually the best-selling one of them all. Even though it was released three months after Street Fighter 6, it managed to sell roughly 600k units more than Capcom's hit fighting game, and it outsold Tekken 8 by over two million copies. In spite of this, Mortal Kombat 1 seems to be performing worse than Mortal Kombat 11, which sold over 15 million copies in three years. Since NetherRealm has abruptly ended support for MK1, it's unlikely that it will ever reach this sales milestone.
Street Fighter 6
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 91 /100 Critics Rec: 98%
WHERE TO PLAY
Play legendary masters and new fan favorites like Ryu, Chun-Li, Luke, Jamie, Kimberly and more in this latest edition with each character featuring striking new redesigns and exhilarating cinematic specials.
Dominate the Fighting Ground: Street Fighter 6 offers a highly evolved combat system with three control types - Classic, Modern and Dynamic - allowing you to quickly play to your skill level.
The new Real Time Commentary Feature adds all the hype of a competitive match as well as easy-to-understand explanations about your gameplay. The Drive Gauge is a new system to manage your resources. Use it wisely in order to claim victory.
Explore the Streets in World Tour: Discover the meaning of strength in World Tour, an immersive, single-player story mode. Take your avatar and explore Metro City and beyond. Meet Masters who will take you under their wing and teach you their style and techniques.
Seek Rivals in the Battle Hub: The Battle Hub represents a core mode of Street Fighter 6 where players can gather and communicate, and become stronger together. Use the avatar you create in World Tour to check out cabinets on the Battle Hub floor and play against other players, or head over to the Game Center to enjoy some of Capcom's classic arcade games.
- Engine
- RE Engine
- Genre(s)
- Fighting
