Fighting game

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This article is about fighting video games. For fighting games involving many simultaneous opponents, see Beat 'em up and Hack and slash. For other uses, see Fight (disambiguation).

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A fighting game is a genre of video game that involves combat between two or more characters. Fighting game combat often features mechanics such as blocking, grappling, counter-attacking, and chaining attacks together into "combos". Characters generally engage in battle using hand-to-hand combat—often some form of martial arts. The fighting game genre is related to, but distinct from, the beat 'em up genre, which pits large numbers of computer-controlled enemies against one or more player characters.

Battles in fighting games usually take place in a fixed-size arena along a two-dimensional plane, to which the characters' movement is restricted. Characters can navigate this plane horizontally by walking or dashing, and vertically by jumping. Some games, such as Tekken, also allow limited movement in 3D space.

The first video game to feature fist fighting was

arcades. This period spawned dozens of other popular fighting games, including franchises like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Super Smash Bros. and Tekken
.

Definition

Fighting games are a type of action game where two (in one-on-one fighting games) or more (in platform fighters) on-screen characters fight each other.[2][3][4][5] These games typically feature special moves that are triggered using rapid sequences of carefully timed button presses and joystick movements. Games traditionally show fighters from a side view, even as the genre has progressed from two-dimensional (2D) to three-dimensional (3D) graphics.[3] Street Fighter II, though not the first fighting game, is considered to have standardized the genre,[6] and similar games released prior to Street Fighter II have since been more explicitly classified as fighting games.[5][6] Fighting games typically involve hand-to-hand combat, though many games also feature characters with melee weapons.[7]

This genre is related to but distinct from beat 'em ups, another action genre involving combat, where the player character must fight many enemies at the same time. Beat 'em ups, like traditional fighting games, display player and enemy health in a bar, generally located at the top of the screen. However, beat 'em ups generally do not feature combat divided into separate "rounds".

video game magazines up until the end of the 1990s.[12] With hindsight, critics have argued that the two types of game gradually became dichotomous as they evolved, though the two terms may still be conflated.[5][13]

Sports-based combat games are games that feature

wrestling games are often described as distinct genres, without comparison to fighting games, and belong more in the sports game genre.[14][15]

Game design

Although Street Fighter II was not the first fighting game, it popularized and established the gameplay conventions of the genre.

Fighting games involve combat between pairs of fighters using highly exaggerated martial arts moves.[3] They typically revolve primarily around brawling or combat sport,[4][7] though some variations feature weaponry.[7] Games usually display on-screen fighters from a side view, and even 3D fighting games play largely within a 2D plane of motion.[3] Games usually confine characters to moving left and right and jumping, although some games such as Fatal Fury: King of Fighters allow players to move between parallel planes of movement.[3][16] Recent games tend to be rendered in three dimensions, making it easier for developers to add a greater number of animations, but otherwise play like those rendered in two dimensions.[7]

Features

Aside from moving around a restricted space, fighting games limit the player's actions to different offensive and defensive maneuvers. Players must learn which attacks and defenses are effective against each other, either through trial and error or communication with other players outside of the game.

SNK's Garou: Mark of the Wolves).[18][19]

Special attacks and combos

An integral feature of fighting games is the use of "special attacks", also called "secret moves",[20] that employ combinations of directional inputs and button presses to perform a particular move beyond basic punching and kicking.[21] Some special moves, which play an animation portraying an aspect of the character's personality, are referred to as taunts. Originally introduced by Japanese company SNK in their game Art of Fighting,[22][23] these are used to add humor, but also have an effect on gameplay in certain games, such as improving the strength of other attacks.[24] Sometimes, a character can even be noted especially for taunting (for example, Dan Hibiki from Street Fighter Alpha).[25][26] Combos, in which several attacks are chained together, are another common feature in fighting games and have been fundamental to the genre since the release of Street Fighter II.[27] Most fighting games display a "combo meter" that displays the player's progress through a combo. The effectiveness of such moves often relates to the difficulty of execution and the degree of risk. These moves are often challenging to perform and require a player to have both a strong memory and excellent timing.[3]

Counterplay

Predicting opponents' moves and counter-attacking, known as "countering", is a common element of gameplay.[7] Fighting games also emphasize the difference between the height of blows, ranging from low to jumping attacks.[20][28] Thus, strategy becomes important as players attempt to predict each other's moves, similar to in rock–paper–scissors.[3]

Grappling and takedowns

In addition to blows such as punches and kicks, players can utilize throwing or grappling to circumvent blocks. Most fighting games give the player the ability to execute a grapple move by pressing two or more buttons together, or simply by pressing punch or kick while being directly adjacent to the opponent. Other fighting games, like Dead or Alive, have a unique button for throws and takedowns.

Projectiles

Used primarily in 2D fighting games, projectiles are objects that a fighter can launch at another fighter to attack from a distance. While they can be used to simply inflict damage, projectiles are also often used to maneuver opponents into disadvantageous positions. The most notable projectile is Ryu and Ken's Hadouken from Street Fighter.

Emergent gameplay elements

Turtling and zoning

Further information: Turtling (gameplay)

In the world of fighting games, especially those of the 2D variety, zoning refers to defensive play that focuses on using relatively risk-free attacks to keep the opposing player away. The desired outcome of zoning is to force an opponent to take significant risks to approach the zoning player's character, or to stall out the in-game timer, which causes the player with more health (typically the one doing the zoning) to win. The effectiveness of the latter strategy varies from game to game, based on the effectiveness of zoning tools as well as the length of the in-game timer and the rewards characters can receive for successfully landing a hit when countering zoning.

Rushdown

Further information: Rush (video games)

The opposite of turtling, rushdown refers to a number of specific aggressive strategies, philosophies, and play styles across all fighting games. The general goal of a rushdown play style is to overwhelm the opponent and force costly mistakes, either by using fast, confusing setups or by taking advantage of an impatient opponent as they are forced to play defense for prolonged periods of time. Rushdown players often favor attacking opponents in the corner of a stage or as they get up from a knockdown; both situations severely limit the options of the opponent and often allow the attacking player to force high-risk guessing scenarios.

Spacing and footsies

Spacing is the act of positioning a character at a range where their attacks and movement tools carry the lowest risk and the highest reward. The concept is somewhat akin to that of footwork in martial arts. The desired position for play varies based on what tools are available to the character each player is currently using. As a result of this, a concept called "footsies" has emerged, frequently defined as players jockeying for position and using low-commitment moves at distances where neither character has a particular advantage.[29]

Pressure

Depending on the game, character, and move used, a player may be rewarded for a decisive blow with a strong positional advantage, strong enough that the rewarded player can minimize the number of viable moves available to the other player. Doing so, and then taking advantage of the opponent's limited options, is called pressure. Common forms of pressure include making a player guess whether they should block high or low, or keeping the opposing player trapped in the corner and punishing any attempts to escape.

Matches and rounds

The player's objective in a fighting game is to win a match by depleting their rival's health over a set number of rounds. Mortal Kombat even allows the victor to perform a gruesome finishing maneuver called a "Fatality".

Fighting game matches generally consist of a set number of rounds (typically

three), and the match will begin once the in-game announcer gives the signal (typically "ROUND 1... FIGHT!").[30] If the score is tied after an even number of rounds (e.g. 1-1), then the winner will be decided in the final round. Round decisions can also be determined by time over (if a timer is present), which judge players based on remaining health to declare a winner. In the Super Smash Bros. series, the rules are different. Instead of rounds, the games usually give players a set number of lives (called stocks) for each player (usually three), and if the score is tied between two or more fighters when time runs out, then a "sudden death
" match will take place by delivering a single hit to an opponent with 300% damage.

Fighting games widely feature

Virtua Fighter also allow a character to be defeated by forcing them outside of the arena, awarding a "ring-out" to the victor.[17]
The Super Smash Bros. series allows players to send fighters off the stage when a character reaches a high percentage of damage; however, the gameplay objective differs from that of traditional fighting games in that the aim is to increase damage counters and knock opponents off the stage instead of depleting life bars.

Beginning with

controversies.[32]

Fighting games often include a single-player campaign or tournament, where the player must defeat a sequence of several computer-controlled opponents. Winning the tournament often reveals a special story-ending

full motion video cutscenes for each character upon their respective victories.[33][34][35]

Character selection

In most fighting games, players may select from a variety of playable characters with unique fighting styles, special moves, and personalities. This became a strong convention for the genre with the release of Street Fighter II, and these character choices have led to deeper game strategy and replay value.[36]

Custom character creation, or "create–a–fighter", is a feature of some fighting games that allows a player to customize the appearance and move set of their own character.

Super Fire Pro Wrestling X Premium was the first game to include such a feature.[37]

Multiplayer modes

Fighting games may also offer a multiplayer mode in which players fight each other, sometimes by letting a second player challenge the first at any moment during a single-player match.

data transmission can disrupt the split-second timing involved in fighting games.[35][40] The impact of lag in some fighting games has been reduced by using technology such as GGPO, which keeps the players' games in sync by quickly rolling back to the most recent accurate game state, correcting errors, and then jumping back to the current frame. Games using this technology include Skullgirls and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition.[41][42]

History

Origins (1970s to early 1980s)

Fighting games find their origins in martial arts films, especially Bruce Lee's Hong Kong martial arts films which featured concepts that would be foundational to fighting games. These include Game of Death (1972), which had Lee fighting a series of bosses, and Enter the Dragon (1973), which was about an international martial arts tournament.[43] The genre also drew inspiration from Japanese martial arts works, including the manga and anime series Karate Master (1971–1977), as well as Sonny Chiba's The Street Fighter (1974).[44]

The earliest video games which involved fist-fighting were

bird's-eye view.[5] Sega's jidaigeki-themed arcade action game Samurai, released in March 1980, featured a boss battle where the samurai player character confronts a boss samurai in one-on-one sword-fighting combat.[48][49]

One-on-one boxing games appeared on consoles with

stamina meters that deplete when getting hit and replenish with successful strikes.[56]

Emergence of fighting game genre (mid-to-late 1980s)

health meter system, becoming the standard for the genre.[65]

home computers that successfully added plot to its fighting action,[5] like the beat 'em up Kung-Fu Master.[68]

By early 1985, martial arts games had become popular in arcades.

PAL regions in May 1985;[76] The Way of the Exploding Fist borrowed heavily from Karate Champ,[77] but nevertheless achieved critical success and afforded the burgeoning genre further popularity on home computers in PAL regions,[10][78] becoming the UK's best-selling computer game of 1985.[79] In North America, Data East ported Karate Champ to home computers in October 1985,[80] becoming one of the best-selling computer games of the late 1980s.[81][82] Other game developers also imitated Karate Champ, notably System 3's computer game International Karate, released in Europe in November 1985; after Epyx released it in North America in April 1986, Data East took unsuccessful legal action against Epyx over the game.[80] Yie Ar Kung-Fu went on to become the UK's best-selling computer game of 1986, the second year in a row for fighting games.[83] The same year, Martech's Uchi Mata for home computers featured novel controller motions for grappling maneuvers, but they were deemed too difficult.[10]

In the late 1980s, side-scrolling beat 'em ups became considerably more popular than one-on-one fighting games,

pressure-sensitive controls that determine the strength of an attack, though due to causing damaged arcade cabinets, Capcom replaced it soon after with a six-button control scheme offering light, medium, and hard punches and kicks, which became another staple of the genre.[87]

In 1988,

game consoles largely ignored the genre. Budokan: The Martial Spirit was one of the few releases for the Sega Genesis, but was not as popular as games in other genres.[85] Technical challenges limited the popularity of early fighting games. Programmers had difficulty producing a game that could recognize the fast motions of a joystick, and so players had difficulty executing special moves with any accuracy.[6][85]

Mainstream success (early 1990s)

The release of

combo mechanic, which came about when skilled players learned that they could combine several attacks that left no time for the opponent to recover if they timed them correctly.[89][90][91] Its success led to fighting games becoming the dominant genre in the arcade game industry of the early 1990s,[92] which led to a resurgence of the arcade game industry.[93] The popularity of Street Fighter II led it to be released for home game consoles and becoming the defining template for fighting games.[6][85]

SNK released

Dark Edge, an early attempt at a 3D fighting game where characters could move in all directions. However, Sega never released the game outside Japan because it felt that "unrestrained" 3D fighting games were unenjoyable.[85] Sega also attempted to introduce holographic 3D technology to the genre with Holosseum in 1992, though it was unsuccessful.[95] Several fighting games achieved commercial success, including SNK's Art of Fighting and Samurai Shodown as well as Sega's Eternal Champions. Nevertheless, Street Fighter II remained the most popular,[85] spawning a Champion Edition that improved game balance and allowed players to use boss characters that were unselectable in the previous version.[6]

Chicago's Midway Games achieved unprecedented notoriety when they released Mortal Kombat in 1992. The game featured digital characters drawn from real actors, numerous secrets,[85][96] and "Fatality" finishing maneuvers in which the player's character kills their opponent. The game earned a reputation for its gratuitous violence,[96] and was adapted for home game consoles.[85] The home version of Mortal Kombat was released on September 13, 1993, a day promoted as "Mortal Monday". The advertising resulted in line-ups to purchase the game and a subsequent backlash from politicians concerned about the game's violence.[96] The Mortal Kombat franchise would achieve iconic status similar to that of Street Fighter with several sequels as well as movies, television series, and extensive merchandising.[32][97] Numerous other game developers tried to imitate Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat's financial success with similar games, including Rare Software with Killer Instinct, a game that featured unprecedentedly detailed pre-rendered 3D graphics and vastly improved on the core concept of combos, presenting a way faster gameplay than most other games of that era, specific combo-breaker maneuvers, and the "Ultra", a series of combined finishing moves surpassing the number of 20 hits. Many of the games of that period were low budget clones of the more popular titles, and in some cases this led to controversy; in 1994, Capcom USA took unsuccessful legal action against Data East over the 1993 arcade game Fighter's History, which supposedly plagiarized Street Fighter 2.[20] Data East's largest objection in court was that their 1984 arcade game Karate Champ was the true originator of the competitive fighting game genre, which predated the original Street Fighter by three years,[98] but the reason the case was decided against Capcom was that the copied elements were scènes à faire and thus excluded from copyright.[99]

Emergence of 3D fighting games (mid-to-late 1990s)

Virtua Fighter
 (1993) was the first widespread 3D fighting game. It is typical of most fighting games in that action takes place in a two-dimensional plane of motion. Here, one player ducks the other's attack.

Sega AM2's first attempt in the genre was the 1993 arcade game Burning Rival,[100] but they gained renown with the release of Virtua Fighter for the same platform the same year. It was the first fighting game with 3D polygon graphics and a viewpoint that zoomed and rotated with the action. Despite the graphics, players were confined to back and forth motion as seen in other fighting games. With only three buttons, it was easier to learn than Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, which had six and five buttons respectively. By the time the game was released for the Sega Saturn in Japan, the game and system were selling at almost a one-to-one ratio.[85]

The 1995 PlayStation title Battle Arena Toshinden is credited for taking the genre into "true 3D" due to its introduction of the sidestep maneuver, which IGN described as "one little move" that "changed the fighter forever." The "sidestep" in the game, however, was consisted of shoulder rolls instead of actual sidesteps.[101][102] That same year, Namco released Tekken 2 which introduced actual sidestepping or "mist steps," as first seen in arcade games and in the international fighting game community. These moves were only exclusive to its two protagonists: Heihachi Mishima and his son, Kazuya Mishima, as well as his counterpart transformation which served as the final boss in the arcade mode. The mist steps also allowed combos to be performed as a manner of "crouch dashing," or when the Mishima player could run to the opponent while crouching since regular running prevented executing easy combos.[103][104] Later, SNK released The King of Fighters '94 in arcades, where players choose from teams of three characters to eliminate each other one by one.[105] Eventually, Capcom released further updates to Street Fighter II, including Super Street Fighter II and Super Street Fighter II Turbo. These games featured more characters and new moves, some of which were a response to people who had hacked the original Street Fighter II game to add new features themselves. However, criticism of these updates grew as players demanded a true sequel. By 1995, the dominant franchises were the Mortal Kombat series in America and the Virtua Fighter series in Japan, with Street Fighter Alpha unable to match the popularity of Street Fighter II.[6] Throughout this period, the fighting game was the dominant genre in competitive video gaming, with enthusiasts popularly attending arcades in order to find human opponents.[32] The genre was also very popular on home consoles. At the beginning of 1996, GamePro (a magazine devoted chiefly to home console and handheld gaming) reported that for the last several years, their reader surveys had consistently seen 4 out of 5 respondents name fighting games as their favorite genre.[106]

In the late 1990s, traditional 2D fighting games began to decline in popularity, with specific franchises falling into difficulty due to 3D fighters. Although the release of

Street Fighter: The Movie was released for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn, it was not a port, but a separately produced game based on the same premise.[110] Capcom released Street Fighter III in 1997 which featured improved 2D visuals, but was also unable to match the impact of earlier games.[6] Excitement stirred in Japan over Virtua Fighter 3 in arcades,[85] and Sega eventually ported the game to its Dreamcast console.[111] Meanwhile, SNK released several fighting games on their Neo Geo platform, including Samurai Shodown II in 1994, Real Bout Fatal Fury in 1995, The Last Blade in 1997, and annual updates to their The King of Fighters franchise.[112] Garou: Mark of the Wolves from 1999 (part of the Fatal Fury series) was considered one of SNK's last great games;[113] the company announced that it would close its doors in late 2001.[114] Electronic Gaming Monthly reported that in 1996, U.S. gamers spent nearly $150 million on current generation fighting games, and in Japan, fighting games accounted for over 80% of video game sales.[115]

The fighting game genre continued to evolve, with several strong 3D fighting games emerging in the late 1990s.

Soul series of weapon-based fighting games also achieved considerable critical success, beginning with 1995's Soul Edge (known as Soul Blade outside Japan) to Soulcalibur VI in 2018.[117][118] Tecmo released Dead or Alive in the arcades in 1996, porting it for the PlayStation in 1998. It spawned a long-running franchise, known for its fast-paced control system, innovative counterattacks, and environmental hazards. The series again included titles important to the success of their respective consoles, such as Dead or Alive 3 for the Xbox and Dead or Alive 4 for the Xbox 360.[35][119][120] In 1998, Bushido Blade, published by Square, introduced a realistic fighting engine that featured three-dimensional environments while abandoning time limits and health bars in favour of an innovative Body Damage System, where a sword strike to a certain body part can amputate a limb or decapitate the head.[121]

Video game enthusiasts took an interest in

fictional crossovers, which feature characters from multiple franchises in a particular game.[122] An early example of this type of fighting game was the 1996 arcade release X-Men vs. Street Fighter (which later became the Marvel vs. Capcom series), featuring comic book superheroes as well as characters from other Capcom games.[citation needed] In 1999, Nintendo released the first game in the Super Smash Bros. series, which allowed match-ups from various franchises, such as Pikachu vs. Mario.[122]

Decline (early 2000s)

Gekido features a beat 'em up system with a 3D side scrolling gameplay.

In the early 2000s, the fighting games boom turned to bust. In retrospect, multiple developers attribute the decline of the fighting genre to its increasing complexity and specialization, as well as other factors such as over-saturation. This complexity shut out casual players, and the market for fighting games became smaller and more specialized.[123][124] Even as far back as 1997, many in the industry said that the fighting game market's growing inaccessibility to newcomers was bringing an end to the genre's dominance.[125] Furthermore, arcades gradually became less profitable throughout the late 1990s to early 2000s due to the increased technical power and popularity of home consoles.[20][112] The early 2000s is considered to be the "Dark Age" of fighting games.[126]

In 2000, Italian studio NAPS team released Gekido for the PlayStation console, which uses a fast-paced beat 'em up system, with many bosses and a colorful design in terms of graphics. Several more fighting game crossovers were released in the new millennium. The two most prolific developers of 2D fighting games, Capcom and SNK, combined intellectual property to produce SNK vs. Capcom games. SNK released the first game of this type, SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium, for its Neo Geo Pocket Color handheld at the end of 1999. GameSpot regarded the game as "perhaps the most highly anticipated fighter ever" and called it the best fighting game ever to be released for a handheld console.[127][128] Capcom released Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 for arcades and the Dreamcast in 2000, followed by sequels in subsequent years. Though none matched the critical success of the handheld version, Capcom vs. SNK 2 EO was noted as the first game of the genre to successfully utilize internet competition.[128][129] Other crossovers from 2008 included Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe.[130][131] The most successful crossover, however, was Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii. Featuring characters from Nintendo and third-party franchises, the game was a runaway commercial success in addition to being lavished with critical praise.[38][132][133]

In the new millennium, fighting games became less popular and plentiful than in the mid-1990s, with multiplayer competition shifting towards other genres.

French Bread and achieved cult success on the PC. It became highly popular in arcades following its 2005 release, and a version was released for the PlayStation 2 the following year.[136] The late 1990s and early 2000s saw the rise in online gaming. In 2004, Mortal Kombat: Deception, Dead or Alive Ultimate, and the Xbox version of Street Fighter Anniversary Collection became the first fighting games to offer online multiplayer and have received positive reception from critics. While the genre became generally far less popular than it once was,[32] arcades and their attendant fighting games remained reasonably popular in Japan during this time period, and remain so even today. Virtua Fighter 5 lacked an online mode, but still achieved success both on home consoles and in arcades; players practiced at home and went to arcades to compete face-to-face with opponents.[137] In addition to Virtua Fighter, the Tekken, Soul and Dead or Alive franchises continued to release installments.[35][118] Classic Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat games were re-released on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade, allowing internet play, and in some cases, HD graphics.[32][138][139]

The early part of the decade had seen the rise of competitive video gaming, referred to by the term

STAR TV.[144][145][146]

Renaissance (late 2000s to present)

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 showroom

The late 2000s featured a number of games that sparked another surge in fighting game popularity. Super Smash Bros. Brawl was released in early March 2008 to universal acclaim and went on to set a new record in sales, at one point selling at 120 units per minute.[147] Another game was Street Fighter IV, the series' first mainline title since Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike in 1999, which was released in early 2009 also to critical acclaim,[148] having garnered praise since its debut at Japanese arcades in July 2008.[149] The console versions of Street Fighter IV, as well as the updated Super Street Fighter IV,[150] sold more than 6 million copies over the next few years.[151] Street Fighter's successful revival sparked a renaissance for the genre,[150][152] introducing new players to the genre and with the increased audience allowing other fighting game franchises to achieve successful revivals of their own, as well as increasing tournament participance.[153] Tekken 6 was positively received, selling more than 3 million copies worldwide as of August 6, 2010.[154] Other successful titles that followed include Mortal Kombat,[150][155] Marvel vs. Capcom 3,[150][152] The King of Fighters XIII,[155] Dead or Alive 5,[155] Tekken Tag Tournament 2,[155] SoulCalibur V,[156] and Guilty Gear Xrd. Despite the critically acclaimed Virtua Fighter 5 releasing to very little fanfare in 2007,[153] its update Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown received much more attention due to renewed interest in the genre.[153][155]

Numerous indie fighting games have also been crowdfunded on websites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo, the most notable success being Skullgirls in 2012. Later, in 2019, Ubisoft reported that the free-to-play platform fighting game Brawlhalla reached 20 million players, with it climbing to 80 million by 2022.[157]

In 2018, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch was released. It became the best-selling fighting game of all time, topping its Wii predecessor Super Smash Bros. Brawl and introduced nearly 90 characters through its default mode and through downloadable content or DLC,[158] having sold 33.67 million copies worldwide.[159] Later in the mid-2020s, the genre achieved another renaissance with the arrival of Street Fighter 6 and its immediate success, together with Mortal Kombat 1 and Tekken 8. Both Street Fighter 6 and Mortal Kombat 1 have garnered 3 million copies sold in one year, while Tekken 8 which was the latest release in January 2024 already sold 2 million copies in its first month.[160] Thus, there has been a marked resurgence in fighting games in the 2020s that has been deemed to be a new golden age in fighting games.[161][162]

Financial performance

Highest-grossing franchises

The following are the highest-grossing fighting game franchises, in terms of total gross revenue generated by

computer games
.

Rank Franchise Debut Creator(s) Owner Gross revenue Subgenre As of Ref
1 Street Fighter 1987 Takashi Nishiyama
Hiroshi Matsumoto 		Capcom $10.6 billion 2D (Traditional) 2020 [163]
2 Mortal Kombat 1992 Ed Boon
John Tobias
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
 $5.054 billion
(including other media) 		2D (Traditional) 2006 [164][165]

Best-selling franchises

Arcade

The following are the best-selling fighting

Street Fighter II Dash (Champion Edition) in 1992,[166] up to $21,000 (equivalent to $44,000 in 2023) for Virtua Fighter (1993).[167]
In addition to unit sales, arcade games typically earned the majority of their gross revenue from coin drop earnings.

Rank Franchise Debut Creator(s) Owner Arcade unit sales Subgenre As of Ref
1 Street Fighter 1987 Takashi Nishiyama
Hiroshi Matsumoto 		Capcom 500,000 2D (Traditional) 2002 [168]
2 Virtua Fighter 1993 Yu Suzuki
Seiichi Ishii 		Sega 110,000+ 3D (Traditional) 1997 [a]
3 Tekken 1994 Seiichi Ishii
Namco 		Bandai Namco Entertainment 94,000+ 3D (Traditional) 2000 [b]
4 Mortal Kombat 1992 Ed Boon
John Tobias
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
 51,000+ 2D (Traditional) 2002 [174]
5 Darkstalkers 1994 Junichi Ohno
Alex Jimenez 		Capcom 24,000+ 2D (Traditional) 1996 [175]

Home

The following are the best-selling fighting game franchises for home systems, having sold at least 10 million software units for

personal computers
.

Rank Franchise Debut Creator(s) Owner(s) Software sales Subgenre As of Ref
1 Mortal Kombat 1992 Ed Boon
John Tobias
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
 83 million 2D (Traditional) September 2023 [c]
2 Super Smash Bros. 1999 Masahiro Sakurai
HAL Laboratory 		Nintendo 74.66 million Platform/2D December 2023 [d]
3 Tekken 1994 Seiichi Ishii
Namco 		Bandai Namco Entertainment 57 million 3D (Traditional) January 2024 [e]
4 Street Fighter 1987 Takashi Nishiyama
Hiroshi Matsumoto 		Capcom 53 million 2D (Traditional) December 2023 [188]
5 Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 2003 Masashi Kishimoto (manga)
CyberConnect2 (games) 		Bandai Namco Entertainment 32.52 million Arena/3D March 2023 [186]
6 Soulcalibur 1995 Hiroaki Yotoriyama
Namco 		Bandai Namco Entertainment 17 million Weapon-based 3D (Traditional) July 2021 [189]
7 Marvel vs. Capcom 1996 Akira Yasuda
Ryota Niitsuma
Noritaka Funamizu
Tsuyoshi Nagayama 		Capcom
Marvel Games 		11 million 2D (Traditional) December 2023 [190]

Best-selling fighting games

Arcade

The following titles are the top ten best-selling fighting

Street Fighter II Dash (Champion Edition) in 1992,[166] up to $21,000 (equivalent to $44,000 in 2023) for Virtua Fighter (1993).[167]
In addition to unit sales, arcade games typically earned the majority of their gross revenue from coin drop earnings, which are unknown for most games. Arcade revenue figures, from unit sales and coin drop earnings, are listed if known.

Rank Title Release Developer Manufacturer Arcade unit sales Gross revenue Inflation Subgenre Ref
1 Street Fighter II 1991 Capcom Capcom 221,000+ $5.31 billion+ $11.9 billion 2D (Traditional) [f]
2 Virtua Fighter 1993 Sega AM2 Sega 40,000+ Un­known Un­known 3D (Traditional) [169]
Virtua Fighter 2 1994 Sega AM2 Sega 40,000+ Un­known Un­known 3D (Traditional) [170]
4 Tekken 2 1996 Namco Namco 40,000 Un­known Un­known 3D (Traditional) [172]
5 Tekken 3 1997 Namco Namco 35,000 Un­known Un­known 3D (Traditional) [171]
6 Karate Champ 1984 Technōs Japan Data East 30,000+ Un­known Un­known 2D (Traditional) [191]
7 Virtua Fighter 3 1996 Sega AM2 Sega 30,000 Un­known Un­known 3D (Traditional) [171]
8 Street Fighter 1987 Capcom Capcom 10,000–50,000 Un­known Un­known 2D (Traditional) [66]
9 Mortal Kombat II 1993 Midway Games Midway Games 27,000 $600 million $1.27 billion 2D (Traditional) [174][93]
10 Mortal Kombat 1992 Midway Games Midway Games 24,000 $570 million $1.24 billion 2D (Traditional) [174]
Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors 1994 Capcom Capcom 24,000 Un­known Un­known 2D (Traditional) [175]

Home

The following titles are the top ten best-selling fighting games for home systems, in terms of software units sold for

personal computers
.

Rank Title Release Developer Publisher Platform(s) Software sales Subgenre Ref
1 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate 2018
Sora Ltd.
 Nintendo Switch 33.67 million Platform/2D [192]
2 Street Fighter II 1992 Capcom Capcom
Multi-platform
 15.5 million 2D (Traditional) [193]
3 Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U 2014
Sora Ltd.
 Nintendo
3DS, Wii U
 15.02 million Platform/2D [182][183]
4 Mortal Kombat 11 2019 NetherRealm Studios
Warner Bros.
Multi-platform
 15 million 2.5D (Traditional) [194]
5 Super Smash Bros. Brawl 2008
Sora Ltd.
 Nintendo Wii 13.32 million Platform/2D [180][195]
6 Tekken 7 2017 Bandai Namco Studios Bandai Namco
Multi-platform
 11.8 million 3D (Traditional) [196][197][198]
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 2016 CyberConnect2 Bandai Namco
Multi-platform
 Arena/3D [199]
8 Mortal Kombat X 2015 NetherRealm Studios
Warner Bros.
PS4, XB1, PC
 11 million 2.5D (Traditional) [200]
9 Dragon Ball FighterZ 2018 Arc System Works Bandai Namco Entertainment Multi-platform 10 million 2.5D (Traditional) [201]
Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 2016 Dimps Bandai Namco Entertainment Multi-platform Arena/3D [201]

See also

Look up Appendix:Glossary of fighting games in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Notes

  1. ^ Virtua Fighter series arcade unit sales:
  2. ^ Tekken series arcade unit sales:
  3. ^
  4. ^ Super Smash Bros. series sales:
  5. ^
  6. ^ See Street Fighter II § Reception

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