In regards to lifetime sales, Mortal Kombat is the biggest fighting game series ever.

Tweaktown

Just to cut to the chase, here's the list.

Mortal Kombat - 80 million

Super Smash Bros. - 72.39 million

Tekken - 54 million+

Street Fighter - 49 million

Soul Calibur* - 17 million

Dead or Alive* - 11.7 million

Marvel vs Capcom - 10 million

Virtua Fighter* - 5.5 million

Read more: https://www.tweaktown.com/news/91528/mortal-kombat-hits-80-million-sales-heres-how-it-stacks-up-against-competition/index.html

Yeah, compared to Street Fighter, color me surprised BIG TIME. Though I guess when in 2011, you're the big regular fighting franchise that tried to bring in newcomers (as I said, by popularizing modes and aspects found in what were considered licensed "shovelware fighters" from the PS2/GCN era) bound to happen.

And keep in mind, this is the only series on that list that after a certain point, doesn't release in Japan, the home of the fighting game genre (the movies are allowed though, even the 2021 film that had Hiroyuki Sanada).

Honestly I’m not really surprised. MK has been around a long time, has had more sequels, and has a more broad appeal.

It's the Call Of Duty of fighting games.

That's an insult, btw.

I find that hard to believe but I’m not an MK fan so what do I know?

People are bloodthirsty. End of story.

Not surprising, MK has regular releases and has always been multiplat.

Honestly like MK more than street fighter.

More happy to see Tekken beat SF in sales. Well deserved.

Smash is the real outlier. Ninty really hit it out the park with the franchise.

I like all these games, but several things about this list upset me:

Virtua Fighter too low

Soul Calibur is high up there, 6 was the bestselling game in the series, and Namco still considers it a disappointment.

15 entries, and King of Fighters still couldn't make the cut? Jesus.

Figured it was pretty well known. Only surprise is that Smash hasn't outsold it.. yet.

But yeah, tons of entries, easy to play, always maintained mass appeal. "Strong" single player content, at least relative to most other FGs.

Zero interest in the series these days, but I do think a game like this is good for the genre. Brings a lot of new players in and because it's more "traditional" than Smash, greater likelihood of moving over to the more core FGs. Similar to classic GoW players finding their way to other action games. Any genre with a tougher barrier of entry benefits from games like these.

Gamers just don't understand how popular MK franchise really is since its grand debut in the Arcade era, gamers never experience a brutal fighting game such as MK, it was always more popular than the Street Fighter franchise to be perfectly honest about it. Besides the crown jewel of the MK fighting game, the franchise has 3/4 live movies, a live TV series aka MK Legacy, a cartoon series from the late 90s, comic books, and action figures. I have been a huge MK fan since the beginning, not a surprise it's still the most popular fighting game around.

I'm surprised sales are so low for how long those fighting games have been around. When I was a kid I enjoyed street fighter more than mk.

@eni232:

Makes sense really. Fighting games haven't been a forefront mainstream genre since the 90s. Decline of arcades, other genres growing into popularity. And even back then a "massive seller" wasn't the same as what it is today.

If anything I'm just happy these games maintained, while so many other core genres fell off into obscurity or extinction lol.

They're in a good place now I think. Handful of series guaranteed to sell millions. The "little guys" have found a way to deliver great games with realistic budgets and expectations. Been a bit of a resurgence in recent years.

MK is trash. And so is Street Fighter. Games lack innovation and only provide graphical gimmicks.

It's interesting to note that while MK is successful with mass appeal, SF, Tekken, and Smash are much more present in the competitive scene than MK (e.g. number of participants and viewers at fighting game tournaments like EVO and CEO, corporate competitions like Capcom Pro Tour and Tekken World Tournament, and large community support like SuperSmashCon, etc.).

This shows the difference between SF, Tekken, and Smash, which have the depth of gameplay that satisfies fighting game enthusiasts, competitive pros, and spectators, while MK, while shallow in such things, has mass appeal in terms of extreme violence, single-player cinematics, and graphical production value.

Personally, as a fighting game fan, I prefer those fighting games with competitive depth such as SF, Tekken, and Smash, but I don't dislike MK either; it is a fact that MK helped bring the fighting game genre to the public's attention, and I hope the next entry will be successful.

I mean, it has its own day of the week! It's not like there's a Street Fighter Friday, or Tekken Tuesday.

VF is criminally underrated. And the fighting gane scene is in a bad place if Smash is the second highest selling.

I am not going to bother counting, but aren't there 10 times as many Mortal Kombat versions out there as Super Smash Bros versions? I'd say Super Smash Bros is the most successful beat'em'up ever.

@ConanTheStoner: I love that. 😂

@last_lap:

Yeah VF doesn't get nearly what it deserves. Definitely well respected among the fgc, just doesn't cut it big with the mainstream.

Though they really should throw an actual new game out there sometime lol. A dope new VF game with proper rollback could probably make a splash these days.

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Smash is just huge for obvious reasons. Forget fighting games, Smash outsells most games. Party game, family friendly, the most crossover stacked thing in any media. So much mainstream appeal.

Also just a great competitive game, it puts up the numbers there as well. Deceptively technical game, more so than a lot of fighters tbh.

Soon as I saw that post, just had to lol.

@ConanTheStoner: Yeah Sega shit the bed with VF. Should have had 6 put by now, and yet they make stuff like Monkeyball instead 🤦‍♂️

As for Smash, I kinda see it as a mish mash game if you know what I mean, not a straight up fighter.

@last_lap:

lol yeah, it's like they're not following the market. These past few years have been prime for fighting games. All kinds of great but less popular games/series have been doing well.

Currently it's like put out a great fighter with great netcode, the community will buy it. Simple as that. And better believe all these "influencers" will push the shit out of VF.

I know they tested the waters recently, but really, should just go all in.

I get you on Smash. It's certainly not a traditional fighting game, does its own thing in a lot of ways. Doesn't really appeal to me competitively. I am one of those normies who just plays it as a party game with the family lol.

Shame that Marvel vs Capcom doesn’t sell more. For me it’s a perfect combination, like peanut butter and chocolate. Sad how MvCI turned out. Fun mechanically but they done goofed on everything else.

@Archangel3371:

Yeah man. I know we've discussed it so many times before lol. But damn, really would be prime time to bring that back in a big way.

Give it the same love Arcsys did with DBFZ. Somehow keep Marvels grubby ass cinematic universe hands out of it.

I think Capcoms in a good place for it, just don't know if Marvel will ever let it breathe.

@ConanTheStoner: For sure, definite shame that Marvel was/is so set on making it all look and fit the MCU. ArcSystem Works sure did steal MvC’s lunch all right. Capcom is in a great spot right now for sure and if given the freedom could probably really deliver a solid MvC product. Unlikely to happen anytime soon though unfortunately.

@ConanTheStoner: haha, fair play

@dimebag667: lol couldn't resist man.

And CoD is the best selling FPS. The world is a fucked up place.

Damn, only Smash comes close, eh? And I definitely thought SF had sold more than Tekken..

@Litchie:

Tekken gets big followings in countries you'd never expect lol. Pretty awesome actually.

SF tends to do very well in the typical major markets, but so does Tekken.

Also hit a rough spot there for a bit with timing/consoles. SF3s major home port was on the Dreamcast, know how that went lol. Then spent the rest of gen 6 without a sequel. Dormant sales for the better part of a decade basically.

@ConanTheStoner: Ah yes, true. Makes sense then.

I always thought that Street Fighter would be number one or at least number two. Never thought that Tekken was more popular then Street Fighter is.

Those numbers are very interesting to say the least.

Honestly it seemed to me that WB was done with MK, but yeah they are right to keep this series going.

On the other hand I did not know that Soul Calibur and Virtua Fighter were that low :/

Well deserved. Well done all those behind the Mortal Kombat series. NetherRealm absolutely smashed it out of the park with MK X and MK 11.

How did Smash Bros spank Street Fighter so hard? It's a comparatively new series. Anyway, well done to all those behind Smash Bros too.