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[Celine]

I thought SF was wayyyyy more popular.

Fighting game series LTD as Dec. '14 (worldwide shipment data):

Tekken: 43.44M
Smash Bros: 36.13M (Mar '15)
Street Fighter: 36M
Mortal Kombat: about 35M (Mar '15)
Soul Calibur: 12.99M
Dead or Alive: 9M

Source:
MK: http://www.businesswire.com/news/ho...ractive-Entertainment-Announces-Mortal-Kombat
The rest: CESA

 

[Dereck]

Fighting game series LTD as Dec. '14:

Tekken: 43.44M
Smash Bros: 36.13 (Mar '15)
Street Fighter: 36M
Mortal Kombat: about 35M (Mar '15)
Soul Calibur: 12.99M
Dead or Alive: 9M

It's like reading power levels in the Cell Saga

 

[ThoughtsOfSpeaking]

Same reason GOW is bigger than DMC and GoW is bigger than Uncharted.

Americans love gratutious violence.

 

[jacobeid]

I thought SF was wayyyyy more popular.

It is, despite the casual appeal for MK.

 

[akilshohen]

Probably consistency. Like it was said before SF took some time off.

Also with that sales number above, MK and SF sold about the same on the first release last gen, but then again, didn't MK vs DC sell 3 million even without a release in Asia?

What made MK skip Asia for so long? It's trippy that I told my Japanese friends about MK and they never heard of it.

 

[DR2K]

MKX success also has the luxury of much less competition in an early gen cycle. It's just a factor.

 

[TropicalFish]

For me personally, I prefer MK because the special attacks in its games are way easier to execute lmao. I hated that I didn't know how to properly play as Vega or Chun Li, but I guess I'm too bad at fighters to be able to master the way of the analog stick.

And yeah the story's better executed in MK too. Soul Calibur would have given it a run for its money but then SCV happened...

 

[Durden77]

Fighting game series LTD as Dec. '14 (worldwide shipment data):

Tekken: 43.44M
Smash Bros: 36.13M (Mar '15)
Street Fighter: 36M
Mortal Kombat: about 35M (Mar '15)
Soul Calibur: 12.99M
Dead or Alive: 9M

Source:
MK: http://www.businesswire.com/news/ho...ractive-Entertainment-Announces-Mortal-Kombat
The rest: CESA

Dunno exactly what these numbers consist of, but I do know one thing...Kombat bases it's success in America. Street Fighter just succeeds period.

I love ze Kombat though.

 

[Maintenance]

Fighting game series LTD as Dec. '14 (worldwide shipment data):

Tekken: 43.44M
Smash Bros: 36.13M (Mar '15)
Street Fighter: 36M
Mortal Kombat: about 35M (Mar '15)
Soul Calibur: 12.99M
Dead or Alive: 9M

Source:
MK: http://www.businesswire.com/news/ho...ractive-Entertainment-Announces-Mortal-Kombat
The rest: CESA

Wow, Tekken is first? Mindblown.

 

[Led_Zeppelin]

Content wins over casuals

Pretty much this. Just watch angry Joe if you want a casual reviewing a fighting game.

 

[GorillaJu]

In the FGC, you're right. The OP is referring to the average joe.

I would never refer to a small, insular community like the FGC here. I'm talking about your average Joe. Everyone in my family knows Street Fighter... MK? Far fewer.

 

[Neoxon]

I would never refer to a small, insular community like the FGC here. I'm talking about your average Joe. Everyone in my family knows Street Fighter... MK? Far fewer.

The likes of Ryu, Ken, & Chun-Li are iconic, sure. But the Street Fighter series, while popular, isn't as big as you'd think.

 

[NEO0MJ]

The likes of Ryu, Ken, & Chun-Li are iconic, sure. But the Street Fighter series, while popular, isn't as big as you'd think.

Yeah. I feel more people know about Scorpion and Sub Zero than Ryu and Ken.

 

[Neoxon]

Yeah. I feel more people know about Scorpion and Sub Zero than Ryu and Ken.

Ryu's literally the face of fighting games.

 

[@MUWANdo]

Probably consistency. Like it was said before SF took some time off.

Also with that sales number above, MK and SF sold about the same on the first release last gen, but then again, didn't MK vs DC sell 3 million even without a release in Asia?

What made MK skip Asia for so long? It's trippy that I told my Japanese friends about MK and they never heard of it.

MK hasn't released in Asia since MK2, pretty much--it's generally seen as distasteful and the irony isn't as obvious,to non-westerners, and publishers don't want to touch it because they'd be expected to give it a huge marketing push that probably wouldn't pay off, not least of all due to the complications with celling CERO Z games in Japan (quite literally a behind-the-counter rating).

 

[Inuhanyou]

Wow, Tekken is first? Mindblown.

They didn't say Tekken was the highest selling fighting game franchise of all time for nothing

 

[Slayven]

 

[KingBroly]

Yeah. I feel more people know about Scorpion and Sub Zero than Ryu and Ken.

Not to mention Shao Kahn. No one cares about Bison, comparatively.

UMVC3 and SFxT got dogged for not having enough content, particularly story mode. I imagine SF5 will get dogged for not have Trials and maybe a real Story Mode (It might not since it's coming later).

 

[GorillaJu]

I guess I can't really argue one way or the other since it's just going to be hearsay and anecdotal.

But while I think many gamers recognize MK as the better value package these days in terms of what you get for your money, a vast majority of Americans are more familiar with Ryu, Guile and Chun Li than they are Sub-Zero and Scorpion, and "Street Fighter" is always going to be the name synonymous with the genre.

 

[@MUWANdo]

Wow, Tekken is first? Mindblown.

Tekken can't really hang with SF/MK these days but it was a top-tier PS franchise during the era when Sony was running shit, so a lot of those sales came back then.

I think Tekken 3 still hold the record for the single biggest-selling fighting game of all time (ie not counting revisions) at over 8 million copies.

It still sells well nowadays (with Europe being the primary market) but it's more of a long-tail thing than the big SF/MK blowouts and I've heard Namco likes to fudge the numbers a little, too...

 

[Maintenance]

They didn't say Tekken was the highest selling fighting game franchise of all time for nothing

Never heard of that before, so that's a first for me. Some of the things that I've heard / seen about Harada finally make sense now.

 

[Miles X]

I always thought SF was the more popular franchise, but I haven't seen any like for like sales figures. How did MK9 do compared to SFIV in the US?

Vanilla, MK9 beat SFIV hands down, but when you add the dozen rereleases obviously SFIV comes out on top.

 

[DR2K]

Not to mention Shao Kahn. No one cares about Bison, comparatively.

UMVC3 and SFxT got dogged for not having enough content, particularly story mode. I imagine SF5 will get dogged for not have Trials and maybe a real Story Mode (It might not since it's coming later).

Bison own one of the days in our week and your couch. Kahn is just a busted boss character no one misses in MKX.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

Ryu's literally the face of fighting games.

Where? The MK cast is way more known among my friend circles.Even my sister who doesn't play games knows who Sonya and Sub Zero are. But I only know like one guy who plays SF and he's a bigger nerd than I am (which is saying something). From this highly scientific data I conclude that anybody who plays Street Fighter is a nerddddddddddddddd.

 

[KingBroly]

Bison own one of the days in our week and your couch. Kahn is just a busted boss character no one misses in MKX.

Shao Kahn is compared to several unstoppable forces of nature. He is untouchable, unplayable.

Bison may have his day, but he has no money and is played like a fiddle.

 

[Phediuk]

Being domestic games, rather than Japanese imports, probably helps.

 

[Carlius]

its also vry gory, which americans seem to like considering the violence that comes from the country.

 

[Celine]

Tekken can't really hang with SF/MK these days but it was a top-tier PS franchise during the era when Sony was running shit, so a lot of those sales came back then.

Tekken 6 (PS3, 360) shipped 3.05 million units which is comparable more or less to vanilla SFIV.

 

[entremet]

SF has a horrible single player mode, it's just not appealing to casuals in that regard.

 

[Ivan Amiibo]

Tekken 6 (PS3, 360) shipped 3.05 million units which is comparable more or less to vanilla SFIV.

Those were bargain bin fodder for years

 

[JimmyJones]

MK has deeper lore.

 

[PendekarRajawali]

I think SF is more popular than MK. Media exposed the violence in MK and that helped MK gain some popularity.

 

[RSTEIN]

You also have to recognize at its core mk is a very good fighting game. It's mechanics are very solid. You don't sell 5m+ on gore alone. These threads piss me off because mk's sales need to be explained as if it's some sort of peculiar anomaly. Like "how can this thing that's not Tekken be so popular!" the sales are high because it's a very good game.

 

[blakep267]

Ryu's literally the face of fighting games.

To the FGC, yeah. But Sub Zero and Scorpion are probably 2 of the most visible video game characters. It's the blue and yellow ninja. Everybody knows that. Also Johnny Cage, Liu Kang and Sonya blade are really popular too

 

[Nosgotham]

street fighter is more popular

 

[KHlover]

Wow, Tekken is first? Mindblown.

Yeah, those are some really nice sales. Will be interesting to see how the gap between Smash and Tekken develops in the future. With SSBB+SSB4 (WiiU and 3DS combined) accounting for almost 25 Million of SSB's sales I can imagine SSB V to close the gap considerably vs Tekken VII since the series is obviously still capable of growth.

 

[@MUWANdo]

Tekken 6 (PS3, 360) shipped 3.05 million units which is comparable more or less to vanilla SFIV.

Putting aside the whole "shipped =/= sold" thing, I've heard Namco's not very reliable when it comes to giving truthful shipping numbers (not that I remember specifics, mind you).

People also talk up the bargain-bin aspect but it's not like that's a whole lot different to regular Steam sales, or SF obsoleting the old versions every 18 months or whatever.

 

[Phediuk]

For some reason it's just not cool among hardcore gamers to like Mortal Kombat lol.

It's like the video game equivalent of liking Twilight or Transformers or something.

 

[entremet]

You also have to recognize at its core mk is a very good fighting game. It's mechanics are very solid. You don't sell 5m+ on gore alone. These threads piss me off because mk's sales need to be explained as if it's some sort of peculiar anomaly. Like "how can this thing that's not Tekken be so popular!" the sales are high because it's a very good game.

There's always been a bias toward Capcom games in the FGC.

 

[Gunstar Ikari]

Content wins over casuals

This plus gore and general aesthetic.

 

[NEO0MJ]

Ryu's literally the face of fighting games.

He's super popular but I feel thos two have a bigger presence in pop culture. Plus Mortal Kombat catch phrases are super popular and had a more successful movie.

 

[fernoca]

A huge part of the success of MK in the US was because of how it was threated as a multimedua franchise from the beginning.

The well known Techno Syndrome mix, the movie...

The characters were also well received Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Kitana, Mileena, Johnny Cage.

Many say is mostly the fatalities, yet even during the dormant years of Street Fighter, MK continued selling millions with less focus on realistic violence and gore; and the T rated MKvsDC (and even Injustice) did too.

 

[Gunstar Ikari]

Tekken 6 (PS3, 360) shipped 3.05 million units which is comparable more or less to vanilla SFIV.

Bamco stuffed the channels; the game was retailing for $40 by like Week 3.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

You also have to recognize at its core mk is a very good fighting game. It's mechanics are very solid. You don't sell 5m+ on gore alone. These threads piss me off because mk's sales need to be explained as if it's some sort of peculiar anomaly. Like "how can this thing that's not Tekken be so popular!" the sales are high because it's a very good game.

I'm also a bit mystified by people saying it has casual appeal as though the implication was that the majority of people playing Street Fighter was at the pro level while MK is filled with casuals gamers. Any game selling millions of copies has big appeal beyond a small core of die hard fans and professional gamers.

 

[@MUWANdo]

For some reason it's just not cool among hardcore gamers to like Mortal Kombat lol.

It's like the video game equivalent of liking Twilight or Transformers or something.

The reason was the long string of mediocre games between MK3 and MK9, basically. The recent games stepped up in a big way but let's not pretend they're all that good.

 

[Celine]

Yeah, those are some really nice sales. Will be interesting to see how the gap between Smash and Tekken develops in the future. With SSBB+SSB4 (WiiU and 3DS combined) accounting for almost 25 Million of SSB's sales I can imagine SSB V to close the gap considerably vs Tekken VII since the series is obviously still capable of growth.

It's just a question of time, Smash is going to have the first spot since Smash games sell much more than any other fighting game franchises.

 

[Rabid Dwarf 76]

You also have to recognize at its core mk is a very good fighting game. It's mechanics are very solid. You don't sell 5m+ on gore alone. These threads piss me off because mk's sales need to be explained as if it's some sort of peculiar anomaly. Like "how can this thing that's not Tekken be so popular!" the sales are high because it's a very good game.

This!

 

[fernoca]

I'm also a bit mystified by people saying it has casual appeal as though the implication was that the majority of people playing Street Fighter was at the pro level while MK is filled with casuals gamers. Any game selling millions of copies has big appeal beyond a small core of die hard fans and professional gamers.

Exactly. Even Street Fighter IV's reception and hype was because everyone wanted to play it...everyone had memories of Ryu, Ken, etc.

Ono, Harada, Itagaki know, like and even recognize MK as a good fighting game. Yet some of the fans of their games act as if it's a disgrace.

 

[Celine]

The reason was the long string of mediocre games between MK3 and MK9, basically. The recent games stepped up in a big way but let's not pretend they're all that good.

It's like the gap between MegaDrive Sonic games and recent Sonic Colors/Generation lol.

 

[evilromero]

It has a very cool aesthetic, interesting characters with developed stories of their own, darker more brooding world, great stages, music, that appeals to me far more than SF.