Street Fighter 6 sales catch up with Mortal Kombat 1

In various media outlets this morning, we learn that fighting game rival, Street Fighter 6, has now sold 4 million units. This number now matches Mortal Kombat 1's previous sales number.

You can read more about this here:

"Another interesting comparison is with fighting game rival Mortal Kombat 1, which has sold four million copies since going on sale in September 2023. Mortal Kombat is typically the best-selling fighting game franchise, outselling the likes of Street Fighter and Tekken by some margin. Mortal Kombat 1 hit four million sales around 11 months after launch. Tekken 8 sold two million in a month."

Credit: IGN via

https://www.ign.com/articles/street-fighter-6-now-on-4-million-sales-matching-mortal-kombat-1

 

Props to SF6 reaching these sales numbers ...... great respect for the SF franchise , that has a huge matter inside the fighting game story ..... they're the pioneer and deserve all sucess !

 

Good. I hope it does better. The game is superior to MK1 in literally every way and deserves it

 

@Juggs still want to bet on that model?

 

@Juggs still want to bet on that model?

Huh?

 

It's a great franchise. Kind of crazy that MK keeps outselling it. SF is just catching up to MK now, and MK is about to start selling KP2 and additional story mode content.

 

Kind of crazy that MK keeps outselling it. SF is just catching up to MK now, and MK is about to start selling KP2 and additional story mode content.

Also SF6 has been out since the start of June 2023, and MK hasn't even been out a year. 4 million in less than 12 months is pretty amazing.

 

Good. I hope it does better. The game is superior to MK1 in literally every way and deserves it

Correct.

Capcom took massive criticism after Street Fighter 5, forcing the company to make various adjustments to the single-player content, net code, meta, etc.
The end result is a fighting game that is selling as well as performing very well in tournaments.

Street Fighter 6 is the anti Mortal Kombat 1.

Well-deserved, indeed.

 

Correct.

Capcom took massive criticism after Street Fighter 5, forcing the company to make various adjustments to the single-player content, net code, meta, etc.
The end result is a fighting game that is selling as well as performing very well in tournaments.

Street Fighter 6 is the anti Mortal Kombat 1.

Well-deserved, indeed.

Steadily, slowly but surely building towards a goal with consistency and customers trust.
Building with a solid foundation in mind rather than rushing through the top and fall crumbles, as they say: "The higher the climb..."

 

@Juggs still want to bet on that model?

You still haven’t explained what you meant by this ^

 

You still haven’t explained what you meant by this ^

Just comparing between what NRS it's currently doing, to what Capcom and Namco are currently, i know current gen only it's probably the biggest factor.
But in the end i wonder how this pans out, will capcom be able to retain their audience with the next entry?
Will Namco?
Will NRS?

There is also a chance of tables turning, like imagine, next title release, Capcom and Namco decide to scrap everything and NRS builds a solid foundation, what kind of impact would it have?

 

Just comparing between what NRS it's currently doing, to what Capcom and Namco are currently, i know current gen only it's probably the biggest factor.
But in the end i wonder how this pans out, will capcom be able to retain their audience with the next entry?
Will Namco?
Will NRS?

There is also a chance of tables turning, like imagine, next title release, Capcom and Namco decide to scrap everything and NRS builds a solid foundation, what kind of impact would it have?

Oh, I understand now. Thanks for explaining.

The biggest thing to keep in mind is how different the consumer/player base is with Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. The problem is there’s no real solid statistics that I can point to in order to back up my position or arguments and what not. But anyway, because of this difference, I think it’s a primary reason the business models are so different even though they’re both well known, long established 2D fighting games.

Anyway, yeah, it’s clear MK games have an edge when it comes to sales. And to account for the drastic difference in sales numbers from MK11 (15mil+) to MK1 (4mil+), as I’ve said before, I think 2 of the biggest reasons are MK1 not being on all platforms, and the lack of marketing for MK1 as well as the duration of marketing. Meaning, MK1 was first announced in May of last year, and it released just 4 months later in September. That’s flat out ridiculous and I’m not sure of any big budget, huge franchise games that have ever done something like that. 4 months of marketing & promotion is just not enough time.

 

And to account for the drastic difference in sales numbers from MK11 (15mil+) to MK1 (4mil+), as I’ve said before, I think 2 of the biggest reasons are MK1 not being on all platforms, and the lack of marketing for MK1 as well as the duration of marketing. Meaning, MK1 was first announced in May of last year, and it released just 4 months later in September.

MK11 had 5 months of promotion. So I think that's about normal since 2015, and it was pretty similar for MK11/MK1.

To compare apples to apples though, you need to compare the sales at 11 months-ish for both, and that'll tell you how far off it is.

 

I wonder which game was more expensive to produce. Does anyone know? If MK1 was more expensive, SF6 may already be more profitable.

 

Capcom is doing quite well for themselves and has made a lot of really good games in the last few years. The gaming industry isn’t in a great place right now, but they’re putting out high quality and fun games, and are thankfully successful enough to continue to do so.

 

I wonder which game was more expensive to produce. Does anyone know? If MK1 was more expensive, SF6 may already be more profitable.

MK1 certainly cost more to produce than sf6. They've got way more voice acting, cinematic cutscenes, and production values overall. Not to mention celebrity voice acting, use of Megan Fox's likeness, and licensing for the guest characters.

The real question is by how much.

 

I love both of these games. I think the difference is the SF6 is like a love letter to fans. MK1 is comparatively a bit of a kick in the arse - there is a lot less care content wise.

I find MK1 REALLY fun, but SF6 is the better, more complete game overall.

 

MK1 certainly cost more to produce than sf6. They've got way more voice acting, cinematic cutscenes, and production values overall. Not to mention celebrity voice acting, use of Megan Fox's likeness, and licensing for the guest characters.

I think you’re on to something here with your reasoning, but to offset that you have all the time Capcom invested in r&d, and fleshing out all the modes, the practice mode, the foresight to let you que for match making anywhere, the lack of visual bugs or glitches/qa work debugging the game.
You can tell each single character had more development time invested in animating them and balancing them compared to characters in MK.
World Tour from SF6 is basically a Yakuza game but the minigames are based around teaching you fighting game concepts. Invasions was barely an afterthought when it came out, and it actively makes you worse at the game if you play it too much.

anyways all this has been said somewhere else.

 

Congrats to them, you can see the polish and passion in every bit of SF6, such an impressive change after the launch and first year of sf5.

The only comparison to mk that I have is that competition is a good thing and I hope the standard for a release of a fighting game keeps getting higher and higher.

 

Amazon games presents mk2 just keeps getting closer