Street Fighter 6 has been a certifiable hit since it launched on June 2.
Critical reception has been glowing—including my own 89% Street Fighter 6 review—and players have been diving in from all over the world to throw fireballs and flail their legs around with reckless abandon. The fighting game has proved hugely successful, so much so that Capcom has revealed it managed to sell over two million copies in five weeks, one million of those coming from its launch weekend alone.
We're proud to announce that #StreetFighter6 has sold over 2 million copies! 🤩All players will receive a small token of our appreciation in game. Thank you for all your continued support! pic.twitter.com/QAY5GNZ7ImJuly 7, 2023
Those are some good numbers for the genre, and seem on pace to meet Capcom's goal of 10 million lifetime sales. For comparison, Street Fighter 5 sold around 600,000 copies less in its first six weeks, missing its original 2 million sales target. It went on to sell around 7 million copies over seven years, making it the best-selling home console entry. Considering that game launched in a much, much worse state than Street Fighter 6, I won't be surprised to see the latter continuing to sell consistently well. Mortal Kombat, the other major fighting game franchise, has sold at least 15 million copies in four years.
Capcom's investment in SF6's competitive scene will certainly help to bolster those numbers. With a $2 million prize pool on the table for the next Capcom Cup—$1 million of which will go to the grand winner—and a more approachable game thanks to its Modern control option that is tournament legal, I'm sure it'll be encouraging people to pick up the game and give things a go.
The first DLC character Rashid is on the horizon too, with three more fighters planned to drop by early next year. There's plenty to look forward to, and as the game inevitably receives some tasty discounts down the road it'll be an even greater incentive to pick up the game, even if it is just to try its bizarre Yakuza-lite singleplayer mode.
