Street Fighter 6 saw over one million players in launch weekend

950,000 play Honda

After a year of fervent hype, Capcom released Street Fighter 6 to the public on Friday, and already the fist-throwin’ sequel is off to an incredible start, with the one-on-one fighter entertaining a staggering one million players over the course of its launch weekend.

This wild number was revealed earlier this morning on social media by the series’ new director, Taka Nakayama, who thanked fans for their amazing support and posted some cute artwork of one of the title’s newcomers, Kimberly Jackson. According to Nakayama, this figures brings the series total “players” to over 50 million. Given that the most recent recorded data suggests that the series sits around 49 million lifetime sales, we can likely make the fair adaptation of “players” to “sales”.

/／
㊗#スト6 100万プレイヤー突破㊗
＼#ストリートファイター6 はプレイヤー数100万人を突破しました🎉

🎁ゲーム内でお祝いプレゼントあるのでスト6を起動してね🎁

合わせて❗
㊗シリーズ累計5,000万本突破㊗

本当にみなさまのおかげです😍
これからも『スト6』 をよろしくお願いいたします🙏 pic.twitter.com/B0b6uVnaYE

— ストリートファイター / STREET FIGHTER (@StreetFighterJA) June 5, 2023

I played Street Fighter 6, more or less, for the entire weekend, with the lobbies packed out with weird custom characters and endless queues of Ranked and Casual throwdown. The Avatar Battle mode was also surprisingly popular, (I’m on a 16-win streak right now), as was the Game Center, running several Capcom classics. It should also be noted that save for a few fights, online was silky smooth, even in the packed-to-capacity lobbies. Custom Rooms still have some minor bugs, unfortunately, that prevented me sending invites to some players. I went to bed at 04:00 am two nights in a row.

I, ironically, haven’t done this since the launch of Street Fighter IV.

Of course, fighting games can and do drop off over the course of their initial run, but SF6 already has an unyielding confidence about it, and while the lobbies will not be this chock-a-block forever, the title clearly has a huge future ahead of it in regards to local enjoyment and the competitive scene.

Street Fighter 6 is available now on PlayStation, PC, and Xbox platforms. Be sure to check out our newly launched and ever-growing guide hub for hints and tips on all of the game’s main modes.