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[Eddie-Griffin]

It happened

https://www.eventhubs.com/news/2022/aug/16/street-fighter-5-bestselling/

Street Fighter 5 began its life underwhelming fans everywhere, which caused the game to fall below Capcom's initial sales expectations, but things have continued to improve and truck on to find eventual success.



Now as of June 30, 2022, Street Fighter 5 has finally become Capcom's best selling single release of a fighting game in their history.



The updated Platinum Titles page for Capcom confirms SF5 now sits at 6.6 million copies sold after 6 and a half years on the market, making it #8 in the company's rankings overall.

That now edges out Street Fighter 2 on the Super Nintendo's 6.3 million units, which held that record for basically 30 years.

https://www.capcom.co.jp/ir/english/business/million.html#tab1

Going from a game that had a disastrous launch failing sales goals, and people thinking that SF may be put on ice for awhile blaming Sony for a disastrous exclusivity deal, to now being the best selling SF game and the 8th best selling Capcom game is quite a story.

Sure there are reasons WHY it ended up reversing course with sales and none of them were about the actual game, but it's still impressive none the less to see Street Fighter 5 reach 6.60 million sold.

With SF6 it looks like Capcom has learned from their mistakes, not just in MP and content, but in appealing to those wanting a great single-player experience which was lacking in Street Fighter 5, since it didn't even exist at launch. Will SF6 see the series sell MK and DBZ figures taking advantage of SF5's new momentum and good will? Maybe, but this is Capcom and outside RE they are known for making silly errors in judgement.

Street Fighter 2 has been dethroned in copies sold, after over 30 years Capcom has managed to pull with SF that it easily did with RE. With Mega Man 11 only 10,000 copies from mega Man 2, soon all of the old guard may be dethroned by the end of the year. Street Fighter V is the new king of the hill.

(although I've seen some argue they are cheating since there are two versions of the game being sold and Capcom decided to not separate them unlike all the other times but that's another story. This seems to only matter to the hardcore fan sites)

 

[amigastar]

Nice, i've liked SFV but looking forward to SF6

 

[Jennings]

That's because true gamers played SFII in the arcades.

 

[Salvatron]

I have a good feelings about SF6, but SF5 was such a massive disappointment. Honestly it kind of soured me on fighting games for quite awhile.
I know SF5 is a much more polished these days. I'm glad to see it's survived such a nightmare origin story tho.

 

[ManaByte]

Imagine if it wasn't locked on one platform.

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

I honestly can't believe it could in any shape or form outsell SF2 which has been played for the last 30 years. Something is way off about those metrics. Maybe sold more than SF2 on PS.

 

[MiguelItUp]

Genuinely surprised by this. Especially since I felt like V was such a huge letdown at the start, though it did get better with time. But for me, by the time it was getting better and better we knew 6 was coming, so what's the point of even bothering with V?

I'm really hoping 6 delivers through and through.

 

[SeraphJan]

SF2 SF3 SF4 are all better than SF5

 

[Walter Matthau]

_

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Imagine if it wasn't locked on one platform.

it's not locked on one platform?

 

[Bruno_Arrais85]

Sure, unless you don't put all the other versions of SF2 into equation. There is no way SF5 will surpass SF2 overall.

 

[ManaByte]

it's not locked on one platform?

It's only on PS4/PC.

 

[Stuart360]

I honestly can't believe it could in any shape or form outsell SF2 which has been played for the last 30 years. Something is way off about those metrics. Maybe sold more than SF2 on PS.

You have to remember they are talking about the Snes version of SF2, not all the million versions of SF2 that released on multiple systems.
And the Snes sold like a 3rd of PS4 consoles, or something like that.
Times change, and expectations change. Snes SF2 was one of the biggest games on the planet at that time, and its 6mil sales was absolutley huge for a single game at that time.
6mil in this day and age is not even close to the same level as 6mil back inthe 90's, which is why SF5 seems nowhere near as big a deal today as SF2 was back on the Snes where it was one of the biggest games on the planet.

 

[ManaByte]

You have to remember they are talking about the Snes version of SF2, not all the million versions of SF2 that released on multiple systems.
And the Snes sold like a 3rd of PS4 consoles, or something like that.
Times change, and expectations change. Snes SF2 was one of the biggest games on the planet at that time, and its 6mil sales was absolutley huge for a single game at that time.
6mil in this day and age is not even close to the same level as 6mil back inthe 90's, which is why SF5 seems nowhere near as big a deal today as SF2 was back on the Snes where it was one of the biggest games on the planet.

I still remember standing in line to pick up my copy.

 

[Walter Matthau]

_

 

[Stuart360]

I still remember standing in line to pick up my copy.

I actually got a chance to play the Snes version months before the game released as me and my cousin had a Japanese school friend called Quan who had the a Japanese Snes and a Japanese copy.
Man the game was huge, a cultural phenom at that time, probably only beaten by Mortal Kombat that gen (in terms of pop culture).
But like i said, times and expectations change, which is why SF5 seemed like a nothing release compared to Snes SF2, even though they have sold similar numbers.

 

[DenchDeckard]

It only beats out the original SF2, not turbo or Super.

If you take in the actual major releases its not ina good spot. Far behind 2 and SFIV

 

[SEGA_2012]

IMHO SFV is a mediocre game and this is TERRIBLE news. SF2 is a masterpiece, one of the best games of all time, and changed the industry.

 

[DeepEnigma]

It's only on PS4/PC.

So that's two platforms.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

It's only on PS4/PC.

...is pc not a platform?

 

[MrA]

It only beats out the original SF2, not turbo or Super.

If you take in the actual major releases its not ina good spot. Far behind 2 and SFIV

Plus street fighter 2 sold those copies largely at 75 usd or more, how many sfvs were sold for like 5-10 bucks on sale

 

[Walter Matthau]

_

 

[Fake]

SF4>SFV. Hope SF6 can bring back the SF4 effect.

 

[yazenov]

...is pc not a platform?

What he meant was its not on his platfrom of choice.

 

[phil_t98]

the difference now is all the variants of street fighter 2 would of been DLC these days, back then they had to be sold differently. so add all the ones SF2 up and they way ahead of SFV

 

[Fuz]

Undeserved.

 

[DenchDeckard]

Sfv was an absolute joke and a tarnish to the series. Its legit one of the only commercial releases I like to pretend doesn't exist. I bought it at launch and have hardly any playtime on it. Its awful.

 

[Wohc]

Can't believe it did so well, to me V sucked. Nothing will beat II Turbo.

 

[Lasha]

Sfv was an absolute joke and a tarnish to the series. Its legit one of the only commercial releases I like to pretend doesn't exist. I bought it at launch and have hardly any playtime on it. Its awful.

What fighting games do you have significant time in? I put in most of my time with V during it's first year or two. I had a lot of fun. Crossplay was a blessing. I recently reinstalled V and I felt that the game has added so much.

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

SF2 SF3 SF4 are all better than SF5

Not 4.... sorry

 

[Robb]

In other words, it's not even close to being the best selling in the series.

Yeah, this was pretty much my takeaway as well.

 

[Gamer79]

I just picked it up for $5 on sony store. Cheap but decentr.

 

[MiguelItUp]

Not 4.... sorry

I personally loved 4 more than V, it also had a much better launch. Since, you know, it felt like an actual full priced game, lol.

 

[onQ123]

Imagine if it wasn't locked on one platform.

Being an exclusive most likely helped it sell better.

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

Believe it or not, it's an even wider gap than that. Those 6.3m copies of SFII that sold on SNES do not include the 4.1m copies of Turbo on the SNES or the 2m copies of Super Street Fighter II on the SNES.

Overall SFII sold 12.4m copies on one platform versus SFV which sold only 6.6m copies across all versions and platforms (PS,PC). That's terrible considering how many more gamers there are today vs the SNES days.

Those were all released as separate games, even in the arcade in some instances.

it doesn't make sense to say SFII sold 2.5 million copies when people literally brought the game they preferred. Some didn't buy until SSFII why should they subsidize the sales for people who wanted the original unfixed experience?

On the other hand SFV was discounted a lot, on PSN+, and was able to attract the people who left for other fighting games the first 3 years with new content and cheap prices, so they way both got to 6 million is different, so there's no need to lump games together.

SFII also had the arcade.

I'd argue Mortal Kombat is the only fighter that ended up becoming a bigger deal than the original hype status from the 90's.

 

[TheDuskwalker]

Really good for a game that had one of the worst fighting game launches, and sales were almost dead after the first month for about 17 months. Season 3/arcade edition was a big turn around for actually getting the average Joe to start buying the game. That said not quite comparable to Capcom's older sales as Capcom now count re-releases/DLC bundle retail versions as the same SKU unlike a few years ago. Still really good though, especially given the stigma because of the games launch..

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

Being an exclusive most likely helped it sell better.

Not the first few years it didn't.

I just picked it up for $5 on sony store. Cheap but decentr.

Yeah, the discounts were a big part of its later appeal.

the difference now is all the variants of street fighter 2 would of been DLC these days, back then they had to be sold differently. so add all the ones SF2 up and they way ahead of SFV

I've heard this excuse a lot and it doesn't add up. This could have applies to PS4 but there were still 5 releases of the game.

Those weren't just DLC releases, those were new just remasters of the original release. Definitely for SSFII which was practically a new game and not a simple update.

So that's two platforms.

No.

Laying horizontally I can step on an Xbox One or Playstation 4 and those consoles will be fine.

If I step on a PC as a platform it breaks and I lose $1300 because I voided the warranty.

So no, I would not recommend using PC as a platform.

 

[Golgo 13]

I have a good feelings about SF6, but SF5 was such a massive disappointment. Honestly it kind of soured me on fighting games for quite awhile.
I know SF5 is a much more polished these days. I'm glad to see it's survived such a nightmare origin story tho.

Street Fighter 5 was so bad at launch - I think people forget this. What’s astounding to me is the sales - in my view, this game had nowhere near the cultural impact of even Street Fighter 4, in terms of gamer mindshare and the lasting enthusiasm in the fighting community. Curious as to the region specific sales - I didn’t hear anyone talk about this game since that awful launch - it’s like it came and went and no one cared.

 

[DenchDeckard]

What fighting games do you have significant time in? I put in most of my time with V during it's first year or two. I had a lot of fun. Crossplay was a blessing. I recently reinstalled V and I felt that the game has added so much.

Over the years I would out hundreds of hours into street fighter. Sf IV was an obsession. But yeah, soulcalibur 6 was decent, tekken 7 etc too.

Sf6 looms like a return to form.

SFvs story mode is an example of how bad the game is. It's awful lol. Just watch some cut scenes on YouTube.

 

[phil_t98]

Not the first few years it didn't.



Yeah, the discounts were a big part of its later appeal.



I've heard this excuse a lot and it doesn't add up. This could have applies to PS4 but there were still 5 releases of the game.

Those weren't just DLC releases, those were new just remasters of the original release. Definitely for SSFII which was practically a new game and not a simple update.



No.

Laying horizontally I can step on an Xbox One or Playstation 4 and those consoles will be fine.

If I step on a PC as a platform it breaks and I lose $1300 because I voided the warranty.

So no, I would not recommend using PC as a platform.

I played they all, they would defiantly be updates these days and not full games. do you not think the games get patched and updated as we go along and end up being more like SSFII

try playing an unpatched SFV versus the latest patched version

 

[SportsFan581]

(although I've seen some argue they are cheating since there are two versions of the game being sold and Capcom decided to not separate them unlike all the other times but that's another story. This seems to only matter to the hardcore fan sites)

I'd say the bigger cheating is how much smaller the game market was as a whole back in the SF2 days. No way SFV is anywhere near as big as SF2 in the collective consciousness of gamers today.

Congrats to them regardless. Glad that SF6 is getting a multi-platform launch.

 

[Trogdor1123]

Sorry if asked and answered but I don’t see any word on if it included the million different versions of sf2

 

[Nocturno999]

Sure, unless you don't put all the other versions of SF2 into equation. There is no way SF5 will surpass SF2 overall.

Yeah, they are wording it like a politician would.

 

[Walter Matthau]

_

 

[//DEVIL//]

Isn’t the base game with the story / single player is like 3$ on pc ?

 

[Morrie’s wig shop]

Is this the longest a numbered street fighter has gone without a release of a follow up game?

 

[SmokedMeat]

I find it pretty hard to believe. There’s been fifty iterations of Street Fighter 2 across numerous platforms.

 

[KAOS]

Bout time!

 

[Trogdor1123]

It doesn't. In fact, it's only being compared to the SNES version of vanilla SF2.

All versions of SF2 well exceed 15m.

That isn’t even close then. Need those 3do numbers of ssf2t to get it over the top!

 

[MrA]

It doesn't. In fact, it's only being compared to the SNES version of vanilla SF2.

All versions of SF2 well exceed 15m.

not to mention the legions of licensed computer ports,might have been trash but the pc, c64, amiga, atari st, zx spectrum all were sold just on the appeal of being street fighter 2, no matter how bad plus the million + selling gameboy port (probably not on capcoms list as the US release was published by nintendo)