Top Fighting Games per system, by sales

#1

This was going to be my next post on the “Less is More in Fighting Games” thread but it was closed. I was just checking out the charts to see if my theory was close, and I think it speaks for itself.

Source:

SNES:

Street Fighter 2 (also the best selling fighting game of all consoles)

Sega Genesis:

Mortal Kombat 2

Sega Saturn:

Virtua Fighter

Sega Dreamcast:

Soul Calibur

Playstation:

Tekken 3

Playstation 2:

Tekken Tag Tournament tied with Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance

Xbox:

Dead or Alive 3 (also sold more copies in Japan than any other Xbox game)

Source:

Xbox 360:

Dead or Alive 4

The reason for looking at the numbers is because my original argument was that overall, less is more in fighting games and the games that put too much into it are only appealing to the true hardcore crowd. This is proved by the numbers.

As you can see from my original list, I wasn’t too far off. I had said Street Fighter 2 series, best game is arguably all except the Anniversary Edition which added too much. I said Tekken Tag/Tekken 3 overall for Tekken Series. I said Mortal Kombat 2. And I said Street Fighter Alpha 2 (Although Street Fighter Alpha 3 sold more units on PSX than Alpha 2, so I was off on that one).

All in all, there is nothing wrong with having the hardcore crowd liking MCV2 or Street Fighter 3 over other fighters, but facts are facts. The average gamer doesn’t want so many features in their fighting games, and I think most gamers here would agree that Street Fighter 2, Tekken Tag, and DOA have been some of the best fighting games overall.

I don’t think you can say that those games would have been better or more appealing if they had 52-Hit Super Combos, Multiple ISM’s, Infinite Air Juggles, or 50 Playable Characters.

So there is the proof to support my argument.

#2

Couldn’t possible have anything to do with the fact that the modern day fighting genre has been on a terrible decline in consumer interest in comparision to the days of snes…Right?

Another thing, Some of those games got boosted sales because they came out at console launch when there wasn’t much of a game selection.
Most people buy games at launch that they normally wouldn’t buy if they had a better choice.

Soul calibur and vf on dreamcast and saturn fall under that as well as tekken tag tournament.
Almost everybody who got a launch ps2 got tekken tag, They weren’t that big of tekken fans it was just that ps2 didn’t have shit else really to buy, And thus never got tekken 4 or 5 later.

Your own list has a contradiction in there for you as well.
Tekken 3 on ps1,
If less is always more, Tekken 1 or 2 would have sold more and would be the better version no?

Doa3 was one of three games worth getting xbox launch day and the only fighting game on the system for awhile. (other two games worth getting being halo and pgr)

Fighting games aren’t selling as well as they use to because the fanbase in general has moved on.
Fighting games as a genre is in decline. Lack of modern fighters pushing out the same numbers as the classics at that time has nothing to do with the classics being better because they have less and everything to do with the interest in the genre is dying out.
Those games didn’t sell better because they were better than their modern counter parts. They sold better due to other circumstances beyond that.

Your point, Crushed.

#3

Yeah, he just can’t seem to collect enough neg rep.

#4

Of course TTT will out sell Capcom fighters(CvS2, SFAC, etc) when Capcom sends out a smaller number copies to retailers to sell. Which is why they become rare so easily. TTT was in circulation for a much longer time than the others, hell it went to Greatest Hits. So it stayed on the stands longer. As for DOA 4, that was the only fighter on 360 available so no surprise that it’s doing better that VF 5.

#5

your neg rep is proof to my arguement that you suck.

#6

I don’t buy the theory that people just buy games at launch and that is why the numbers are so high. When you sell over a million copies, you do so for a reason. There are some people that might like most all genre’s and will buy some of the fighting games at launch, but the game still has to be a good enough game to sell.

Your theories of Capcom sending out less copies to retailers is also weak. No game company is going to hold off on making more copies of a game that is selling well. If those so called rare games you mentioned were selling like the Tekken Tag’s or the DOA’s, they would surely make more copies. There is no reason not to. Those games are rare because very few people bought them, so very few copies were ordered.

Rythm, I also disagree with the theory that fighting games are on the decline. There are plenty of copies being sold of the above mentioned games. The games that have online play have plenty of people playing. There is still plenty of interest. The difference is that fighting games aren’t ruling the consoles like they ruled the arcades. They never ruled the consoles to begin with.

And no, just because I say Less is More, doesn’t mean that “Atari Fighting” is better than all other fighting games. I am saying that fighting games reached a point with the Tekkens, The DOA’s, and The Street Fighters, to where they should have stopped adding things and just kept fine tuning the engine.

#7

Someone doesn’t know anything about marketing.

#8

This is the same discussion again, but I guess i’ll continue before it gets closed again.

“They should have stopped adding things somewhere along the way” is total hindsight, you have no idea when they should have stopped, so how can you even make that point? What if they decided to stop adding at Tekken 3 and never made TTT? What is the common factor in all the series that told them “ok its time to stop”? Unless you can say that, there is no point.

All the games you mentioned were both ‘less’ than some games, and ‘more’ than others. The less and more issue is irrelavant, please stop just pulling it out of nowhere as if it’s an argument, it’s not, your examples don’t support it, in fact they just prove how silly it is.

I think most players will agree that capcom could have fine tuned their engines, but again, thats a seperate point. They could have fine tuned Alpha 2 while Alpha 3 was being made, if they wanted to, one does not prevent the other at all. There are many factors that affect the sales of a fighting game, and this attempt to trivialize them isn’t working.

#9

More like Capcom doesn’t, because if they were dumb enough to think that holding back copies, would end up helping future sales, then they just marketed themselves out of a lot of money.

And it should be noted that most of the rare games they made were released around the time of the death of systems like The Dreamcast or Saturn.

I don’t see Street Fighter Anniversary Edition fetching much these days.

#10

But you and other people are splitting hairs. A bad game is a bad game, so if Tekken Tag Tournament has less than other fighters, but more than a shitty fighter, what difference does it make?

The biggest thing is, outside of The DOA Series, most every fighting game series’ best selling game, is not their most recent in that series.

Obviously they are doing something that is losing fans.

#11

Allow me to add a couple of comments within the list:

And there you have it. Street Fighter caused its own decline, and it had nothing to do with its quality or its complexity (or lack thereof).

Maybe some big, bouncy jubblies would help.

#12

Maybe HD graphics, company support and promotion, and thoughtful online play would help too.

#13

According to the Synergistic Property Of Titties ™, HD graphics, wide promotion, and online gameplay will positively affect the game’s performance in the modern market with addition to titties, but it will never help in lieu of titties. The market is not as interested in gameplay as it once was (if it ever was), and it is only interested in graphics and ads if it means they get to look at tits–lots of them.

#14

Someone end this guy, this shit’s getting boring…

#15

fighter-douche, by reading your lame “excuses” on why capcom doesnt dish out more i pratically simple, “THEY BECOME LEGENDS!!!” basically capcom’s mentality is to make LEGENDARY games so you can remember them, AND the less games rack the shelves, while the LEGENDARY games get sold faster,

because there are few. i mean have you at least saw MvC2 on shelves like tekken is? put two and two together and you get, FEWER GAMES MAKE GIGANTIC PROFIT!!! thats capcom’s plan to begin with, so screw you douche!!!

#16

This isn’t really about whether Capcom’s marketing sucks or not (I can’t really disagree with that), but underselling games in high demand during holidays is VERY common, especially at Christmas. It’s a technique that has a high track record of success.

#17

R. Mika didn’t do much for Alpha 3.

#18

Fighting games have just gone out of style. They’ve kept the same formula and consumers have gotten bored with it. Same thing happened to platformers.

Unless fighting games reinvent themselves, they’re going to stay a niche market.

#19

lol

In that case let me fix the statement:

#20

LOL the truth.