• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Mortal Kombat is now the best selling fighting franchise of all time according to Wikipedia.

InDaGulag

Member
It's a fun game with a great amount of polish put into it by the devs. It's just a shame about the Evil Dead tie in dying in contract disputes. Ash Williams would have been a perfect guest for Mortal Kombat.
 
They added SFV to PS Plus this September, so probably the number will increase in several millions more once they update the numbers with this last quarter.

Yes, MK11 sold 8M being multiplatform while SFV sold 4.7M (as of June 30, but it was added to PS Plus in September) while being console exclusive.

After SFV had many price cuts, a ton of features added to the base game which was bone dry, new advertising campaigns out of deperation, new price cuts, free version, PSN+, and breaking their multiple releases of the same game promise.

Remember they were hoping for 2 million in 2015 and that didn't happen for nearly two years and it took near 5 years to beat SFIV after all the above.
 
You can't in good faith tell me that MK and Tekken are even comparable in terms of skill ceiling or even the skill floor.

I didn't say that, read what I posted. I said Tekken doesn't have that high of a ceiling, don't make up additional words. I never made any comparison between the two. Calmdown.
 
Since SFV never came to Xbox One. That is a few million copies they missed out on

This is false no matter how many times people say it. PC/PS4 SF stuck "we how to sell to million" for two years sales all but stop until many price cuts, DLC, new modes, free version, giveaways, and only just now sold around 3.7 million 5 years later.

How many of that do you think Xbox would have sold with that poor performance by now? 800k?
 
Not my bag, but you gotta hand it to them. Japan has been throwing their full weight behind keeping their fighting game franchises alive, yet Netherrealm shows up and singlehandedly demonstrates how you make fighting games mainstream. Old MK games were fine for the time, but it wasn't a great franchise. The credit really belongs to Netherreealm.

MK sold gang busters even before Netherrealm so I don't get this.
 

nkarafo

Member
I'm surprised Street Fighter is 4th place. It was like the "original" fighting game that kick started the whole thing. Just the sales from the 16 bit consoles should have give it a huge head-start compared to the likes of Tekken and Smash Bros that appeared a lot later.
 
Last edited:

MagnesG

Banned
People were freaking out about this on twitter so I checked the best franchises list which is usually badly sourced, but this time it seems to be legit, I did the math and looked at the sources and everything adds up.



This was two days ago, I didn't even know this happened. Anyway it was added so here's the list from Wikipedia


Mortal Kombat 60 Million

Super Smash 59.76 million

Tekken 50 million

Street Fighter 45 million

Sould Calibur 15 million

Sure Smash and MK11 will keep selling and will likely have versions for next generation consoles and Switch 2 if that's a thing, so I guess the war is on between MK and Smash.

The wiki page is already updated with the new Smash numbers, 60.91 millions.
 
The 3D era, between when WB bought them and the arcade days, wasn't exactly great times for MK sales wise.

You mean the over 3 million for Deadly Alliance and Deception and the over 2 million for Armageddon and Vs. DC?

I don't know why people keep revisiting the PS2 era when the only fighter doing as well as MK during that time was Tekken. Soul Calibur had one major selling game ONE. SF was missing and nearly everything else sold like poisoned hotcakes. I guess there was Smash to.

I mean sure the games, mostly Armageddon, weren't exactly the best but they sold.
 
Last edited:

S0ULZB0URNE

Member
People were freaking out about this on twitter so I checked the best franchises list which is usually badly sourced, but this time it seems to be legit, I did the math and looked at the sources and everything adds up.



This was two days ago, I didn't even know this happened. Anyway it was added so here's the list from Wikipedia


Mortal Kombat 60 Million

Super Smash 59.76 million

Tekken 50 million

Street Fighter 45 million

Sould Calibur 15 million

Sure Smash and MK11 will keep selling and will likely have versions for next generation consoles and Switch 2 if that's a thing, so I guess the war is on between MK and Smash.

Not the best playing though.
 
No surprise, I have known many people throughout my life who would buy MK just to play their single player content and then shelve the games. Just goes to show, you don't have to be the best to be the best, you just have to give people what they want.
 
X is good but it really looks like drab compared to 9 with its vibrant colors. And then 11 looks like 2 generations ahead. You can get 11 on the cheap now so if you are craving for MK, id say go that route.
 

Neff

Member
How weird that SF is that far behind.
It like murder dropkicks all that's in front of it on that list.

SF had a loooong hiatus while Tekken, MK and Smash were still doing their thing. Most of SF's peak years were on 16bit install bases, which were relatively small. Also, SF's popularity has waned in recent years because SFV is a bit shit. Still very impressive sales for the series overall, though.
 

petran79

Banned
If NRS and WB had not put resources and ads on Injustice, it would have sold even more

But SFV sticking to one version with updates for over 6-8 years till SF6, while MK in that time frame will have released 3 new games already, widened the gap even more too.

Same for Tekken 7 that if you count arcade version is even older than sfv.

As a result those games are much more polished gameplay wise, though story has been forgotten already.

I'd be interested to see MK trying something similar this time.

DOA6 failed miserably
 
No surprise, I have known many people throughout my life who would buy MK just to play their single player content and then shelve the games. Just goes to show, you don't have to be the best to be the best, you just have to give people what they want.

Ok but you have to understand that they are also catering to those singleplayer guys and people playing at home which is actually A LOT more than the people wanting to play competitively or online. I played fighting games since I was 8 and I never been to or wanted to be a part of any contest or tournament. I loved playing by myself for the story/level progression and when friends come over. Thats what MK does best while Tekken and SF right off the bat go for the EVO crowd. Also, MK evolved so much. Just look at the difference between MKX and 11. Also MK11 is 60fps using U3 engine and T7 is using U4 and it looks a generation behind because they dont care, ppl will buy and their roots are in the arcades.
 
Since they push out a new MK every second year this isnt surprising.

MK Armageddon - 2006
MK9 - 2011
MKX - 2015
MK11 - 2019

So no, they dont just push them out. At least after 11 titles they are always evolving and pushing for a better game while Tekken and SF look the same even after a 5 year gap with like only extra costumes and some better lighting. One game considers itself a game for all players, the other two cater to competitions and arcades so they couldn't care less to evolve.
 
Last edited:
Dead or Alive doesn't even warrant being on that list? I'm not into fighters for the most part, but I really loved DOA2 and 3.

Personally, I think DOA is underrated. I feel most people who hate on DOA haven’t put in over an hour or two into the more recent ones to formulate a good opinion about it. It has a lot more depth than people think and deserves much higher sales imo.

I like MK11 and think it’s fun. I’m not surprised it sold much higher than Tekken, DOA, SF and SC. Even though I think those fighters I listed have more depth and better gameplay, MK11 is much more casual friendly and has elements that gamers like and enjoy, especially Western gamers.
 
Last edited:

Kamina

Golden Boy
MK Armageddon - 2006
MK9 - 2011
MKX - 2015
MK11 - 2019

So no, they dont just push them out. At least after 11 titles they are always evolving and pushing for a better game while Tekken and SF look the same even after a 5 year gap with like only extra costumes and some better lighting. One game considers itself a game for all players, the other two cater to competitions and arcades so they couldn't care less to evolve.
interesting, felt shorter 🤔
 
Mortal Kombat is probably my favorite fighting game still and I'm not a big fan of the genre.

But damn did I have SO much fun with Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance.

Only other fighting series I can ever play is Street Fighter and Soul Calibur.
 
Just throw lots of gore on the screen = $$$

Remember the marketing of MK11? Because I do.
It was very little about the actual gameplay and all about '' OMG LOOK HE ATE HIS BRAIN! ''.
Which makes the whole '' MK is/ has grown up '' all the more bizarre lol.
I watched the story cutscenes as a single video on Youtube, and honestly liked it more than half the big budget movies I've seen. I'm not a fighting game person, but I could see myself playing MK11 (or any followup/sequel from the same team) just for the story mode. So there's that.

Technical details of gameplay are boring to most people. A good story and flashy/gory VFX and cutscenes are much more attractive to the casual audience.

Which is to say, a good fighting game should still have those indepth details and mechanics for the more serious players. But for good sales, you don't want to focus on those in promotional material. The only fighting game that can get away with technical details in its promotionals is Smash Bros., and even then they don't go too far in depth.
 

Celine

Member
Smash Bros series total sell-in as June 2020:

KfhpLwz.jpg


For more up to date sales data about Nintendo:
 

SkylineRKR

Member
SF being behind isn't strange isn't it.

SF2 and its updates were the major sellers. SF3 went by and then there was a 10 year hiatus. SFV started slow. MK mostly delivers a sound package since MK9. Lots of stuff to do in both single and versus player. But the MT's etc got the better of it lately.
 

yurinka

Member
After SFV had many price cuts, a ton of features added to the base game which was bone dry, new advertising campaigns out of deperation, new price cuts, free version, PSN+, and breaking their multiple releases of the same game promise.

Remember they were hoping for 2 million in 2015 and that didn't happen for nearly two years and it took near 5 years to beat SFIV after all the above.
Bullshit.

SFV had a rocky start with several issues and small content, stuff that they fixed adding a ton of content and fixes. Now is the 10th best selling game ever in Capcom history (SFII for SNES being the only fighting game above it) and right now it has the most active online community any SF ever had (at least in Steam, because we can't track active players on PSN).

It had the same price cuts, discounts or demo/free trial periods (these players aren't counted as units sold) that most others game do, as including the game in PS Plus (example: MKX was included in PS Plus, Gold or PS Now). Nothing special.

Their promise was that by buying the original disk you wouldn't be left behind because all PS and PC SFV players would always play together in the same online and that all new game modes, new game features, new gameplay mechanics, new gameplay rebalances to be released after launch would be totally free for all players. And that all post launch characters, some costumes or stages would be unlockable by playing instead of being all paid only. So you wouldn't need to buy another disc or game because you already would have all that in the original game.

This remains true, the game has been updated for free to the new editions adding all that stuff, and when they re-released the game with new names it was the original disc + free update with the new content bundled with codes to download paid content of newer seasons, so the playerbase for all the game editions is the same in PS and PC for all editions because the game is the same, nothing is left behind because the userbase isn't split into different SFV games.
 
Last edited:
MK Armageddon - 2006
MK9 - 2011
MKX - 2015
MK11 - 2019

So no, they dont just push them out. At least after 11 titles they are always evolving and pushing for a better game while Tekken and SF look the same even after a 5 year gap with like only extra costumes and some better lighting. One game considers itself a game for all players, the other two cater to competitions and arcades so they couldn't care less to evolve.

You're missing Vs. DC

Story mode really pushed this franchise out there.

MK always had a story mode.
 
Bullshit.

SFV had a rocky start with several issues and small content, stuff that they fixed adding a ton of content and fixes. Now is the 10th best selling game ever in Capcom history

Nothing you say after this sentence debunks anything I said and everything up until this point agrees with it.

SO I am not sure what you're issue is, SFV had a bad launch and took price cuts and tons of updated to eventually reach the sales it got after years of noit meeting Capcoms own expectations. There's no controversy here. It beating SF3 vanilla in sales was due to all this plus breaking there multiple version promise and giving away the game for free in some cases, I doubt Capcom mad even half as much money on SFV as IV even with the sales, if that's the spin you're going to go with,
 

lock2k

Banned
People surely love to shit on the 3D era but some of the best ideas and the very foundation of some of MK's most succesful modes were implemented during that era. Konquest was the embryo If story mode (and I thought It was even more interesting), the krypt which is a real cool concept was implemented in Deadly Alliance and still stands as a really cool way to unlock a lot of cool content.

And the actual First Story Mode was done in the maligned MK vs DC and it was pretty much the same format as today.

Even the stage interactions during fights, that are still being used, were first used in the 3D era but now they are much closer to the way they're done in Injustice. I still love MK but I wish they would get back to some of that occult feeling the earlier entries had.

The superhero influence and the generic soundtrack makes It way more uninteresting than it was before. Also, they should make females look good again and drop the soy for good.

Still, they know how to please the crowd instead of focusing on FGC and that's what sells.
 

yurinka

Member
Nothing you say after this sentence debunks anything I said and everything up until this point agrees with it.

SO I am not sure what you're issue is, SFV had a bad launch and took price cuts and tons of updated to eventually reach the sales it got after years of noit meeting Capcoms own expectations. There's no controversy here. It beating SF3 vanilla in sales was due to all this plus breaking there multiple version promise and giving away the game for free in some cases, I doubt Capcom mad even half as much money on SFV as IV even with the sales, if that's the spin you're going to go with,
You said they broke a promise, and I explained that it's wrong. They never broke that promise because what they said was that you wouldn't need to buy a 2nd disc/another SFV game because you wouldn't be left behind because they'd give you these new game modes, gameplay rebalances and so on would be free for all SFV players. And they didn't break this promise. If you, like me, bought SFV vanilla the game gets updated for free to SFVCE adding all the game modes, game features and gameplay rebalances for free. SFVAE and SFVCE are the same game than SFV, just that if you buy that SKU instead of the vanilla one, they get bundled with DLC.

Regarding their sales expectations for the first fiscal year yes, they didn't reach it for the reasons both of us mentioned. But due to the post launch improvements they did such a comeback thanks to SFVAE relaunch almost 2 years after SFV vanilla and eSports that it was the cover story in their fiscal year report for the year they released their biggest selling game ever (MHW), and put eSports (this for Capcom basically means SF) as one of their main long term priorities with a decades long plan, as mentioned multiple times by them, even by the CEO.

In games as service lke Street Fighter V, the post launch content keeps being added as long as the game keeps generating good enough revenue through game and dlc/IAP sales. On its 5th year the game keeps adding and announcing more content, longer than they initially planned because of good performance as they said when announcing season 5. Games like MvCi that don't perform good enough the post launch content gets cut.

And no, they never gave the game away for free. Like basically all the GaaS they made free trials, which means you can play a portion of the game during a few days, typically a weekend or a week. If you want to continue playing for it after that period you must buy the game. Or if you want to access to the full content of the game during the free trial period, you must buy the game. The players who play the free trial but not buy the game aren't included in the game units sold metric, because it's basically a time limited demo.

SFV still have at least more than a year of upcoming content, its appeareance in the Tokyo Olympic Games with an IOC official tournament (SFV, not Smash/MK11/Tekken 7/etc), and who knows if a port/next-gen patch for PS5 or maybe even if may event next gen consoles. SFV is still alive, being one of the best selling Capcom games in the recent quarters even if it's very old. Who knows how many will sell until the end of its lifetime, it's too soon to compare it to the SFIV series. Until now SFV has been in a single console, SFIV was in 5. Regarding DLC revenue, SFV focused way more on it, if they keep adding more after 5 years it's because it's selling very well. It's very likely that SFV end generating more revenue than the SFIV series even if doesn't end ported to non-PS consoles.

Last month it was in PS Plus, which means more revenue generated for the game with every download, more DLC revenue directly and extra visibility and word-of-mouth for additional sales (for people who came late to PS Plus, friends of PS Plus users, etc). In a couple of weeks they will publish their quarter results so we'll see SFV up there again as one of the best selling Capcom games of the quarter as frequently happened the last couple of years or so.
 
Last edited:
You said they broke a promise, and I explained that it's wrong. They never broke that promise because what they said was that you wouldn't need to buy a 2nd disc/another SFV game because you wouldn't be left behind because they'd give you these new game modes, gameplay rebalances and so on would be free for all SFV players. And they didn't break this promise. If you, like me, bought SFV vanilla the game gets updated for free to SFVCE adding all the game modes, game features and gameplay rebalances for free. SFVAE and SFVCE are the same game than SFV, just that if you buy that SKU instead of the vanilla one, they get bundled with DLC.

Regarding their sales expectations for the first fiscal year yes, they didn't reach it for the reasons both of us mentioned. But due to the post launch improvements they did such a comeback thanks to SFVAE relaunch almost 2 years after SFV vanilla and eSports that it was the cover story in their fiscal year report for the year they released their biggest selling game ever (MHW), and put eSports (this for Capcom basically means SF) as one of their main long term priorities with a decades long plan, as mentioned multiple times by them, even by the CEO.

In games as service lke Street Fighter V, the post launch content keeps being added

There's nothing here.

They specified there wouldn't be other versions of the game like a "Super SFV" as an example, yes they broke that promise, the OTHER promise of not being left behind is a separate issue you are adding to cover up the fact yes they did break the promise. You don't need a bunch of old news articles do you? I doubt you are that cluesless.

"comeback" after years of slow sales additional content trying to salvage the game, and after price cuts and giveaways eventually turning thing around and selling more isn't a profitable enterprise.
 
People surely love to shit on the 3D era but some of the best ideas and the very foundation of some of MK's most succesful modes were implemented during that era. Konquest was the embryo If story mode (and I thought It was even more interesting), the krypt which is a real cool concept was implemented in Deadly Alliance and still stands as a really cool way to unlock a lot of cool content.

And the actual First Story Mode was done in the maligned MK vs DC and it was pretty much the same format as today.

Even the stage interactions during fights, that are still being used, were first used in the 3D era but now they are much closer to the way they're done in Injustice. I still love MK but I wish they would get back to some of that occult feeling the earlier entries had.

The superhero influence and the generic soundtrack makes It way more uninteresting than it was before. Also, they should make females look good again and drop the soy for good.

Still, they know how to please the crowd instead of focusing on FGC and that's what sells.

MK has had a story mode since the first game, if you mean cinematics that happened since MK4.

I actually think the time garbage is bad for current MK I was hoping 11 would cap the plot in 10 and go back to being sane but MK11 is still ok.

As for the 3D games which is funny how people keep revising things including pretending MK4 didn't happen, are often looked down upon because they were among the best and by that I mean of the only two major successful fighting game franchises during that time in public appeal, it was only MK and Tekken that were doing anything with SCII being the only major exception to the rule and the XBOX artificially bumping up early DOA3.

They had their issues, and so did Tekken for that matter but if you were a fighting game fans or just a gamer that happens to like them that's where most of them went to Tekken or MK. SC had a temp run and so did DOA, SF was missing outside of EX3 which barely anyone remembers, so every other game on consoles were niche anime fighters including a bunch of poor selling KOF games out the ass.

Then you had portables where MK and Tekken were also kings on those to but at least SF was present as well though just ports of Alpha 3 and another II iirc.
 

NT80

Member
Tekken doesn't have much of a ceiling. It was even more accessible than MK back in the PS2 and MK4 days which is why it exploded on the scene. One of the reasons why it was the best selling Fighting game series until MKX.
What do you mean Tekken doesn't have much of a ceiling? Compared to what? Some of the older Tekkens were considered harder games compared with Tekken 7.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
I always did like Mortal Kombat. I wish they would have left the test your luck mode for local head to head In Mortal Kombat 11. The tower with the modifiers isn't the same.
 

GAMETA

Banned
I never understood the appeal of MK, it's mechanically stiff and weird as hell... SF, KoF and KI are much much better... then there's anime and japanese 3D fighters, but those are weird as well.
 
Top Bottom