

While I do like the genre, fighting games are a niche nowadays, and you’re always going up against Street Fighter, Tekken or Smash. I don’t know what Riot expected. It has similar vibes to the Saudis investing millions into a single marketing event for CotW.
Even Mortal Kombat 1, while it was initially a commercial success, is basically no longer supported as far as I know. And that game isn’t old either.
The visible audience (Twitter) is very picky and vocal; they’ll tell you they want thing X, they get thing X, they’ll tell you it’s bad because Y. There is very little nuance it seems sometimes.
Remember when everyone complained there were no defensive options and everything was getting too easy? Them CotW came and nobody plays it because the menu sucks. Or they don’t like the character that they don’t have to pick.
I at least have a legitimate reason not to play 2XKO (kernel level anti cheat that won’t work on Linux), but you don’t see me complaining about that.
Anyhow, if you want to make a game that sells big numbers, don’t make it a fighting game, because your audience will be comparably small and hate you.




But doesn’t it speak volumes about the genre of the eighth best selling game of 2023 can’t support three years of service (as in meaningful content updates)?
While there weren’t any Fatal Fury entries, the characters did have presence over the years via King of Fighters, and Mai and Terry were even in SF6.
SF6, arguably the biggest game in the genre, is currently in 60th place in the steam 24 hour charts. You might argue consoles have a higher share for the genre than games you find on steam, but still, that’s not totally mainstream.