Street Fighter

Capcom · Since 1987

Capcom's fighting game franchise created the competitive fighting game genre with Street Fighter II (1991). The six-button layout, special move inputs, and character roster became the template for every fighting game that followed.

Street Fighter (1987) was a modest arcade performer before Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (1991) created the competitive fighting game genre almost entirely from scratch. The eight-character roster, each with a distinct fighting style and special move set requiring specific joystick inputs, created a game of nearly unlimited depth whose competitive community was still discovering advanced techniques a decade after release. The SNES port sold 6.3 million copies at a premium price, demonstrating the genre's commercial viability. Capcom released multiple iterations — Champion Edition, Turbo, Super, Super Turbo — in rapid succession, establishing the practice of incremental fighting game updates that the genre still follows. Street Fighter III (1997) introduced a parry mechanic that enriched competitive play while reducing accessibility; Street Fighter IV (2008) successfully returned the series to mainstream relevance.