Origins (1970s to early 1980s) The first fighting games were fundamentally inspired by
martial arts films, especially
Bruce Lee's
Hong Kong action cinema. Films include
Game of Death (1972), where Lee fights a series of
bosses, and
Enter the Dragon (1973), about an international
martial arts tournament. Other inspiration is
Japanese martial arts works, including the
manga and
anime series
Karate Master (1971–1977), and
Sonny Chiba's
The Street Fighter (1974). Before martial arts games, the earliest video games with fist-fighting are
boxing games, featuring battles between characters with fantastic abilities and complex special maneuvers.
Sega's black-and-white boxing game
Heavyweight Champ, released for
arcades in 1976, is considered the first video game with fist fighting, but it was still considered a sports game.
Vectorbeam's
arcade video game Warrior (1979) is sometimes credited as one of the first fighting games; in contrast to
Heavyweight Champ and most later games,
Warrior is based on sword fighting
duels and uses a
bird's-eye view. One-on-one boxing games appeared on consoles with
Activision's
Atari VCS game
Boxing, released in July 1980, and Sega's
SG-1000 game
Champion Boxing (1983), which is
Yu Suzuki's debut at Sega.
Nintendo's arcade game
Punch-Out was developed in 1983 and released in February 1984, as a boxing game featuring a behind-the-character perspective, maneuvers such as blocking and dodging, and
stamina meters that are depleted or replenished by blows.
Emergence of fighting game genre (mid-to-late 1980s) Karate Champ was developed by
Technōs Japan and released by
Data East in May 1984, and is credited with establishing and popularizing the one-on-one fighting game genre. A variety of moves can be performed using the
dual-joystick controls. It uses a best-of-three matches format like later fighting games, and has training
bonus stages. It influenced
Konami's
Yie Ar Kung Fu, The game drew heavily from Bruce Lee films, with the main
player character Oolong modelled after Lee (like in
Bruceploitation films). In contrast to the grounded realism of
Karate Champ,
Yie Ar Kung-Fu moved the genre towards more fantastical, fast-paced action with a variety of special moves and high jumps, establishing the template for subsequent fighting games. It expanded on
Karate Champ by pitting the player against a variety of opponents, each with a unique appearance and fighting style. The player could also perform up to sixteen different moves, including projectile attacks, and it replaced the point-scoring system of
Karate Champ with a
health meter system, becoming the standard for the genre.
Irem's
Kung-Fu Master, designed by
Takashi Nishiyama and released in November 1984, is a
side-scrolling beat 'em up that, at the end of each
level, featured one-on-one boss battles that resemble fighting games. It is based on Hong Kong martial arts films, specifically
Jackie Chan's
Wheels on Meals (1984) and Bruce Lee's
Game of Death. features martial arts elements, high and low guarding, ducking, lateral dodging, and a KO meter. This meter is built up with successful attacks and, when full, enables a special, more powerful punch to be thrown.
Broderbund's
Karateka, designed by
Jordan Mechner and released at the end of 1984, is a one-on-one fighting game for
home computers that successfully added plot to its fighting action, On home computers, the Japanese
MSX version of
Yie Ar Kung-Fu was released in January 1985, and
Beam Software's
The Way of the Exploding Fist was released for
PAL regions in May 1985;
The Way of the Exploding Fist borrowed heavily from
Karate Champ, but nevertheless achieved critical success and afforded the burgeoning genre further popularity on home computers in PAL regions, becoming the UK's best-selling
computer game of 1985. In North America, Data East ported
Karate Champ to home computers in October 1985, becoming one of the best-selling computer games of the late 1980s. Other game developers also imitated
Karate Champ, notably
System 3's computer game
International Karate, released in Europe in November 1985; after
Epyx released it in North America in April 1986, Data East took
unsuccessful legal action against Epyx over the game. The same year,
Martech's
Uchi Mata for home computers featured novel controller motions for
grappling maneuvers, but they were deemed too difficult. with many arcade
game developers focused more on producing beat 'em ups and shoot 'em ups. Takashi Nishiyama used the one-on-one boss battles of his earlier beat 'em up
Kung-Fu Master as the template for
Capcom's fighting game
Street Fighter,
Street Fighter found its own niche in the gaming world, which was dominated by beat 'em ups and shoot 'em ups at the time.
Street Fighter also introduced other staples of the genre, including the
blocking technique, as well as the ability for a challenger to jump in and initiate a match against a player at any time. The game also introduced
pressure-sensitive controls that determine the strength of an attack, though due to causing damaged arcade cabinets, Capcom replaced it soon after with a six-button control scheme offering light, medium, and hard punches and kicks, which became another staple of the genre. In 1988,
Home Data released
Reikai Dōshi: Chinese Exorcist, also known as
Last Apostle Puppet Show, the first fighting game to use
digitized sprites and
motion capture animation. Meanwhile, home
game consoles largely ignored the genre.
Budokan: The Martial Spirit was one of the few releases for the
Sega Genesis, but was not as popular as games in other genres. Its success led to fighting games becoming the dominant genre in the arcade game industry of the early 1990s, which led to a resurgence of the arcade game industry. The popularity of
Street Fighter II led it to be released for home game consoles and becoming the defining template for fighting games.
Fatal Fury placed more emphasis on storytelling and the timing of special moves, Several fighting games achieved commercial success, including SNK's
Art of Fighting and
Samurai Shodown as well as Sega's
Eternal Champions. Nevertheless,
Street Fighter II remained the most popular, and "
Fatality" finishing maneuvers in which the player's character kills their opponent. The game earned a reputation for its gratuitous violence, Numerous other game developers tried to imitate
Street Fighter II and
Mortal Kombat financial success with similar games, including
Nintendo and
Rare's
Killer Instinct, a game that featured unprecedentedly detailed pre-rendered 3D graphics and vastly improved on the core concept of combos, presenting a way faster gameplay than most other games of that era, specific combo-breaker maneuvers, and the "Ultra", a series of combined finishing moves surpassing the number of 20 hits; it was also marketed by Midway Games. Many of the games of that period were low budget clones of the more popular games, and in some cases this led to controversy; in 1994, Capcom USA took unsuccessful legal action against Data East over the 1993 arcade game ''
Fighter's History, which supposedly plagiarized Street Fighter 2''. but the reason the case was decided against Capcom was that the copied elements were
scènes à faire and thus excluded from copyright.
Emergence of 3D fighting games (mid-to-late 1990s) '' (1993) is the first widespread 3D fighting game after a few earlier attempts by
Sega and other companies. It is typical of such fighting games in that action takes place in a two-dimensional plane of motion. Here, one player ducks the other's attack.
Sega AM2 debuted in the genre with the 1993 arcade game
Burning Rival, but they gained renown with the release of
Virtua Fighter for the same platform the same year. It is the first fighting game with
3D polygon graphics and a viewpoint that zoomed and rotated with the action. Despite the graphics, players were confined to back and forth motion as seen in other fighting games. With only three buttons, it was easier to learn than
Street Fighter and
Mortal Kombat, which has six and five buttons respectively. By the time the game was released for the
Sega Saturn in Japan, the game and system were selling at almost a one-to-one ratio. The 1995
PlayStation game
Battle Arena Toshinden is credited for taking the genre into "true 3D" due to its introduction of the sidestep maneuver, which
IGN described as "one little move" that "changed the fighter forever". The "sidestep" in the game, however, consisted of shoulder rolls instead of actual sidesteps. That year, Namco released
Tekken 2, which introduced actual sidestepping or "mist steps" as first released in arcade games and in the international fighting game community. These moves are only exclusive to its protagonist, the penultimate boss of the arcade mode,
Kazuya Mishima in his regular human state. The mist steps also allow combos to be performed as a manner of
"crouch dashing," or when the Mishima player could run to the opponent while crouching since regular running prevented executing easy combos. Polygonal fighters became trendy and many developers started to make them. Further all-new titles were released in 1995:
Zero Divide on the PlayStation, the Western-developed
FX Fighter on PC and
Criticom on console, and Sega's arcade
Fighting Vipers - on top of
Tekken 2, an updated
Battle Arena Toshinden 2, and console ports of
Tekken and
Virtua Fighter 2. A multitude of new major polygonal releases arrived in 1996 from both prime and smaller developers. The 1996 arcade game
Dead or Alive offered an interactive feature within its stages called the "danger zone", an environmental hazard outside the center of stages where if an opponent is knocked into it, they will take extra damage, jeopardizing their position and giving their attacker an advantage. If an opponent is knocked into the danger zone with very low health, the danger zone is more likely to knock them out than a regular attack. Other major 1996 releases include
Virtua Fighter 3,
Soul Edge,
Last Bronx (in Japan), and the home port of
Tekken 2, cementing 3D as the future of the genre. In 1994, SNK released ''
The King of Fighters '94 in arcades, where players choose from teams of three characters to eliminate each other one by one. Eventually, Capcom released further updates to Street Fighter II
, including Super Street Fighter II
and Super Street Fighter II Turbo
. These games feature more characters and new moves, some of which are a response to hackers of the original Street Fighter II
game to add new features. However, criticism of these updates grew as players demanded a true sequel. By 1995, the dominant franchises were the Mortal Kombat
series in America and the Virtua Fighter series in Japan, with Street Fighter Alpha unable to match the popularity of Street Fighter II''. In the late 1990s, traditional 2D fighting games began to decline in popularity, with specific franchises falling into difficulty due to 3D fighters. Although the release of
Street Fighter EX introduced 3D graphics to the series, both it and
Street Fighter: The Movie flopped in arcades. Capcom released
Street Fighter III in 1997 which features improved 2D visuals, but is also unable to match the impact of earlier games. Meanwhile,
SNK released several fighting games on its
Neo Geo platform, including
Samurai Shodown II in 1994,
Real Bout Fatal Fury in 1995,
The Last Blade in 1997, and annual updates to its
The King of Fighters franchise.
Garou: Mark of the Wolves from 1999 (part of the
Fatal Fury series) was considered one of SNK's last great games; the company announced that it would close its doors in late 2001.
Electronic Gaming Monthly reported that in 1996, U.S. gamers spent nearly $150 million on current generation fighting games, and in Japan, fighting games accounted for over 80% of video game sales. The fighting game genre continued to evolve, with several strong 3D fighting games emerging in the late 1990s.
Namco's
Tekken (released in arcades in 1994 and on the PlayStation in 1995) proved critical to the PlayStation's early success, with its
sequels also becoming some of the console's most important games. The
Soul series of weapon-based fighting games also achieved considerable critical success, beginning with 1996's
Soul Edge (known as
Soul Blade outside Japan) to
Soulcalibur VI in 2018.
Tecmo released
Dead or Alive in the arcades in 1996, porting it for the Sega Saturn in 1997 and PlayStation in 1998. It spawned a
long-running franchise, known for its fast-paced control system, innovative
counterattacks, and
interactive environments. In 1998,
Bushido Blade, published by
Square, introduced a realistic fighting engine that features three-dimensional environments while abandoning time limits and health bars in favor of an innovative Body Damage System, where a sword strike to a certain body part can amputate a limb or decapitate the head. Video game enthusiasts took an interest in
fictional crossovers, which feature characters from multiple franchises in a particular game. An early example of this type of fighting game is the 1996 arcade release
X-Men vs. Street Fighter (which later became the
Marvel vs. Capcom series), featuring
comic book superheroes and characters from other Capcom games. In 1999,
Nintendo released the
first game in the
Super Smash Bros. series, which allowed match-ups from various franchises, such as
Pikachu vs.
Mario. Even as far back as 1997, many in the industry said that the fighting game market's growing inaccessibility to newcomers was bringing an end to the genre's dominance. Furthermore, arcades gradually became less profitable throughout the late 1990s to early 2000s due to the increased technical power and popularity of home consoles. Meanwhile, arcade games continued to thrive in other countries such as Japan. The two most prolific developers of 2D fighting games, Capcom and SNK, combined intellectual property to produce
SNK vs. Capcom games. SNK released the first game of this type,
SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium, for its
Neo Geo Pocket Color handheld at the end of 1999.
GameSpot regarded the game as "perhaps the most highly anticipated fighter ever" and called it the best fighting game ever to be released for a handheld console. Capcom released
Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 for arcades and the
Dreamcast in 2000, followed by sequels in subsequent years. Though none matched the critical success of the handheld version,
Capcom vs. SNK 2 EO was noted as the first game of the genre to successfully utilize internet competition. Other crossovers from 2008 included
Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. The most successful crossover, however, was
Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the
Wii. Featuring 40 characters from Nintendo and third-party franchises, the game was a runaway commercial success in addition to being lavished with critical praise. In the new millennium, fighting games became less plentiful than in the mid-1990s, with multiplayer competition diversifying toward other genres. However, SNK reappeared in 2003 as SNK Playmore and continued to release games. Fighting games became a popular genre for amateur and
doujin developers in Japan. The 2002 title
Melty Blood was developed by then-amateur developer
French Bread and achieved cult success on the
PC. It became highly popular in arcades following its 2005 release, and a version was released for the
PlayStation 2 the following year. The late 1990s and early 2000s saw the rise in
online gaming. In 2004,
Mortal Kombat: Deception,
Dead or Alive Ultimate, and the
Xbox version of
Street Fighter Anniversary Collection became the first fighting games to offer
online multiplayer and have received positive reception from critics. While the genre became generally far less popular than it once was, In addition to
Virtua Fighter, the
Tekken,
Soul and
Dead or Alive franchises continued to release installments. The early part of the decade had seen the rise of competitive video gaming, referred to by the term
Esports. The rise in esports saw the rise of major international fighting game tournaments such as
Tougeki – Super Battle Opera and
Evolution Championship Series, and famous players such as
Daigo Umehara. An important fighting game at the time was
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, originally released in 1999. The game gained significant attention with "
Evo Moment 37", also known as the "Daigo Parry", which refers to a portion of a
3rd Strike semi-final match held at
Evolution Championship Series 2004 (Evo 2004) between Daigo Umehara and
Justin Wong. During this match, Umehara made an unexpected
comeback by parrying 15 consecutive hits of Wong's "Super Art" move using
Chun-Li while Umehara had only one pixel on his health bar. Umehara subsequently won the match. "Evo Moment #37" is frequently described as the most iconic and memorable moment in the history of competitive video gaming, compared to sports moments such as
Babe Ruth's called shot and the
Ice Hockey Miracle on Ice. It inspired many to start playing
3rd Strike, which brought new life into the
fighting game community (FGC) during a time when the community was in a state of stagnation. Fighting games have also been featured in esports scenes with variety of gaming genres, with
Dead or Alive 3 becoming the fighting game to be included in the Xbox Championship in 2004, and
Dead or Alive Ultimate becoming the first fighting game to be included in the
World Cyber Games (WCG) in 2005.
Dead or Alive 4's competitive scene became the first competitive esport fighting game scene to be televised as it was the only fighting game included in the esport league, the
Championship Gaming Series (CGS), in 2007 and 2008. The league was operated and fully broadcast by
DirecTV in association with
British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) and
STAR TV.
Dead or Alive has been credited for launching the careers of
pro-gamer turned
Koei Tecmo employee, Emmanuel Rodriguez, and the highest-paid women pro-gamers,
Kat Gunn and
Vanessa Arteaga.
Rebirth (late 2000s to present) '' event at Evo 2009 The late 2000s featured a number of games that sparked another surge in fighting game popularity.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl was released in early March 2008 to universal acclaim and went on to set a new record in sales, at one point selling at 120 units per minute. Another game was
Street Fighter IV, the series' first mainline title since
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike in 1999, which was released in early 2009 also to critical acclaim, having garnered praise since its debut at Japanese arcades in July 2008. The console versions of
Street Fighter IV, as well as the updated
Super Street Fighter IV, The success of these two games, among others, sparked a renaissance for the genre, introducing new players to the genre and with the increased audience allowing other fighting game franchises to achieve successful revivals of their own, as well as increasing tournament participation.
Tekken 6 was building off the popularity of its
previous iteration and was still positively received, selling more than 3 million copies worldwide by August 2010, one year after its release. Other successful games that followed include
Mortal Kombat,
Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and
Guilty Gear Xrd. Though the critically acclaimed
Virtua Fighter 5 was released to very little acclaim in 2007, In 2018,
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the
Nintendo Switch was released. It became the best-selling fighting game of all time, topping its
Wii predecessor
Super Smash Bros. Brawl and introduced nearly 90 characters through its default mode and through
downloadable content or DLC, having sold 37.44 million copies worldwide. Later in the mid-2020s, the genre achieved another renaissance with the arrival of
Street Fighter 6 and its immediate success, together with
Mortal Kombat 1 and
Tekken 8.
Street Fighter 6 sold over 1 million copies within five days after its launch, and sold over 3 million copies by January 2024.
Mortal Kombat 1 sold over 2 million copies in its first two months, and garnered over 3 million copies by January 2024, while the latest game
Tekken 8, which was released in January 2024 sold over 2 million copies in its first month alone. Thus, the 2020s have had a marked resurgence in fighting games that has been deemed a new golden age in fighting games. == Financial performance ==