It could happen, but it won't be easy.
I have no doubt in my mind that Street Fighter 6 is going to be Capcom’s most successful instalment to date. It’s had a pretty transparent development cycle and the hype around it from newcomers and veterans alike is bound to secure its place as one of the greats. But is it going to be successful enough to sell 10 million copies? I sure hope so, because that’s how many units Capcom’s president wants to push.
Haruhiro Tsujimoto sat down with Famitsu to talk about the industry, its library of games and what the future for Capcom holds. When it came to talking about Street Fighter, Tsujimoto said the developer had “no hesitation” in investing in Street Fighter 6. Big investment means the expectation of big results, with Tsujimoto adding: “If we can make use of our experience in the digital field, we should be able to aim for 10 million units” for the upcoming fighter.
That’s an awful lot of sales to make from a fighting game—Street Fighter 5 managed to shift 7 million copies over the last seven years, making it the best-selling home console entry to date. Its main rival Tekken 7 was only able to reach 10 million copies in December 2022, over five years after its release. Tsujimoto cites games like Monster Hunter and Resident Evil that have managed to hit those many sales, but I feel like they have a slightly broader appeal than fighters.
There’s no timeframe for how quickly Tsujimoto wants to hit the grand target, but I’d assume it’s more of a lifetime sales aim than wanting to get there within the first year or two. I’m sure things like a tantalising $1 million grand prize at the Capcom Pro Tour will help bump the numbers, and the developer has seemingly been hard at work to make the game accessible to all skill levels. It’s still a rather ambitious goal, one that I think Capcom has a good chance of hitting. I certainly hope it does, too—I’m rooting for fighting games to become a bigger mainstay in people’s Steam libraries and beyond.
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