One of the biggest things working against a new fighting game is a limited selection of playable characters. Even if you never intend to play as more than one of them, the lack of matchup diversity can make things real dull, real fast. Street Fighter 5 launching with just 16 characters was a massive blow to its public reception, from which it never fully recovered. The King of Fighters 15 launched with 39 characters, and the general reaction from fans is that's still not enough.
SF5's roster has almost tripled in size since its launch. Still, a few classic fighting games from the early 2000s have set some possibly unfair expectations about how many characters we should expect. "Arena" fighters don't count unless you want to see a list completely dominated by Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi and Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm games. So, without further ado, here is our list of the fighting games with the most characters.
Updated May 9, 2002, by Chris Sanfilippo: As we mentioned in our introduction, the early 2000s gave us some of the largest rosters we've ever seen in fighting games. We wanted to credit some of these innovators that we overlooked, such as SNK's Samurai Shodown 6 and The King Of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match. Furthermore, as DLC launches, fighting game rosters grow, qualifying new games for our list like Dragon Ball FighterZ. Lastly, we updated our numbers, adding to Super Smash Bros Ultimate's record-breaking fighting game roster.
16 Ultra Street Fighter 4
44 Characters
The original Street Fighter 4 launched with a considerable roster size for a 1v1 fighter. The arcade port featured nineteen characters: the eight original world warriors and four grand masters from SF2, four new fighters, and the boss characters Akuma, Seth, and Gouken.
However, the fighting game's roster continued to expand. First, Capcom added six characters to SF4's console port. Then, not long after, Capcom added ten more fighters in the standalone update, Super Street Fighter 4. After that, Super SF4: Arcade Edition added another four fighters. Finally, Ultra Street Fighter 4 upped the roster to its final total of 44.
15 Dragon Ball FighterZ
44 Characters
Dragon Ball fans and fighting game fans alike had plenty to celebrate with the launch of Dragon Ball FighterZ. Finally, after several ruined attempts at a 2D Dragon Ball fighting game, Arc System Works made a fun, mighty, and frantic game worthy of the beloved manga/anime series.
Arc included a cornucopia of Dragon Ball's esteemed characters throughout the game's lifespan, from mainstays like Goku to fusions such as Gogeta. The game even added a new character to the series, Android 21, developed by series creator Akira Toriyama.
14 Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition
45 Characters
As mentioned earlier, Capcom had to redeem its reputation with fans after Street Fighter 5's launch on the Playstation 4 and PC. The game lacked standard fighting game features, like an arcade mode, and its roster was one of the series's smallest in quite some time. In many ways, the game felt unfinished.
It took five seasons of DLC characters and two updated titles to amend Street Fighter 5's original mistakes. Finally, however, the game surpassed its predecessor by one character, Luke, who plays a significant role in Street Fighter 6. If you include the random-select character, Eleven, that total bumps up to 46 characters.
13 Samurai Shodown 6
47 Characters
Samurai Shodown 6 was the series' last 2D entry, launching in 2005. In what feels like a "last hoorah" for the series, its PS2 port features every character from the previous NEO GEO installments. So yes, everyone from the referee to Nakoruru's pets are playable in this game.
The game also featured a "spirit select" system, which allowed players to choose their favorite fighting system from the past five games and a few new ones. In turn, this bursts the capacity of this large roster even further! Plus, one of the new characters is a puppet soldier. How neat is that!
48 Characters
Capcom Vs. SNK 2 resulted from years of collaboration between the two fighting game titans. Their collaboration paid off, and the game has aged incredibly well. These characters are all cut from the same cloth. Seeing so many of them together in one game gave off the vibe they'd known each other for years.
Considering all of the new characters they've created since 2001, it's a damn shame that Capcom and SNK haven't reunited in over two decades. We wouldn't count on them coming out the gate on day one with a large fighting game roster in this era of DLC and long-term support.
11 Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3
50 Characters
Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 is Capcom's third-largest roster in a crossover fighting game, behind Street Fighter X Tekken and Marvel Vs. Capcom 2. However, in a game that plays as well as UMvC3 does, those six fewer characters from MvC2 are not missed.
However, while the game has an official roster of 50, its PC version is still growing. This growth is due to contributions from the game's modding community, which has found a way to develop new characters over existing models from the roster. So if you were hoping to bring Captain Commando back into the series, now's your chance!
10 Tekken 7
51 Characters
At four years and counting, Tekken 7 is in the running for the fighting game with the longest-running developer support, starting with 37 characters in 2017 and adding 14 more since. Technically, the support has lasted more than six years because the arcade version first appeared back in 2015.
Twelve of the characters are new original Tekken characters, with four being guests from other series. New stages, modes, and features have also come along with them. But, believe it or not, it still isn't the largest Tekken roster of all time.
9 BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle
53 Characters
Oh, your fighting game is a crossover between just two fighting game series? That's adorable. BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle started as a four-way crossover between BlazBlue, Persona, Under Night In-Birth, and RWBY. By the end of its lifespan, the game also featured characters from fighting games like Arcana Heart, Senran Kagura, and Akatsuki Blitzkampf.
After the success of Guilty Gear: Strive and Dragon Ball FighterZ, Arc System Works may never return to 2D sprite-based characters ever again, making BBTAG the final send-off and celebration of an entire era for the king of anime fighting game developers.
8 Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
55 Characters
Almost everyone was here, but not quite. Furthermore, Sakurai and crew hadn't consolidated characters like Lucina and Dark Pit under the "echo fighter" category. Therefore, the proper total unique character count would technically be 53.
As Nintendo's first foray into post-release DLC characters for Smash, they made huge waves with prominent third-party guests like Cloud and Bayonetta. An impressive fighting game roster for sure. Still, no Smash fan would anticipate that its sequel would break the record for the fighting game with the most characters.
7 Street Fighter X Tekken
55 Characters
The legacy of Street Fighter X Tekken is that of one of the biggest dupers in fighting game history. In short, the game launched with its DLC characters locked on disc. The public's reception to this decision salted the earth for a Bandai-Namco-developed Tekken X Street Fighter game. Still, you have to give credit where credit is due: the final roster is one of Capcom's largest fighting game rosters, representing a comprehensive history of two legendary series.
The total character count falls to 50 on non-PlayStation platforms. However, except for Pac-Man, fans won't miss those PS-exclusive characters (Toro, Kuro, Cole from Infamous, and "Mega Man")sed that hard by nearly anyone.
56 Characters
Capcom's sprite work from the Street Fighter Alpha series, Darkstalkers, X-Men: Children of the Atom, and Marvel Super Heroes combined into one beautiful mess known as Marvel Vs. Capcom 2. MvC2's character roster was so large developers cut several frames of animation from the original sprites to fit all of the data onto one disc.
History has proven that this was the right call; MvC2 is one of the most beloved fighting games of all time, and it spoiled us with the number of characters it gave you upfront before the concept of DLC ever existed.
5 The King of Fighters 14
58 Characters
Launching a fighting game with 50 playable characters may not quite have approached the standards set by MvC2. Yet, in the modern era of post-release DLC support, that's still a pro-consumer power play that deserves recognition. Even if you were to exclude the eight DLC characters, The King Of Fighters 14 is one of SNK's largest fighting game rosters.
The game itself is often maligned for its underwhelming visuals, especially compared to the beautiful 2D sprites of The King of Fighters 13, but no one can claim that SNK didn't give players their money's worth.
4 Tekken Tag Tournament 2
59 Characters
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 had a fully comprehensive cast that featured every playable character in Tekken history. Only one character (Gon from Tekken 3) was left behind. And that absence is because he's from a licensed manga series that Bandai-Namco couldn't secure the rights to again.
However, this is one of the more egregious examples of "clone characters" padding a fighting game roster. Even though characters like Marshall Law and Forest Law occupy different slots on the character select screen, they're functionally identical in gameplay, so the total unique character count is technically closer to 50.
3 Mortal Kombat: Armageddon
64 Characters
Who needs DLC? Mortal Kombat: Armageddon is a PlayStation 2/Xbox game from 2006, and none of NetherRealm Studios' other Mortal Kombat or Injustice games come close to this fighting game's large roster. It didn't matter how weird or unpopular a character was; every playable character in series history was here, no exceptions.
Unfortunately, that's pretty much the only positive attribute. Armageddon may have been the Mortal Kombat fighting game with the most characters, but it had the least unique fatalities. Instead, each character had an identical "Create A Fatality" system that targeted certain limbs based on button input.
2 The King Of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match
66 Characters
KOF has a few remade titles launched by SNK over the years. For instance, KOF '94 Rebout launched on consoles to commemorate the series' tenth anniversary. Similarly, KOF '98 Ultimate Match launched four years later with a roster boasting 64 characters. Still, The King Of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match holds the title for the largest roster in a King Of Fighters game with 66 characters!
The original KOF 2002 was one of SNK's "dream match" titles. This designation meant that characters who canonically died or have no relevance to the series story still showed up in the game. Furthermore, KOF 2002 UM was like a dream match on top of a dream match, adding characters from KOF '99, 2000, and 2001.
1 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (The Largest Fighting Game Roster)
86 Characters
You can relax now, Mr. Sakurai. This fighting game roster is plenty. Not only does Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's roster size trounce any other fighting game's by at least ten - it does so while still excluding echo fighters like Daisy and Dark Samus.
And whatever third-party obstacles kept Solid Snake out of Smash for Wii U, they wouldn't stop Sakurai and Nintendo this time. "Everyone is Here!" isn't just a tagline; it's a promise. The fulfillment of this promise makes Super Smash Bros. Ultimate the fighting game with the most characters.
NEXT: The Best Charge Characters In Fighting Games
