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Shatts on 19 July 2023
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Jumpin said:
Mar1217 said:

So much problems coming out from the perceived definition of "franchises".
Like if we are strictly speaking of a series of games then some of these choices are hugely debatable.

Also if we are going with the current Street Figther debate. I'd say, nowadays and it has been for a long time now. Smash Bros is the most important fighting game series dethroning the former quite easily from revenue and popularity alone.
Though should it be counted as a Mario spin-off? A Kirby spin-off ? It technically heavily inspires itself on the gameplay of Kirby SuperStar which Sakurai previously worked on.

Honestly, too much grey area to cover + I think a Top 10 makes the choices quite reductive.

If we’re talking about now, sure. But not for all of gaming history.

I doubt even all the Smash Bros games combined have been played as much as Street Fighter. Street Fighter 2 was a phenomenon in the arcade, drastically exceeding any console or PC game of its time in popularity and revenue.

Street Fighter, as a franchise earned over 12.4 billion USD, which is about 3-4 times more than the Smash Bros franchise assuming 50 USD on average per sale. A lot of that occurred during the 1990s while Smash Bros has been bigger since the release of Brawl in 2008; so, factoring inflation, that ratio grows even more in Street Fighter’s favour for revenue.

Street Fighter was undoubtedly a bigger part of the gaming culture as well seeing big success on more platforms and in more formats including comic and film.

So, while Smash bros might be bigger these days, it’s not when comparing their histories as a whole. Especially as a factor of the ratio of popularity over the video gaming industry of its time.

https://vgsales.fandom.com/wiki/Street_Fighter

https://vgsales.fandom.com/wiki/Super_Smash_Bros.

It's impossible to compare one on one, but we do have to keep in mind that 12ish billion dollars include cabinet sales. That's like including console sales Smash was able to get people to buy, which is impossible to tell. Also Smash Bros is a party couch co-op game. I didn't own Brawl and Melee, but played it a lot at my friends house. Arcades and f2p live-service games nowadays don't have that kind of experience because revenue is generated from microtransactions. While I still rate Street Fighter higher overall, Smash Bros is on its tails.

Last edited by Shatts - on 19 July 2023