It might not have created the genre, but fighting games wouldn’t be as important and popular as they are today without Street Fighter. This is a series that introduced the idea of combos, a six-button layout, and motion inputs for special moves. It also helped build a competitive scene for fighting games, it made the arcade scene rise in the 90s, and it revitalized the genre in the era of online play.
With each main entry, Street Fighter tried to create something new or focus in a new direction that would make other iconic fighting game franchises, such as Mortal Kombat or The King of Fighters, pay attention. However, the series surpassed its walls and became a cultural phenomenon, with its well-known roster appearing in different types of media and even games outside of the fights, like Fortnite.
In this article, you’ll find a chronology of the series if you’re interested in playing each entry from the start and following its intricate story.
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How Many Street Fighter Games Are There?
Since the original Street Fighter was released in 1987, Capcom has launched six main entries in the series, with their respective sequels and special versions and rereleases on multiple platforms and arcade systems. Most of the time, each version came with new characters, modes, balances in the whole roster, and other unique features.
While the original Street Fighter only has two versions (the original arcade one and the one ported to consoles), Street Fighter II spawned seven different versions since its debut in 1991, the most recent one being the Switch-exclusive Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers (2017). The following main entry has three releases: Street Fighter III: New Generation, 2nd Impact, and Third Strike. 2008’s Street Fighter IV has appeared in the market three more times with Super Street Fighter IV, Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition, and Ultra Street Fighter IV. Street Fighter V also received a couple of big updates after its initial launch in 2016: Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition and Street Fighter V: Champion Edition. And the most recent mainline game is Street Fighter 6, which launched on June 2, 2023.
Apart from the main series, the Alpha subseries was pretty popular in its time. Three games were released under this title: Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors Dream, Street Fighter Alpha 2, and Street Fighter Alpha 3. A second subseries, called Street Fighter EX, was co-developed by Capcom and Arika. It features another trilogy of games, for the first time in 3D.
If we include the crossovers, spin-offs, and characters’ special appearances in other series, the list keeps getting bigger. There’s the film tie-in called Street Fighter: The Movie, the puzzle game Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, its fighting game spin-off Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix (also called Pocket Fighters), and the most recent mobile entry, Street Fighter: Duel, available on Android.
The Vs. series has seen numerous entries in its history. From the well-received X-Men Vs. Street Fighter in 1997 to the inclusion of multiple characters of the franchise in every of the “Vs. Capcom” series, with Marvel Vs. Capcom being the most popular one. Ryu and the World Warriors also faced Tekken’s characters in Street Fighter X Tekken, and there’s an interesting platformer spin-off that was originally fanmade, called Street Fighter X Mega Man.
Before going in with the list of main titles, it’s worth mentioning that the timeline of the canon Street Fighter titles is not very consistent. There are incoherences in some individual character stories between entries, restarting plots or characters being death and then alive, among other things. However, the following is the most accepted timeline in the series.
Street Fighter Games in Chronological Order
Beware of spoilers for the stories, characters, and relevant events of each game in the list below.
1. Street Fighter (1987)
The game that started it all, Street Fighter doesn’t go deep in terms of presenting a story. You can only play as the iconic characters Ryu and Ken, looking to battle fighters in five different countries: Japan, England, the United States, China, and Thailand. The latter is where the final challengers are, Adon and Sagat.
Sagat, a master of Muay Thai, fights Ryu to see who’s the best fighter in the world in a tournament. Our protagonist Ryu wins the battle, leaving Sagat with a prominent scar on his chest, furious, and searching for revenge in the future.
2. Street Fighter Alpha: Warrior’s Dreams (1995)
In the first entry in the Alpha subseries, Warrior’s Dreams, Sagat is back and ready to take revenge on the man who defeated him. However, Alpha presents many more relevant characters than the original Street Fighter, including the iconic antagonist M. Bison.
M. Bison is creating an evil organization, Shadaloo, while other characters from different backgrounds, such as Chun-Li, Charlie (Guile’s mate), and Rose try to stop him. Adon, Sagat’s former apprentice, is looking to beat his master, and the new character Dan Hibiki also wants a piece, since Sagat killed his father. Meanwhile, Ryu is looking for Akuma, a devilish warrior that murdered Gouken, Ryu’s and Ken’s mentor.