What does this mean for both games?

Recently, we heard about the success that Bandai Namco has had with their Tekken 7 game. Despite it only being out for two months, over 1.66 million units have been sold so far.

The goal by the end of the year is to sell 2.1 million. Based on their progress so far, it does look as though they will be successful in that avenue.

I think it's fair to say that a lot of people's minds wondered about Street Fighter 5 when they heard this news. Many fighting game players immediately wanted to draw some comparisons between the two.

Meanwhile with Street Fighter 5, the game has been out for about a year and a half and it has reached 1.7 million units. Unfortunately, they've missed their goal of reaching 2 million units by the end of 2016.

Are things really looking that bad for Street Fighter 5? Is Tekken 7 really just that much more successful?

In order to find out, we need to look at the history for Street Fighter 5's sales. We'll also theorize on a few reasons why Tekken 7 has seen a success where Street Fighter 5 has somewhat struggled in.

First of all, while it is noted that Street Fighter 5 did have a little trouble selling initially, it did actually sell 1.4 million units by May 2016. This is about three months after the game was released.

This isn't too far off from Tekken 7's 1.66 million by two months. While things are looking very promising for Bandai Namco, their initial sales may not paint the entire picture for the game's entire lifespan.

It was only after this reported 1.4 million sales where things started going wrong for Street Fighter 5. In October of 2016, five months after May's numbers, it was reported that Street Fighter 5 was unable to sell 100K additional copies of the game.

Street Fighter 5 would only be able to achieve that additional 100K sales by February 2017. Being that this was a full year after the game was initially released, Capcom had, unfortunately, missed their 2016 goal.

Things started to pick up from here and Street Fighter 5 begun to see some small victories. In May 2017, they were able to sell yet another 100K units.

Leading up to August, this month, it sold a total of 1.7 million copies of the game. These later sales are obviously not quite as good as the early ones since the game is now going at a lower price.

So does this predict anything for Tekken 7's sales? Not really.

What this shows is that a game can start off decently well, and then just lose steam in the long run. I have a feeling this probably won't happen with Tekken 7 though.

With the announcement of Geese Howard coming to the game as DLC, it's likely that new players will want to try Tekken 7. The game even ended up getting Akuma before Street Fighter 5.

This begs the question though: what happened that caused Tekken 7 to have nearly the number of sales in just two months as Street Fighter 5 had in over a year?

In a lot of ways, Street Fighter 5 doesn't really know what type of audience it wants to appeal to. There are aspects of the game that turn off both hardcore fans and casual players alike.

Many professional players have expressed a dislike for some of the simplified mechanics. The lack of one frame links and the existence of a four frame buffer seems like it is intended to appeal to newer players.

"In a lot of ways, Street Fighter 5 doesn't really know what type of audience it wants to appeal to. There are aspects of the game that turn off both hardcore fans and casual players alike."

Meanwhile, the game launched probably a little earlier than it should've as it came packaged without a lot of single player content. Back then, there was no story mode.

Aside from online, players only had the frustratingly difficult survival mode to play. To this day, there is still no arcade mode.

Even the most die hard of fans are missing out on some of their favorite characters that have been a staple in the series. It feels as though everyone has a little something they are they just wanting more out of Street Fighter 5.

Luckily, we're still due for two more characters for Season 2. While they said to be characters that have never been playable in the series before, rumors have fans buzzing.

Even beyond that, players are eagerly awaiting news for Season 3 and beyond. In particular, there are many characters that can easily renew interest for many if they were announced.

Tekken 7 has been available to play in the arcades for two years before it came out to the consoles. This meant that they had more time to receive feedback from the players before the release that we got.

Overall, the game had more development time dedicated to it than Street Fighter 5. What came about was what felt more like a finished product to casual fans.

Still, Tekken 7 is missing a number of fan favorites as well. It seems as though they are making up for it with 3rd party characters like Geese Howard and Akuma.

When the game did release on consoles, it did come packaged with its story and arcade modes. There are also a plethora of costume choices that allow players to personalize their characters.

Overall, credit has to go to Bandai Namco for their better marketing tactics for the game. It feels like it appeals to a much wider audience than Street Fighter 5 does.

What are your thoughts on the matter? Be sure to let us know in the comments section.