Fighting games represent a niche genre within esports, encompassing a wide array of titles across various platforms. This segment stands as one of the oldest in the digital entertainment industry, tracing its roots back to the days of arcade machines when gamers first began duking it out on virtual arenas.
Most Watched Fighting Games on Twitch in 2023
| Place
|
Game
|
Hours Watched
|
|---|---|---|
| #1
|
Street Fighter 6
|
112.12М
|
| #2
|
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
|
32.96M
|
| #3
|
Party Animals
|
20.36M
|
| #4
|
Mortal Kombat 1
|
17.12M
|
| #5
|
Tekken 7
|
14.08M
|
| #6
|
Naraka: Bladepoint
|
11.44M
|
| #7
|
Brawlhalla
|
9.65M
|
| #8
|
Street Fighter V
|
8.42M
|
| #9
|
Super Smash Bros. Melee
|
7.66M
|
| #10
|
Guilty Gear -Strive-
|
6.33M
|
Within the realm of fighting games lies a tightly-knit community that not only unites fans from around the globe but also serves as a primary driving force for the genre. Players frequently take on tournament organizers' roles while competing against each other across multiple disciplines.
In 2023, Street Fighter 6 undoubtedly took center stage as the flagship title for the fighting games community, yet players also showed unwavering support for the Super Smash Bros. series. Streams Charts summarized the year for the genre and compiled statistics on the most popular fighting games on Twitch.
Most Watched Fighting Games on Twitch
In 2023, Street Fighter 6 emerged as the most popular fighting game on Twitch. The game was released in June and within six months, it amassed over 112.1 million Hours Watched. Street Fighter 6 also boasted the highest peak online viewership among all platform fighting games in 2023, hitting 320.7K Peak Viewers. This milestone was achieved on June 25th during a tournament hosted by the Crazy Raccoon Club, featuring top streamers from Japan.
Street Fighter 6 garnered three times more viewing hours than the second-ranked game in the fighting game rankings. Such phenomenal success was driven by immense interest in the title, particularly from top Japanese streamers, including female YouTubers. In 2023, streams for Street Fighter 6 were hosted by fps_shaka, stylishnoob4, Akami Karubi, DaigoTheBeasTV, and many others. Among American streamers, notable activity for the title came from Maximilian_DOOD, NuckleDu, and Snake_Eyez_.
In the 2023 Twitch ranking, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate secured the second spot, albeit with a significant gap from the leader — streams for this fighting game in 2023 generated 32.9 million HW on Twitch. The largest audience reach occurred on official tournament channels like btssmash and VGBootCamp, as well as on streams by Etoiles and Hungrybox.
In the third position was Party Animals, a new fighting game from Recreate Games. The game had a global release in September and within just four months in 2023, it garnered over 20.3 million HW on Twitch. It gained popularity among top streamers, even prompting Twitch to host two Twitch Rivals tournaments for the game.
Mortal Kombat 1 was released practically right after Party Animals, and on the Twitch fighting game rankings, these games found themselves nearby. Streams for Mortal Kombat 1 generated 17.1 million HW.
Tekken 7 secured the fifth spot in the ranking with 14 million HW in 2023. The game saw active streaming activity primarily on the official TEKKEN channel, covering esports tournaments like TWT 2023 and the European Tekken Cup. TheMainManSWE from Sweden emerged as the leader in hours watched among streamers for this discipline.
Naraka: Bladepoint accumulated over 11.4 million HW on Twitch, placing it in the sixth position in the 2023 fighting game rankings. Achieving such a result on the platform was largely aided by drop giveaways. In July, developers conducted a 7-day event in celebration of the game's birthday, during which viewers could earn cosmetic items by watching Naraka: Bladepoint streams.
Brawlhalla landed in the seventh position, amassing over 9.6 million HW on Twitch in 2023. More than half of these hours came from the game's official channel, showcasing matches from the Brawlhalla World Championship and other title tournaments. The channel also offered the Brawlhalla Viewership Rewards program, allowing viewers to earn in-game cosmetic items for watching Twitch streams.
Street Fighter V saw active streaming only in the first half of 2023 until the release of its sixth installment. Over several months, the game generated 8.4 million HW on Twitch, but streams for the game nearly ceased on the platform starting from June.
Securing the ninth position in the most-watched fighting games on Twitch was Super Smash Bros. Melee, which accumulated 7.6 million HW in 2023. The top three most popular streamers for this discipline were mang0, Hungrybox, and CodySchwab.
Guilty Gear -Strive- closed the top 10 list with 6.3 million HW. Notably, in 2023, the game's Twitch section set a record for peak online viewership, gathering over 201.4K Peak Viewers during the Evo 2023 broadcasts.
Most Watched Twitch Streamers of Fighting Games
The most-watched fighting game streamer on Twitch in 2023 was American Maximilian_DOOD. Over the year, his channel accumulated over 9.3 million HW. He predominantly played Street Fighter 6 but also explored various versions of Mortal Kombat and Tekken.
Japanese streamer fps_shaka engaged in different popular titles throughout the year, but he also dedicated significant attention to fighting games. His channel garnered 7.7 million HW solely from Street Fighter 6 broadcasts, securing him the second position in the rankings.
Another Japanese streamer, DaigoTheBeasTV, also made it to the top three. Last year, he played across various fighting games, accumulating over 5.8 million HW, mostly through Street Fighter 6 streams.
Stylishnoob4 had a similar story — in 2023, this Japanese streamer played dozens of titles, including various versions of Street Fighter, accumulating 5.7 million HW from fighting game streams.
The fifth spot in the rankings belonged to Taiwanese streamer zrush. In 2023, while playing numerous indie titles, he also dedicated considerable time to Street Fighter 6, amassing over 3.2 million HW.
The most-viewed European fighting game streamer was French content creator Etoiles. Interestingly, unlike previous content creators, he hardly streamed SF6 but instead focused a lot on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. This game contributed over 2.78 million HW to his channel.
The seventh position in the rankings featured Japanese content creator Akami Karubi, becoming the most-viewed female content creator in the fighting game genre on Twitch in 2023. Her Street Fighter 6 broadcasts generated 2.75 million HW.
Hungrybox represented the second American in the rankings of the most-viewed fighting game streamers. He's one of the most popular esports figures in the genre, streaming and competing across various disciplines. His channel mainly showcases Super Smash Bros. Ultimate streams, but in 2023, he also streamed Super Smash Bros. Melee, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2, Street Fighter 6, Guilty Gear: Strive, and other titles. Altogether, his focus on fighting games garnered over 2.6 million HW.
Closing the rankings were two more Japanese streamers — darumaisgod and haitani0904. In 2023, their channels accumulated 2.5 million and 2.3 million HW, respectively, thanks to their Street Fighter 6 streams.
Most Watched Organization Twitch Channels of Fighting Games
The channel btssmash garnered the most viewing hours among organizations and tournament operators in the fighting game genre. In 2023, their broadcasts accumulated 5.2 million HW, mainly featuring tournaments like Port Priority 8, The Big House 11, Shine 2023, Riptide 2023, and others across different versions of Super Smash Bros.
Securing the second spot in the ranking was the official Brawlhalla channel. In 2023, it accrued just over 5 million HW thanks to broadcasts of the Brawlhalla World Championship and other tournaments.
The third position in the ranking belonged to the CapcomFighters channel, which covered tournaments and events related to Street Fighter 6, such as the Capcom Pro Tour and Street Fight League. Last year, broadcasts of the game amassed over 4.3 million HW on this channel.
The VGBootCamp channel generated over 3.2 million HW in 2023. It predominantly showcased matches from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate but also featured streams of Super Smash Bros. Melee and Street Fighter 6. Among the tournaments covered on VGBootCamp were Watch The Throne, UFA 2023, Kagaribi, Delfino Maza, and other events.
The fifth spot in the ranking belonged to the Evo channel, hosting official broadcasts of the Evolution Championship Series tournaments. This series, one of the oldest in fighting game tournaments, encompasses various disciplines: Street Fighter, Tekken, Guilty Gear, Dragon Ball FighterZ, and Mortal Kombat, among others. In 2023, this channel amassed over 2.1 million HW, largely due to the Evo 2023 tournament festival.
The sixth position in the ranking was held by the capcomfighters_jp channel, featuring official tournament broadcasts in Japanese. In 2023, this channel accumulated 1.9 million HW thanks to Capcom Pro Tour, Street Fight League, Evo 2023, and other events.
The channel TampaNeverSleeps secured the seventh position in the rankings with 1.7 million HW. Among the top ten channels, this one showed the most progress compared to the previous year (+131%). Throughout the year, it covered tournament matches for Street Fighter 6, DNF Duel, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Guilty Gear: Strive, Mortal Kombat 12, and other fighting games.
The official TEKKEN channel claimed the eighth spot in the top rankings, accumulating over 1.1 million HW in 2023. The channel showcased matches from TWT 2023, European Tekken Cup, and even featured a brief presentation of Tekken 8, set to release at the end of January 2024.
The ninth position in the rankings belonged to NARAKABLADEPOINT, the official English-language channel for the eponymous game. Last year, this channel amassed just over 1.1 million HW, covering matches from J Cup 2023 and other tournaments.
Closing the rankings for organizations was the channel EvenMatchupGaming, owned by a tournament operator from Toronto specializing in fighting games. In 2023, EvenMatchupGaming actively covered tournaments for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Super Smash Bros. Melee, contributing to the channel's accumulation of approximately one million hours watched.
