Three Years Ago, Capcom Released One of the Greatest Fighting Games In History

Capcom dominated the scene in the 90s and early 2000s with massive hits like Devil May Cry, Resident Evil, and Street Fighter, but the now-beloved developer and publisher went through a rough patch, especially with its fighting game offerings like Street Fighter X Tekken and the initial launch of Street Fighter V. Luckily, Capcom recovered, and one of its best games just turned three years old.

Today, June 2, 2026, marks the third anniversary of the release of Street Fighter 6, arguably the most well-received and popular fighting game of the modern era. The sixth mainline entry in the long-running series would see Capcom approach single-player content more actively and also refine its online play and tournament scene.

According to Metacritic, Street Fighter 6 sits at a very impressive 92 metascore, ranking higher than both its major competitors that also had new releases in 2023--Mortal Kombat 1 and Tekken 8. Critics praised the game's art direction, style, easy-to-learn, hard-to-master mechanics, single-player content, online netcode, and improvement over the controversial release of Street Fighter V, which was lacking content and simplified the fighting systems.

There was, however, some criticism from critics and fans aimed at the game's relatively small base roster of playable characters and the execution of the World Tour mode.

Since its initial release, Street Fighter 6 has stayed relatively the same. Drive Rush is still a very powerful tool that every character has access to. Throw loops dominate the game. And new content is slow to come out. However, that doesn't seem to be bothering too many players from logging in, hitting the streets, and duking it out with friends or strangers online.

Street Fighter 6 is still getting new content updates, with the latest character, Ingrid, releasing last week and closing out season three. Unlike previous seasons, an announcement for season four has not occurred yet, but it seems likely to happen either at the PlayStation State of Play or Summer Game Fest, both events happening later this week.

Whether the rumored DLC list that includes guest character Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy 7 is true or not may be revealed this week.

This story was originally published by Men's Journal on Jun 2, 2026, where it first appeared in the Entertainment section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

2026 The Arena Group Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.

This story was originally published June 1, 2026 at 5:28 PM.