NetherRealm Studios might be in for a bit of disappointment with its newest title, Mortal Kombat 1. At least for the moment. Mortal Kombat has remained one of the leading fighting games for about 30 years. Going all the way back to the days in 1992 when convenience stores had arcade cabinets in them, the beloved Street Fighter 2 used to be directly by the counter whereas, Mortal Kombat was always located in the back corner, with the latter having its own niche and loyal fanbase.
Mortal Kombat 1 vs. Street Fighter 6
Since the initial Mortal Kombat release, there have been 25 different Mortal Kombat titles over the past 30 years. NetherRealm Studios clearly looks to make changes for the better with each new iteration. The hype online for Mortal Kombat 1 prior to release might not be meeting players’ full satisfaction, though.
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Earlier this year, the newest iteration of Street Fighter came out, Street Fighter 6. It was well received by critics and fans alike, adding in character creation and an open-world story of beatdowns, or becoming the top street fighter on the block.
About a week ago, Mortal Kombat stepped back into the fighting arena with Mortal Kombat 1. A semi-reboot of its characters and stories with a few niche changes, but all the same gory violence that horrified your parents back in the day and was the precursor to the wonderfully utilized ESRB.
Metacritic shows that Mortal Kombat 1 was well reviewed with a critic score of 84, but it seems the gaming masses are a little more jaded. The user score on Metacritic is only a 6.4. This less than excellent reception by fighting game enthusiasts was recently reflected in Steam statistics.
Steam shows the current state of activity in a game like Mortal Kombat 1 using three stats about the game. These are the “current players,” “24-hour peak,” and “all-time peak.” Now Mortal Kombat 1 has not been out as long as Street Fighter 6, but it definitely has some catching up to do, as Street Fighter 6‘s all-time peak beats out Mortal Kombat 1‘s by approximately 44,000.
The current player count is also in favor of Street Fighter 6, despite it having been released several months earlier. On September 24, the current player numbers were 16,000 compared to Mortal Kombat 1‘s 13,000. Perhaps fighting game players had more of an entertainment budget a few months ago, or maybe Street Fighter 6 just got there first, or possibly Mortal Kombat 1 is just warming up.
Mortal Kombat 11 had a lot of DLC releases over the course of about 2 years after its release, including movie characters and skins and a story expansion. Player participation could easily increase when DLC characters like Omni-Man, Homelander, and Peacemaker are added. What do you think? Which fighting game are you more a fan of? Let us know down below.
Source: Steam
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