Street Fighter 6’s Season 2 update has now been in the hands of the public for a little over two months. Since its implementation, we have seen two new DLC characters join the fight, as well as several major events including the largest open bracket event of the year, Evo, run their course on the new patch.
Now that we’ve had a good chunk of time with the Season 2 update and the game’s latest and first DLC character in this year’s character pass, M. Bison, we are now taking a closer look at where everything stands in the game’s current state. Today, I am sharing my first Street Fighter 6 Season 2 tier list that ranks all 23 of the game’s characters from strongest to weakest.
To kick things off, I’ll go ahead and provide a few liner notes about how I approached generating this list. Firstly, you’ll see a total of seven different letter grade categories listed on this tier list.
While a lot of tier lists opt to go for straight letter grades in descending order, I felt that this listed needed sub grades as well due to how close in strength a lot of these characters currently feel. This list begins with S tier (the best in the entire game), then descends down to A+, A, A-, B+, B, and C.
There’s a sentiment going around with pros and prominent folks in the fighting game community that essentially boils down to “there are currently 10 characters in top 5.” I think that’s a strong foundation when gauging the current strength of the Season 2 roster, though I’d personally probably extend that out to saying that there are 15 characters in top 10 right now.
The gaps between a lot of the characters in the top 15 right now feel fairly small, and several of these placements could easily be interchangeable, in my opinion. And lastly, looking at a character like A.K.I. (my current main), I feel like she’s definitely strong in this game and can hang in a lot of scenarios, but because of how stiff the competition is this season for the top ranks on the tier list, she gets a placement like 15th that might not be truly indicative of her actual strength.
With all of that having been said, let’s take a look at my Street Fighter 6 Season 2 tier list.
As things stand right now, it feels as though three characters stand above the rest in terms of strength, though S ranks characters don’t have a massive gap between them and the tier just below them. Ken feels like he’s the best pick overall for best in the game not only due to his myriad of strong tools, but also because of his overall consistency and being the most “all-around” out of this season’s big three.
Rohto|Tokido, one of the best players in the world whose name is nearly synonymous with Akuma, is still playing Ken this season despite both characters being very strong. I believe this is the case because in a competitive landscape where the majority of double elimination brackets are 2 out of 3 sets, a character like Ken checks all of the boxes that people want out of a top tier while also having average health, proper defense, and he isn’t overly difficult to play.
If you’re trying to survive in grueling 2/3 pools and want the most consistent chance of doing so all while not having to take on a highly technical character, Ken appears to be the perfect fit.
Rashid is another incredibly effective character here in Street Fighter 6 Season 2, but his learning curve and more demanding execution present a few more obstacles that you need to overcome to tap into his true potential. As I mentioned in my review of Rashid originally, he is a character with a ton of potential that I felt would eventually rise up as players got more time in to master some of his best tools and options.
Players such as RB|Gachikun, NASR|BigBird, DFM|John Takeuchi, and TM|OilKing are at that point now, and I feel as though they are now showing us what peak Rashid play looks like (but, of course, there’s still always room for more meta development). Also, Rashid’s level 2 super is easily one of, if not, the best super in the entire game.
As far as Akuma goes, he is a character that deals a ton of burst damage and has options for virtually any scenario. He’s a more explosive choice — both for him and against him — as his lower health means you need to be a lot more careful in your decisions, but the payout for being able to do so is a very strong contender with great options that can definitely get the job done.
Addressing the Psycho Powered elephant in the room, M. Bison is definitely a very strong character here in Street Fighter 6 Season 2. However, his lack of solid defense is a factor, and while he can dish out incredible damage and pressure without too much effort, other characters are just more consistent overall. Several of the other top tiers can deal really good damage too, but also have great defensive options to get them out of rough spots which is ideal in a highly offense based game like Street Fighter 6.
As I mentioned previously, a common thread through this entire tier list is that a character’s placement might seem lower than you’d think, but this doesn’t indicate that they’re weak or can’t win. It simply means that other characters have some advantages in different areas that are important when it comes to consistency, and this ultimately leads to players choosing them more often or them securing higher spots on the tier list.
Jumping down to the bottom three characters in the game, I have them in C rank as opposed to something more extreme because I don’t feel like they are completely terrible here in this version by any means. That being said, the lower end of the tier list features fighters that feel like they are either lacking the proper effectiveness in some of their best tools and/or simply have too many hurdles to overcome before getting to their best abilities when other characters can access those tools right out of the gate.
Check out my full Street Fighter 6 Season 2 tier list below, and let me know either in the comments here or on Twitter if you agree with the placements, disagree, or just want to share your own thoughts on character strength!
Click images for larger versions
Tier list created on TierMaker.