I ran an opinion piece a few weeks back that put two Street Fighter characters, Dhalsim and E. Honda, under the microscope and argued that their general lack of popularity among players is substantial enough that they shouldn’t be taking up coveted roster slots in every new Street Fighter game.
There is at least one other character that might also be a worthwhile part of this discussion (though for slightly different reasons) as the numbers aren’t exactly convincing when it comes to justifying that Capcom put Blanka in every Street Fighter game.
Base rosters are extremely important for a fighting game debut and DLC additions have become both expected and a reason to continue to playing. Capcom added 5-6 new fighters in each season of Street Fighter 5, but has reduced that number to 4 for Street Fighter 6 and thus character select real estate has become all the more valuable.
It’s no secret that Capcom has always aimed for variety when it comes to country and fighting style representation, and that’s still in full force for Street Fighter 6.
Blanka hails from Brazil, but his fighting style might be best described as “feral movements and electric attacks” and thus could fairly easily be replaced with most any fighting style that isn’t already represented.
Players continually fork over extra cash to get their hands on DLC newcomers, and so when a character who isn’t all that popular winds up taking a roster slot, it matters.
Like Dhalsim and Honda, Blanka is one of the World Warriors from Street Fighter 2 and thus has a lot of history as one of the OG’s of the franchise, but Capcom has included him in every single main entry except for Street Fighter 3 and that might be a bit much.
Blanka certainly has his fan base and has seen a somewhat consistent presence in final brackets of major tournaments thanks to Falcons|MenaRD regularly using him as a secondary, but when it comes to overall usage, Blanka is consistently unpopular.
Below you’ll find the overall usage numbers for the Brazilian beast for each month since Street Fighter 6’s release back in June of 2023. You’ll also find the usage stats for him for the final 13 months of Street Fighter 5 as Capcom has made both sets of data available to the public.
• 06/23 – 17/18
• 07/23 – 17/19
• 08/23 – 17/19
• 09/23 – 19/20
• 10/23 – 18/20
• 11/23 – 17/20
• 12/23 – 17/20
• 01/24 – 17/20
• 02/24 – 15/21
• 03/24 – 15/21
• 04/24 – 15/21
• 05/24 – 17/22
• 06/24 – 21/23
Usage varied from 1.72 – 2.35% of the time, credit Buckler’s Bootcamp
• 05/22 – 42/45
• 06/22 – 43/45
• 07/22 – 43/45
• 08/22 – 43/45
• 09/22 – 43/45
• 10/22 – 43/45
• 11/22 – 41/45
• 12/22 – 39/45
• 01/23 – 37/45
• 02/23 – 38/45
• 03/23 – 37/45
• 04/23 – 38/45
• 05/23 – 33/45
Usage varied from 0.94 – 1.19% of the time, credit Shadaloo CFN
We don’t have the numbers from back in the days of Street Fighter 4, but we did run a poll asking our readers which characters they hate fighting against the most, and Blanka won conclusively with a whopping 14.7% of the total vote.
Indeed Blanka has long been known as something of a troll character, designed not to necessarily be one of the top tiers, but instead to be a bit on the goofier side as he steals win and catches people looking with sometimes silly gimmicks.
This theme is present in Street Fighter 6 as one of Blanka’s most common attacks is also one of his most frustrating to deal with, and so there’s a reason why
the character doesn’t exactly have the best reputation when it comes to thoughtful play.
There’s space for such figures in Street Fighter, and Blanka is grandfathered in as one of the franchise’s most memorable contenders, but when we’re all holding our breath for popular fighters such as Dudley, Makoto, Fei-Long, Sean, G, C. Viper, and the many others that have not seen as many character select screens as Blanka, it feels like kind of a let down to see the green fighter take up yet another spot in yet another game.
It’s not to say Blanka should never come back, but his skipping a game in lieu of someone else getting a chance to shine for a bit feels apt at this point. He’s not the most popular and he’s one of the characters that people tend to not like fighting against, so perhaps when Street Fighter 7 rolls along in a few years it should do so without Blanka.
What do you think? Even if you’re a fan of the character, do you think he should be a shoe-in for every roster? Are there other prominent Street Fighter characters you think should be benched for at least a game or two in the future?