The action this week at DreamHack Summer 2024 as players from all over the planet have traveled to Sweden to show what they’ve been able to come up with in the
recently updated Street Fighter 6.
We’ve got character usage of the top 64 placers at the Esports World Cup 2024 qualifying event, and they’re very much eye-opening. Newcomer Akuma is clearly starting to see some traction while other previously preferred characters are waning in their popularity. Continue on to see how things shook out.
A huge question surrounding Akuma’s late May introduction into Street Fighter has been whether or not his low health but high utility will make him competitively-viable entity.
Rohto|Tokido has long been the most notable Akuma main over the years, and so his decision to primarily use Ken to win Battle Arena Melbourne felt somewhat telling that the demonic fighter may not be up to snuff here in Street Fighter 6. This was further underscored when Tokido publicly stated he’d be sticking with Ken during a recent live stream.
BAM 2024 went down just about a week after Akuma’s initial release, however, and so it’s easy to argue that no one, not even Tokido, had even begun to unlock the character’s true competitive potential.
Though he wasn’t much represented in the final brackets at BAM, the newest addition has had great impact at DHS as he was used by 8 different top 64 placers, 4 of which cracked into the top 32 and one of which (HB|Kawano) made it into top 8.
Ryu, a character who many have higher expectations now for thanks to his long list of buffs, didn’t make it into the top 64 at all. Ken is the most represented character with 9 total appearances, though only 3 made it into the top 32.
Arguably the most competitively viable character in Season 1, Luke, has seen a sharp drop this time around with five total appearances, but just one in the top 32. See the stats for all 22 of SF6’s current characters in the full popularity results below and share your reactions in the comments afterwards.
• Akuma 4
• Guile – 4
• Ken – 3
• Rashid – 3
• Juri – 3
• Zangief – 2
• Cammy – 2
• Dee Jay – 2
• Ed – 2
• JP – 1
• Luke – 1
• Chun-Li – 1
• A.K.I. – 1
• Lily – 1
• Blanka – 1
• Ryu – 0
• Marisa – 0
• Jamie – 0
• Dhalsim – 0
• Manon – 0
• Kimberly – 0
• E. Honda – 0
• Ken – 9
• Akuma – 8
• Guile – 7
• Zangief – 6
• Luke – 5
• Chun-Li – 4
• Dee Jay – 3 (1)
• Cammy – 3
• Juri – 3
• Ed – 3
• Rashid – 3
• Blanka – 2
• Jamie – 2
• Marisa – 2
• JP – 1
• A.K.I. – 1
• Lily – 1
• Dhalsim – 1
• Ryu – 0
• Kimberly – 0
• Manon – 0
• E. Honda – 0