Fighting Games With The Most Playable Characters

Key Takeaways

• A bigger roster in fighting games can offer better replayability and variety, but it must offer distinct characters.
• Games with huge rosters like Street Fighter 5 and Jump Force can face criticism for trade-offs like gameplay quality.
• Franchises like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and King of Fighters 2002 boast massive rosters with iconic characters.

Unsurprisingly, the biggest draw in fighting games is its roster of fighters. Most of them are distinctly different from one another and tend to represent something memorable, be it a certain country, class or subculture, like Street Fighter 6‘s neat cast of newbies like Manon the French judo-based fashionista, and Kimberly the Afro-American ninja who loves street art and 80s tech. After all, seeing the same faces being battered and bruised over and over again can get old.

A bigger roster of playable characters in fighting games can translate to better replayability and more variety if the extra characters offer something distinct. Otherwise, they end up offering quantity over quality. Street Fighter, Tekken, Mortal Kombat, etc. have dozens of awesome fighters, but whether they’re making up the numbers or offering true variety, these entries’ massive rosters dwarf their average cast. To make it fair, this list offers only one game per franchise to prevent one series or another dominating the proceedings.

Updated on October 2nd, 2024 by David Heath: What makes a fighting game roster too small, too large, or just right can be relative depending on the game. Virtua Fighter‘s cast is tiny compared to Tekken, but their styles were all largely unique compared to Tekken‘s clones at the time. Likewise, Mortal Kombat‘s cast often dwarfed Street Fighter as they were more keen on palette-swapping their ninjas than SF was for their shotos.

Even so, there have been some games whose rosters have ballooned way out of proportion. Whether it’s from wanting to provide the ultimate fighting game experience, crossing multiple series over, or from a quirk in its gameplay modes, this list has received more examples of fighting games with large rosters, alongside some refreshed details for the older entries and some rearrangements.

14 Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition

Brought the Series Grand Total to 45

Some fans burned by Street Fighter 6 get wistful about Street Fighter 5, thinking about its catchy music, interesting V-Trigger mechanics, and its bold, colorful graphics. They likely don’t remember its lacking features, broken online mode, and lacking 16-character roster on launch. Compared to Tekken 7, King of Fighters 14, and even the original Street Fighter 4, it felt way too small.

Still, the game hung in there for years, refining its gameplay and roster size with each size before reaching Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition. This time, it offered multiple single player modes, new V-mechanics that made better use of the V-Trigger gauge, and the largest roster out of all the SF games. It would’ve been a relatively modest 39 if SF6‘s development went more smoothly. Instead, it received 6 more characters, including SF6‘s Luke, to total out at 45 characters.

13 BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle

53 Characters From 7 Series In A Giant Tag Team Melee

With BlazBlue‘s head honcho Toshimichi Mori now gone from ArcSystem Works, no one knows what the future holds in store for the series. It filled the Guilty Gear-shaped hole that fighting game fans had while that series was in legal limbo, then fizzled out right as it came back. Fans of both series still snipe at each other online today, which would seem like a good opportunity to cross the two series over to let them battle it out digitally.

Instead, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle saw the cast of Mori’s fighters mix up with the cast of Persona 4 Arena, Under Night In-Birth, RWBY, Arcana Heart, Akatsuki Blitzkampf and Senran Kagura in tag-team combat. It worked out well, though it might’ve worked out better if most of its 53 characters weren’t DLC. Getting all those series’ IPs together couldn’t have been cheap, though having to cash out for a decent roster size turned off a lot of fans.

56 Heroes Ready to Take Players For a Ride

One would expect a huge crossover like Marvel Vs Capcom 2 to have a legion of superheroes and superpowered anime characters duking it out, but the roster is actually a bit more modest compared to others at 56 characters. Still, for 2000, that was a massive roster as it consisted of practically everyone from the prior Marvel games up to that point, alongside a few original characters like Ruby Heart and Amingo.

The chance of seeing Chun Li trade blows with Thanos with an assist from Resident Evil‘s Jill Valentine, or Cable catching Mega Man Legends‘ Tron Bonne in a Hyper Viper Beam after tagging out Strider Hiryu more than justified the price of admission. It’s no wonder it became the jewel in the crown of the recent Marvel Vs Capcom Fighting Collection release.

11 Jump Force

57 Shōnen Superstars Making the Jump

Shōnen Jump‘s series haven’t been strangers to having arena fighters with large rosters (as the later entries will show), nor have they shied away from crossing over with each other. The only problem is that the crossovers tend to vary in quality. Jump Super Stars was a great Smash Bros clone on the DS, but it was a Japan-only release. Jump Force went worldwide, only to end up feeling more like a hop instead.

Nonetheless, despite its lacking critical reception and sudden delisting, it had a beefy roster of 40 base characters, 14 DLC characters, and 3 freebies to provide 57 classic Jump characters battling it out. Compared to its predecessor, J-Stars Victory Vs and its deep cuts (Hell Teacher Nube anyone?), it stuck to the big hitters like Dragon Ball, Naruto, Bleach, etc., with a few old-school favorites like Fist of the North Star‘s Kenshiro and City Hunter‘s Ryo Saeba.

10 Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R

60 People in the Ultimate Pose-Off

The original Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle is an interesting game. It had some significant flaws, like its buggy online mode, lacking story mode, and nasty microtransactions. Yet it really showed a love for the series, featuring characters from (at the time) all 8 parts, moves that referenced their big moments in the story, and plenty of Easter eggs for fans to check out.

Still, there was room for improvement, which it surprisingly got when CyberConnect2 reworked it for all modern consoles as Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R. Characters who missed the cut the first time around finally joined the roster, alongside the new characters from its arena-fighting predecessor Eyes of Heaven, and some fresh faces like Part 7‘s Diego Brando. In the end, it gave Jojo fans 60 characters from its 8 parts (and Baoh) to play with.

9 Tekken Tag Tournament 2

60 Fighters Getting Ready for the Next Battle

Not too surprisingly, the Tekken title with the most characters would be Tekken Tag Tournament 2. It was a non-canon dream match where practically everyone from the prior games got together to take each other 2 on 2 rather than 1 on 1. The only guy missing in this massive roster is Tekken 3‘s Gon, who was actually the series’ first and only guest character until Tekken 7‘s Akuma.

It has 60 total characters, with most having their own unique fighting styles. Though even its clone characters have noticeable differences, like Miharu being clumsier than Xiaoyu, Slim Bob having less weight behind his moves than regular Bob (literally), and Sebastian having better reach than his ward, Lili. The game was a masterclass in presentation, though its gameplay was too tricky for most, and the fallout from Street Fighter X Tekken‘s faults and fiascoes made it one of the worst-selling entries in the series.

8 Mortal Kombat: Armageddon

62 Kombatants, with Room for 2 More

Mortal Kombat: Armageddon is similar to the Tekken Tag games in that it was also meant to bring everyone from the prior games back. It just went one spot further by bringing back characters presumed dead in the canon, alongside new characters for its story-oriented Konquest Mode. It would also end up being the last chapter in the original MK canon, as its ending would lead into the series’ 2011 reboot Mortal Kombat (MK9).

Despite its large roster, it was considered a downgrade from the previous game, MK: Deception, as it reduced the characters’ switchable fighting styles from 3 to 2, and a lot of the characters shared their basic moves. The custom Fatalities were fairly generic too, but the stage fatalities were still neat. Overall, that was the price that had to be paid to get 62 playable characters, with 2 slots for custom characters.

7 The King Of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match

66 Characters Aim to Reign in the Ring

• Developer: SNK Playmore
• Release: 2009 (PS2), 2021 (PS4)
• Platforms: Arcades, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, PC, PlayStation 4, Amazon Luna

The King of Fighters series has always had a gargantuan roster, since it’s relied on 3-player teams for much of its life. The NESTS saga (KOF ’99-2001) upped the count to 4-person teams for a while, before toning things back down to 3 for its dream match edition, KOF 2002. But when their remake of KOF ’98, KOF ’98: Ultimate Match, brought back everyone from KOFs ’94-’97, it felt inevitable that they’d do the same for KOF 2002.

Sure enough, The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match included every character from the NESTS saga, including formerly console exclusive characters like Geese and Goenitz, to alternate versions with rearranged moves like EX Kensou and Nightmare Geese. The only missing character was K9999, their clone of Tetsuo from Akira, who got redesigned into the new character Nameless. It still has the largest roster in the series at 66 characters, though KOFs 14 and 15 have come close with 58 fighters on offer each.

6 Def Jam: Fight For NY- The Takeover

68 Characters, with Room for 6 More to Take It to the Streets

Def Jam: Fight for NY is a peculiar title since it’s a fighting game based on hip-hop culture with real, actual music stars and artists as playable characters. In other words, it’s a typical Grammy Awards night, but with fewer safety rules. If players ever wanted to see Ice-T beat up Busta Rhymes in a fist fight instead of a freestyle rap battle, this is the game.

Combining all the big names with its original characters, the base game has 67 characters. The PSP port upped it to 68, with plenty of room to add custom characters to reach 74+ across all its platforms. They’re an eclectic bunch too, as, alongside Snoop Dogg, Sean Paul, Warren G, etc., there are some curious choices, like Henry Rollins, Danny Trejo, jeweler Jacob Arabo, and Carmen Electra (who’s usually banned at tournaments for being broken).

5 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

89 Top Stars from Decades of Gaming History

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate presents another strong argument for why the Nintendo Switch is a necessary device for gamers. They wouldn’t want to miss out on this massive pop culture crossover. It truly lives up to the name ‘Ultimate’, as it managed to fit in everyone from the prior games, including guest characters like Metal Gear‘s Solid Snake and Bayonetta, and threw in more stars on top.

Once its last DLC character, Kingdom Hearts‘ Sora, was added, its roster had a total of 89 playable fighters, including echo fighters like Street Fighter‘s Ken to go with Ryu, and Daisy to go with Peach. If Smash continues, it’s unlikely to ever get this big again, as Nintendo had to go out of their way to talk to Capcom, Bandai-Namco, Square-Enix, Disney, etc., to include what are essentially some of the biggest names in 40+ years of gaming, alongside Nintendo’s own classic characters.

4 Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3

Where 98 Characters Can Go Even Further Beyond to 161 Characters

With the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi series due to return via Dragon Ball Sparking Zero, it’s bound to have a big roster. Whether it’ll get as big as its last installment, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3, remains to be seen. To date, it’s still the largest roster out of all the Dragon Ball games, depending on how one counts them.

The 3D arena fighter technically has 161 characters in its cast, but many of them are alternate second forms for other characters, leaving a base roster of 98 characters. That’s still big on its own, though some of those alternate forms can be very different from each other. For example, it showcases some original Great Ape forms for Saiyan characters who never got to go full Oozaru in either the anime or manga (e.g. Bardock, Nappa, etc.), alongside other Easter eggs for keen Dragon Ball fans.

3 Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4

A Pirate’s Worst Nightmare: 121 Ninjas

Of course, Naruto wouldn’t back down from the fighting game roster race, since Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 now has 121 characters, thanks to its Road to Boruto expanded release. Granted, some of them are clones or the same characters at different ages (there are at least 9 versions of Naruto alone, from his OG kid form to ‘The Last’ form)., but they’re still varied enough.

As the name suggests, the Road to Boruto update adds the titular character into the mix so that Naruto can give Boruto some more hands-on instruction in ninja training. As far as arena fighters go, Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 has plenty of unique interactions and abilities to keep players intrigued, like Wall Running combat, and swapping between point characters and assists to keep the high-paced action going.

2 Tobal 2

200 Maulers, Monsters and Masters

• Developer: DreamFactory
• Release: 1997
• ​​​​​​​Platform: PlayStation

As big as the Dragon Ball fighter rosters get, its creator Akira Toriyama actually made an even larger one for a Japan-exclusive PS1 fighter few people might’ve heard of: Tobal 2. Made by DreamFactory, made up of ex-Virtua Fighter and Tekken staff, it was the follow-up to Tobal N.o.1, a quirky 3D that couldn’t quite beat Tekken 2, but did push Sony’s hardware to produce 60FPS fighting action.

Both games had characters designed by Toriyama, and an RPG-esque Quest Mode. Only Tobal 2 lets players capture the Quest Mode’s different enemies and NPCs and turn them into playable fighters. Most of them were essentially clones, but that meant its roster could get as big as 200 characters. It even lets people play as a Chocobo from Final Fantasy, predating DreamFactory’s own Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring in letting people play as FF characters in a fighting game.

1 Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme Vs. 2 OverBoost

233 Mobile Suits Ready to Attack

• Developer: Bandai-Namco Games
• Release: 2023
• ​​​​​​​Platforms: Arcade

Even Mobile Suit Gundam has fighting games based on it and rightfully so. There are so many mech models in the franchise that fans would be eager to see how one version would fare over the other if they were pitted against one another. The biggest of the bunch is the Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme Vs games, which have been continuously updated and upgraded since the original 2010 game.

It started off with just 40 available suits in the first arcade game. 14 years later, Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme Vs. 2 OverBoost bumped it up to a max of 233, from the original RX-78-2 model to the PFF-X7/E3 Earthtree Gundam from Gundam Build Divers Re:RISE. Time will only tell if this version will reach consoles, as they only have its predecessor, Maxi Boost ON. Once it does, it’ll leave players clashing their fave mechs against each other for years to come.