Guess how much NA players account for as part of the Street Fighter fanbase?

[solidshark]

If the numbers are truly accurate, 60%.

http://www.eventhubs.com/news/2011/oct/25/north-america-accounts-about-60-street-fighters-players/#comments

Purely curious about this

Was this already common knowledge?
Do you think it's accurate?
Does it make you look at the demographics a bit different?

I feel like some production questions I've had about recent Capcom fighters may have been answered.

[baccano1932]

I saw this article earlier today and was somewhat surprised by the disparity between north america and asia however this may have to do with a) some statistical error unless this based purely on sales b) the console market in America being stronger and c) the tastes and preferences of asian players differ from the SF4 style.

[LouisCipher]

A little surprised. Not so much at the NA numbers but at the Asian numbers. Only 10% of those guys are into SF4 which is a little surprising considering how popular it is at the arcades over there, but I guess you could chalk it up to a lack of console sales over there.

[nilcam]

LouisCipher: I don't think you're properly understanding that statistic. The statistic shows that 10% of the SF players are Asian, so you have to account for population size. There are just over 127 million people in Japan and over 307 million in the U.S. When you think about that, it makes sense that there are more U.S. players. You also have to figure that Japanese players are also more open minded about games like BlazBlue and Arcana Heart. There's probably little cross over between those demographics.

[Saitsuofleaves]

A little surprised. Not so much at the NA numbers but at the Asian numbers. Only 10% of those guys are into SF4 which is a little surprising considering how popular it is at the arcades over there, but I guess you could chalk it up to a lack of console sales over there.

Well if that article is only referring to sales, then you can't really be surprised.  Most prefer to play it in Arcades.  Also, there's a higher variety of Fighting Games played in Japan and Asia.  I mean, over here, we have like little bursts of scenes for older games, but Japan never really loses scenes.  They still run ST hardcore over there, still got 3S, still got VSav, the only scene that didn't perpetuate longer there than here is of course, MvC2.

Also a factor, sponsorships.  Less sponsored players, means less players that would probably feel required to actually have to go out and buy each successive SF game.

Another thing, the 360 is literally dead overseas as far as sales.  If I'm not mistaken, they've gone as far as no longer selling 360's and having clearout sales for the rest of their 360 games.  While this only really happened recently, it only happened because no one really liked the system out there.  When you essentially cut sales in half, that will have an affect too.

Lot of factors that go into this.

[jinxhand]

I'm not surprised... Even if there weren't as many people in the states, SF seemed catered towards the US, especially SF4... Ono needed an angle to attract newcomers not just off the SF name, but in appearance. He took the 3D art style from Battle Fantasia (a really great but underrated game), added their own "ink brush stroke" style and incorporated SF characters in it... Rufus suppposedly was made specifically for the US scene, kinda like Bob was for the US Tekken scene (I'm not a fan of Rufus for that reason, but that's for another discussion)...

There's way more people in Asia and Europe than there is in the US, and we're still accounted for 60%... Imho it shows how less diverse we are when it comes to fighting games... I personally have witness people get clowned for playing something that's not SF or "Mahvel"... It's sad, because there are great games out there, regardless of how old they are. As a one that respects all fighting games and their scenes, it hurts to see really good games have low or no play at all, because its not "in" or "the latest fad"...

Real quick, I'm not against SF, but SF4 didn't revive anything... There were great games that came out all throughout since "the drought", but cats weren't keeping their eyes peeled for them... SF4 dropped, and everybody's sweating it hard... It's merely the name that sold, especially in America... Everywhere else in the world, KOF, MB, FHD, SSTK, VF, Tekken, JJBA, NGBC, and other games were and still are getting play, even if to some small extent, they're still getting love... Gundam is still getting mad play in Japan, so much that it stays on top at the Arcadia list almost every month (1st and/or 2nd place I believe). I don't even think SF4 got anything past 4th or 5th... Granted, Arcadia can be biased, but even still, its still says something of some sorts...

Again, I'm not against SF, but cats in the states overhype the mess outta the game, and these numbers show... I'm honestly surprised its not higher. I mean Marvel's not even getting that much hype, but I think that's for different reasons though...

[ChrisP]

Real quick, I'm not against SF, but SF4 didn't revive anything... There were great games that came out all throughout since "the drought", but cats weren't keeping their eyes peeled for them... SF4 dropped, and everybody's sweating it hard... It's merely the name that sold, especially in America... Everywhere else in the world, KOF, MB, FHD, SSTK, VF, Tekken, JJBA, NGBC, and other games were and still are getting play, even if to some small extent, they're still getting love...

That's worth quoting.