Jonathan Almaguer
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12 Min read In this tier list, we’re breaking down the best Street Fighter 6 characters of the current meta.
Note that with all of our tier lists, we want to stress that the player ALWAYS comes before the character. Your skillset, playstyle, and drive to improve with a character are of the most importance.
Additionally, SF6 has proven to be a very balanced game. The difference in tournament viability between each tier is very minor compared to most 2D fighters. Even in the lowest tier, you’ll find multiple character representatives that place top 8 in major tournaments.
We’ve been grinding the ranked ladder, closely following the pro scene, and have been enjoying seeing how well each character has done in the recent Capcom Pro Tour regional tournament circuits. Our tiers and individual character placements are ordered from left to right from strongest to weakest.
Here are our rankings for the best characters in Street Fighter 6:
| Tier | Street Fighter 6 Tier List |
|---|---|
| S+ | Guile, Rashid, Ken, Akuma, Juri |
| S | M.Bison, Blanka, Luke, Zangief, Chun-Li, A.K.I. |
| A+ | Cammy, Deejay, Ryu, Marisa |
| A | JP, Lily, Ed |
| B | Jamie, Dhalsim, Kimberly |
| C | Manon, E.Honda |
We also have a handy infographic version below:
New to Street Fighter 6? Check out our list of the top 5 SF6 beginner characters.
| Tier | Street Fighter 6 Tier List |
|---|---|
| S+ | Guile, Rashid, Ken, Akuma, Juri |
This is the god tier, definitively the strongest characters. Arguably overpowered. These characters have no notable weaknesses, and have unique strengths not shared by any other characters. The top 3 have been dominant in every region of pro play.
Guile has been one of the characters always in contest for a S+ placement. His biggest weakness was the existence of JP, who has since been heavily nerfed. The craziest buff to Guile in Season 2 is the increased drive gauge chip damage given to his medium and heavy Sonic Booms.
Sonic Boom is the strongest of any character’s projectile and recovers so incredibly fast that punishing Guile for using boom is very inconsistent.
A few additional tweaks were made to damage scaling and combo routes, but in comparison to other top tier character’s nerfs, Guile is a huge winner in the Akuma patch.
Rashid looked promising on release as the first DLC character added to the roster and he has only gotten stronger as top players have developed his kit! Any time he has his whirlwind Level 2 SA, Ysaar, available, Rashid has a huge offensive and defensive advantage.
Nearly unmatched in the variety of movement and mixup tools that force his opponent to be quickly put into true 50/50 guessing scenarios make Rashid’s snowballing potential extremely high.
The only notable nerf to Rashid with the season 2 patch is no longer being able to build SA gauge while Ysaar is active. Previously players would build up to a full SA meter during his lvl 2. Actually a huge nerf considering Ysaar’s pressure has been the most OP tool available to Rashid.
The balance notes stated their intent is to shift more of Rashid’s utility into his lvl 1 and lvl 3 super arts which have also gained new routes to combo into.
Don’t believe the Ken downplay! Ken main’s everywhere are swearing their character sucks now but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Ken has slowly been getting small nerfs but the S2 update barely touched him.
Compared to the previous Top tier characters who all received much more severe nerfs, Ken’s power level remained essentially the same as the other characters became weaker around him. Cammy and Chun-Li were very difficult counters for Ken in S1.
Both of these characters are notably weaker now which allows Ken to overcome these previous counters. Ken’s kit is straightforward and he has really strong offensive options, such as Dragonlash and Jinrai kicks that are easy to use and difficult for opponents to deal with.
Read more: How to Beat Ken.
The most highly anticipated character from the Year 1 character pass, the demon Shoto has entered the fight with dominance!
Akuma has always been a glass cannon but his current SF6 iteration makes him look pure cannon.
Incredible damage, easy oki set ups, safe jump cross-ups in neutral, and deadly fireball game make Akuma a well-rounded threat.
Only time will tell if his 9000 health will be enough to hinder his power, but considering more damage scaling has been added to Street Fighter 6 across the board, Akuma has arrived at the perfect time.
Juri is another character who got minor buffs and nerfs that don’t actually have an effect on her gameplan. Feng Shui Engine remains one of the strongest level 2 Super Arts.
Juri’s standing medium punch is blessed as the only +2 frames on block normal move in the entire game and with so many other normals receiving frame data nerfs, s. Mp is looking more busted than ever.
The primary flaw to Juri’s strength is that her gameplan is very linear. Store stocks, fireball, approach behind or Drive Rush mixup. While this is a very strong basic strategy it also makes Juri’s offense predictable.
Juri is incredibly fun to use, her primary kit is easy to pick up, and Feng Shui Engine gives tons of room for character mastery.
Fun Fact: UMA from Taiwan won the enormous $1,000,000 prize with Juri at Capcom Cup X.
| Tier | Street Fighter 6 Tier List |
|---|---|
| S | M. Bison, Blanka, Luke, Zangeif, Chun-Li, A.K.I. |
These are very strong characters that are just as competitively viable as the top 3. These characters are not limited by weaknesses but instead are just barely lacking in potential compared to the S+ tier characters.
The dictator leader of Shadaloo is Psycho crushing his way into the S2 meta. Double Knee Press makes for a surprisingly strong neutral tool, similar to the early days of Dragonlash. Off of a Punish Counter, Bison gets huge damage follow up, and the double hit makes it useful for breaking armor.
Psycho Crusher is crazy good, especially when embedded with Psycho power which makes it plus on block. When facing a fireball character, Psycho Crusher becomes a great anti-fireball tool.
Bison’s walk speed is very fast and he gets plus frames off of both heavy punch and back+heavy kick! Watch your Drive Gauge when fighting Bison this season because he does unbelievable Drive Gauge damage.
Uwo! Uwo! The nature loving unga-bunga mix-up king retains his overall power level going into S2. The nerfs and buffs given to Blanka are not overly impactful aside from universal cr. mp frame data nerf.
Blanka-chan combos now receive an initial 20% damage scaling which does hurt his damage output a bit, but not enough to change the way the doll is used.
In comparison to the rest of roster which has gone up and down stays put as a strong character limited by a few tough match ups.
Luke absolutely dominated the pro circuit the first year of Sf6’s life. In light of how busted Luke was, the community welcomes a few heavy-handed nerfs to some of his most annoying tools and worse overall hitbox data.
His crouching medium punch is still +1 on block but can actually be whiff-punished now which gives his opponents an impactful level of counterplay.
Akuma has replaced him as the shoto dominating high level play and Luke’s nerfs have moved him below Ken to the spot of 3rd strongest shoto.
Luke still is one of the most well-rounded characters with a great kit that has been tuned down in order to make him feel balanced instead of overpowered.
Fun Fact: Luke represented the only Modern Controls user qualified for Capcom Cup X!
Read more: How to Beat Luke.
Loyalty has been rewarded! Geif has been giga-buffed and leaps from all the up to an S-tier pick!? Your eyes do not deceive you. Take 10 min to read through his long list of changes and you’ll find massive buffs in the form of new combo routes, crazy improved neutral tools and increased damage.
Watch out for his Cyclone wheel kick which is gonna be super annoying to deal with. Also, prepare to never have Drive Gauge available as Zangief is now doing gigantic drive gauge damage on both hit and block.
For Season 2, the devs gave two small adjustments: air Lightning Kicks (which could be argued as a net buff), and her backwards walk speed has been reduced but is still noticeably faster than the average walk speed.
The universal damage scaling nerf to light attacks have actually affected Chun-Li much more than most anticipated. Her combo routes and punishes in multiple scenarios are significantly weaker than before. This change alone has greatly reduced her overall power level coming into S2.
Forget everything you previously believed to be true about A.K.I. She received a huge number of buffs with the season 2 balance patch. Pay close attention to Venomous Fang now having its, “Projectile invincibility extended until the end of the attack’s active frames.” The invincibility change makes Venomous Fang the great anti-fireball tool it was originally advertised to be but never had been in reality. Players can now reactively activate Sinister Slide to seeing a fireball attack which gives A.K.I. massive counterplay she lacked previously. Top her off with buffs to her anti-air game (which was her weak point previously), and higher damaging combo routes, and we have a revitalized A.K.I. rocketing from one of the worst characters to now one of the best!
| Tier | Street Fighter 6 Tier List |
|---|---|
| A+ | Cammy, Dee Jay, Ryu, Marisa |
These are strong characters that are not as reliable of a pick for in the high-level competitive scene. Typically, users of the A+ tier characters will have a secondary character to swap to for unfavorable matchups.
Cannon Spike’s OP hitbox has been nerfed, making it easier to anti-air Cammy. Spin Knuckle projectile invincibility frames have also been reduced which means Cammy players will have to react way faster to punish projectiles.
These were two of Cammy’s greatest strengths and have notable but not detrimental effects on her power level in certain match ups. She still has great offensive pressure and overall plays the same as in S1.
Dee Jay is not feeling the rhythm this patch! Dee Jay had recently been dominating pro play with tons of representation in at majors. Heavy damage scaling has been added to many of Dee Jay’s bread and butter combo starters.
The use of his moves has not been tweaked very much, but the damage potential is noticeably lower. Mix-up game is still strong, and Dee Jay remains excellent at both zoning and rush-down playstyles.
A few extra combo routes into Lvl 1 have been added which now give him some extra options for damage without the use of Drive Gauge.
Fun Fact: Dee Jay tied for the 2nd most represented character in Capcom Cup X
One of the biggest winners of this patch, the OG face of Street Fighter becomes a serious contender in Season 2. The wish of every Ryu main has been granted as he now possesses the ability to choose whether to use a Denjin Charge or regular Hadoken.
Now you can store a Denjin Charge and still spam regular fireballs, saving the Denjin for an opportune moment. Additionally, Ryu received multiple damage, drive gauge, and frame data buffs which have finally put him on equal footing with Ken and Luke.
Everyone’s favorite Muscle Mommy! Marisa’s unparalleled damage makes her the comeback queen. No matter how far behind in health Marisa may seem, she is only ever one or two touches away from winning the round.
While BigBird is the sole Marisa representative in Capcom Cup X, he is widely considered one of the very best players in the world and proves Marisa’s competitive viability. She struggles against zoning play styles, but once she gets in, she can steam roll the rest of the match like no other character can.
| Tier | Street Fighter 6 Tier List |
|---|---|
| A | JP, Lily, Ed |
These characters that have shown competitive viability but whose weaknesses are much more apparent. These characters each have notable difficulty in overcoming their unfavorable matchups, and lack the tools commonly shared by top tier characters.
At one time, JP was the nightmare villain of competitive SF6 and ranked #1 as the strongest character in the entire game! Beginning with the February patch where the 50% damage scaling was given to OD Amnesia, and now the rest of his kit getting heavy nerfs have put JP in the ground.
The devs have stated that JP now plays as originally intended. A true zoner character who struggles in close range combat. Previously, JP had the best zoning and also some of the best neutral poke moves of anyone.
JP pro players are split now with some dropping him and some staying dedicated. Given how strong some of his kit remains, its possible we’ll see pro players find ways to overcome these nerfs and find a new way to optimize JP.
Read more: How to Beat JP.
Lily is the biggest winner in the 2024 meta. Early on, Lily was unanimously considered to be either the worst or 2nd worst character in the roster.
Throughout the first year of Street Fighter 6, Lily had already been seeing better results such as when HibikiTheBeast beat former Capcom Cup champion, Gachikun, in the grand finals of the Fukushima Online Tournament. Now in S2, ElChakotay’s Lily won the first major, Combo Breaker 2024.
She’s been buffed with new combo routes and better start up frame data on her lvl1 SA. Crouching Heavy Punch will be easier to whiff punish, making spamming it in neutral much riskier. Overall, Lily is now stronger than ever.
Ed, the Psycho boxer,barely got touched with the big patch because he was the most recently released character. Ed has a few strong tools but his weaknesses outweigh those strengths.
He lacks an Overhead so he misses out on putting opponents into high/low mixup scenarios. Ed’s greatest weakness is found in his frame data. Long start ups of OD DP and Level one allow opponents to safely meaty light attack his wake up.
Ed has small hitboxes and short range on punches, is susceptible to DI in neutral, and weak to jump ins due to reliance on charged Flickers and his long fireball animations. Ed does, however, have great damage potential and his opponents need a good amount of matchup specific knowledge to exploit his weaknesses. Expect Ed to be a menace in metal ranks!
Fun Fact: Punk took solo Ed all the way to grand finals against NuckleDu at TNS on just the 2nd day of Ed’s release!
| Tier | Street Fighter 6 Tier List |
|---|---|
| B | Jamie, Dhalsim, Kimberly |
Each mid tier character has at least a few character representatives that have done well at the highest level of competition. These characters have many strong tools but their kits hinder them from being able to adapt to every situation.
They all have poor frame data in comparison to the higher tiers and are unable to apply consistent wake up pressure to their opponents.
Pour one out for Jamie. Even with the multiple buffs given in every patch so far, Jamie remains among the weaker characters in SF6. Understand that he is currently much better than the S1 version but his drink mechanics limit his potential while simultaneously increasing his difficulty of use.
His most obvious weakness is the fact that at zero drinks, Jamie begins every match with a 10% damage reduction. There are now multiple ways to reliably increase drink levels at the end of combos without sacrificing as much pressure as before.
With so many buffs you may find it strange to not see Jamie placed higher in our list, but going from dead last to top of B tier is a huge jump!
Yoga, Yoga, Yoga! The stretchy man himself, Dhalsim is probably the hardest character to learn how to use well in SF6. The difficult task is well worth it, however!
Mister Crimson, Garnet, Shaka22 have all qualified for Capcom Cup X, and are making great representation for the power of Dhalsim.
Most players have comparatively little experience against Dhalsim making his zoning very hard for most opponents to deal with. Dhalsim is deadlast in usage rate but deserves way more representation. Dhalsim is a strong pick and has tons of room for further optimization. We may see him climb the tier list in the future.
Kimberly has struggled ever since she was severely nerfed from her beta version at the launch of SF6. While she has a good variety of special moves that can be used to mix up her approach and offensive pressure, many of her moves have long start ups and can be reacted to on visual cues.
Too much of her game plan relies on baiting and mixing up her opponent which makes it difficult for players to perform well on a consistent basis. Kimberly is a really great character design and has tons of personality in her kit.
Check out Diaphone and Shine for a showcase of high level Kimberly play.
| Tier | Street Fighter 6 Tier List |
|---|---|
| C | Manon, E. Honda |
These characters are primarily limited by their weaknesses that are easily exploitable by most of the Street Fighter 6 roster. These characters have the worst frame data in the game, telegraphed moves, and linear gameplans.
Don’t sleep on these characters though! Even the bottom tier in SF6 can pull off huge wins, and many players have already disproven the naysayers with placings in major tournaments!
The powerful ballerina judoka! Manon has been a well received new take on the grappler archetype in the Street Fighter series. Her unique medal system allows her to build up to have the strongest non Super Art move we’ve ever seen.
She struggles in pro play due to weak neutral and because her attacks tend to be high risk high reward. Casual players find Manon to be much stronger, because punishes are less consistent.
Former Capcom Cup champion iDom has stuck with Manon since release, giving us hope that her full potential has yet to be unlocked!
The Sumo wrestler who headbutt’d his way into SF6 infamy. Honda really only has three strong tools: Sumo headbutt, Sumo Smash, and his command throw, Oicho Throw.
Each one of these moves are extremely difficult to deal with at low and casual level of play, but extremely weak at high level.
While Honda players have a decent success in the Capcom Cup Pro Tour, his potential for further development seems non-existent. He relies almost exclusively on gimmicks, and has really unfavorable matchups against every top tier in SF6.
Thanks for reading our rankings for the best Street Fighter 6 characters! Be sure to check out our other tier lists.
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