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Best Street Fighter 6 Characters: Tier List Rankings

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Street Fighter 6 Tier List Rankings – The Best Characters of 2024

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+ JP, Luke, Dee Jay
S Ken, Chun-Li, Cammy, Guile, Juri
A+ Rashid, Marisa, Blanka
A Dhalsim, Lily, Kimberly
B Ryu, Manon, Zangief
C A.K.I., E. Honda, Jamie

We also have a handy infographic version below:

best characters in street fighter 6 tier list (2024 update)

New to Street Fighter 6? Check out our list of the top 5 SF6 beginner characters.

S-Plus Tier Characters (Top 3) – The Best Characters

Tier Street Fighter 6 Tier List
S+ JP, Luke, Dee Jay

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.

JP

JP has risen to become the strongest character in Street Fighter 6. JP is both the villain of Street Fighter 6 storyline and of the player community. JP has been the most controversial character due being the first character of his archetype.

He’s one the first Street Fighter characters to have full screen projectiles that can operate independently of the user. If you try to grab a cornered JP to mixup his block attempts, OD Amnesia combos punish a whopping 40-70% of a character’s life depending on JP’s available Drive Gauge and Super meter.

JP forces his opponents to change their usual tactics as his kit is completely unique to every other character and the threat of OD Amnesia on wake up makes players extremely hesitant to pressure him on wake up.

In a game where steam rolling so often occurs through meaty wakeup loops, this makes JP a huge threat even when he is on the defense. Players who do not put in the lab time to learn extremely specific counters to JP’s cool downs and Level 2 SA greatly struggle to overcome this match up.

The only thing holding JP back is his difficulty of use in extremely high level play. Compared to our #2 pick, Luke, JP players find it difficult to consistently make the correct choice in an actual match.

Many of the top JP players in the world are constantly finding new combo routes, and new ways to optimize his combos, punishes and set ups. JP’s theoretical potential is seemingly limitless!

Fun Fact: Many JP fans are upset with the regional model used for this year’s Capcom Cup, since most of the top JP players in the world are Japanese players who had to compete for the same two qualifying spots!

Read more: How to Beat JP.

Luke

Luke players have been absolutely dominating the pro circuit. Luke tied for the most appearances in top 8’s during the Capcom Pro Tour. Almost 25% of every player who qualified for Capcom Cup X is a Luke main.

What makes Luke so OP? Buttons. Luke’s normals are in every way superior to the rest of the Street Fighter 6 cast. His crouching medium punch is +1 on block and its recovery and hitbox make it one of the best footsies tool in the game.

He also has the best level 1 SA. But what truly makes Luke one of the best characters in the game is that he has no weaknesses and no bad matchups. His kit is very simple to understand and his iteration of the Shoto archetype is very straight forward.

Fun Fact: Luke represents the only Modern Controls user qualified for Capcom Cup!

Read more: How to Beat Luke.

Dee Jay

Dee Jay has been styling on his opponents recently! He has been making huge waves in pro play and is one of the only characters to be featured in multiple finals mirror matches.

While Dee Jay has always been seen as a strong pick, player development and his kit optimization has grown so much during this first year of SF6 that Dee Jay has claimed a spot for himself as a God tier pick!

Dee Jay’s damage is actually insane and he is incredibly strong at mixing between zoning and rushdown play styles. He utilizes the Drive Rush mechanics better than anyone else, and his mixup and bait options strain his opponents reactions makes it incredibly difficult to make the correct read on Dee Jay.

Fun Fact: Dee Jay tied for the 2nd most represented character in Capcom Cup X

S-tier Characters (Top Tier) – Reliably Among the Best

Tier Street Fighter 6 Tier List
S Ken, Chun-Li, Cammy, Guile, Juri

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.

S-tier Character Notes

Ken

The early meta of SF6 was under the rule of Ken Masters. Ken was by far the most popularly picked character in the early months of the game and he was also regarded as the strongest.

Ken’s kit is easy to use 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.

As each character has been further optimized, especially now with so much international competition during the Capcom Pro Tour, Ken has fallen out of the contest for the #1 spot. Ken is still an extremely strong pick, and tied Luke for the most appearances in top 8’s during the Capcom Pro Tour.

Angrybird’s Ken won the largest fighting game tournament ever at EVO 2023 which had over 7,000 entrants! Ken remains the most commonly used character in both pro and casual play, so don’t take his lowered placement to mean he has fallen out of relevancy.

As the game has developed and so many high level Kens have been fought against, Ken’s kit has become somewhat exposed and players have learned more and more ways to deal with Ken’s tools.

Read more: How to Beat Ken.

Chun Li

Chun-Li has been on everyone’s radar recently. Some pro players argue that she deserves to be placed as the number two strongest character! Chun-Li was well suited to to rise in the ranks due to the complexity of her kit and the need for player optimization before she could demonstrate her true potential.

On release most considered Chun-Li as a mid-tier pick. After seeing so much representation in the recents months, however, it has become clear that Chun-Li has one of the strongest kits in the game.

On release players seemed to have difficulty with her Tensho Kicks, “down + down” input, for use as an anti-air, but now it is accepted that she has one of the best anti-airs in the all of Street Fighter!

Where Chun-Li really shines is in neutral. Her variety of normals in her stances are incredible footsies tools and her slow fireball sets her up to approach with Drive Rush, special moves, walk, dash, and jumps!

Cammy

Cammy remains the strongest character with a projectile. Cammy’s dive kick, Cannon Spike, is the best aerial move in Street Fighter 6. Watch any of the top Cammy players like Punk, Kazunoko, Akira, and you’ll see how they incorporate dive kick into their footsies to bait and punish their opponents over and over.

She also has the best walk speed and really strong anti-projectile offensive options. To top off her incredible offensive pressure, crouching fierce is plus on block and does tons of drive gauge chip.

If you’re looking for a really strong character, with incredible movement that doesn’t stray too far outside the standard character archetype, we strongly recommend giving Cammy a try!

Guile

Guile actually had one of the highest win rates for players in top 8 to win Grand finals during the Capcom Cup qualifiers. If JP did not exist and didn’t destroy him, Guile would easily top 3.

Sonic Boom is the strongest of any characters projectile, and recovers so incredibly fast that Guile cannot be punished on reaction.

The only way to deal with Sonic Boom is to predict when the Guile player will use it. Guile has some of the longest and most difficult combos of any character. He has great damage, and can be played as a basic zoner, or as a rush down character shielded by his booms!

Juri

Juri’s install Super Art, Feng Shui Engine is one of the strongest, and also the coolest level 2 Super Arts. Juri’s standing medium punch is blessed as the only +2 frames on block normal move in the entire game.

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.

A-Plus Tier Notes (Lower Top Tier)

Tier Street Fighter 6 Tier List
A+ Rashid, Marisa, Blanka

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.

Rashid

Rashid just barely lags behind the more prominent S-tier picks. Gachikun’s Rashid took out Chris Wong’s Luke, 3-0 in a Grand Finals reset at the CPT Offline Premier in Singapore.

He looked promising on release as the first DLC character added to the roster and he has not disappointed! Rashid has a huge offensive and defensive advantage any time he has his whirlwind Level 2 SA, Ysaar, available.

Rashid has a huge variety of movement and mixup tools that force his opponent to be quickly put into instant guessing scenarios.

Marisa

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.

Blanka

Uwo! Uwo! Blanka Ball. If you want to win as Blanka, all you really have to do is Blanka ball mix ups. At every level of play, Rolling Attack, is very difficult to deal with. MenaRD is undisputedly considered in top 5 Street Fighter players in the entire world and he mains Blanka.

Blanka is the perfect example of how well SF6 has been balanced. When the you can make the opportunity, Blanka-chan gives Blanka insanely strong and safe offensive pressure as well as mega high damage juggle combos.

He can play a patient neutral, but the best choice will always be to go full unga bunga!

A-tier Characters (High Tier) – Really Good, but Slightly Worse Than S

Tier Street Fighter 6 Tier List
A Dhalsim, Lily, Kimberly

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.

A-tier Character Notes

Dhalsim

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.

Lily

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.

Even so, HibikiTheBeast has reached rank 1 on the online leaderboards multiple times with Lily, and even beat former Capcom Cup champion, Gachikun, in the grand finals of the Fukushima Online Tournament.

She is primarily held back by her normals being weak in neutral, the need to build stocks, and her basic game plan being very linear.

Kimberly

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.

B-tier Characters (Mid Tier) – Have Some Stuff, but Not Broken

Tier Street Fighter 6 Tier List
B Ryu, Manon, Zangief

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.

Character Notes

Ryu

The old face of Street Fighter has truly been replaced by the young shoto Luke. While Ryu has a few notable representatives such as EndingWalker who has qualified for Capcom Cup X, he has multiple weaknesses holding him back from being a dominant force in the current iteration of Street Fighter.

Ryu doesn’t have any OP normals like Ken and Luke, his drive rush is way too slow, and his need to build and store Denjin charges all greatly hinder Ryu. Nevertheless, Ryu remains one of the most popular picks for casual play, and has plenty of hard hitting combos!

Manon

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!

Zangief

The Red Cyclone with the most loyal fans! Part of what makes Zangief so appealing is the fact that he always seems to be at a disadvantage. The fear he strikes in his opponents of his powerful grabs is his strongest tool.

Zangief needs to work really hard to close the distance on his opponents, and once he finally does, almost everyone of his attacks reset both players to opposite ends of the screen, forcing him once again into the struggle.

C-tier Characters (Low Tier) – The Most Honest and Hardworking

Tier Street Fighter 6 Tier List
C A.K.I., E.Honda, Jamie

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!

Character Notes

A.K.I.

A.K.I.’s had so much promise on release. Capcom revealed her as an anti-zoner character and she was supposed to be the answer to the villainous JP! Unfortunately for the community, the start up on every anti-zoning special move at A.K.I.’s disposal has a painfully long start up time.

Her slow fireball can be a powerful tool to Drive Rush, or Sinister Slide behind but suffers from the same weakness of extremely slow start up. A.K.I. also struggles from weak normals for footsies and her only escape tool, OD Snake Step, gets countered by throws.

A.K.I. really just needs more representatives to explore and optimize her kit usage. Broski has performed really well with her in the pro scene, so don’t count A.K.I. out just yet!

E. Honda

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.

Jamie

Pour one out for Jamie. Unfortunately, Jamie takes the spot for the weakest character in SF6. His most obvious weakness is the fact that at zero drinks, Jamie begins every match with a 10% damage reduction.

He then needs to give up all offensive pressure to take each drink. Jamie’s design forces him to have to win neutral over and over again while also having some of the worst frame data and hitboxes. Compare his dive kick to Cammy’s and you know the difference between a high-tier and low-tier character.

Sad Fact: Out of more than 60 Tournaments in the Capcom Cup and World Warrior events, only one single Jamie even made it into a top 8.

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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