It’s going to be another big year even if we don’t know what all is coming exactly
Fighting game players have had a lot of choices on their plate to pick from lately in terms of titles and content, and there’s plenty more on the way too.
2026 is shaping up to be another big year for fighting games, but what all is coming to the grand stage to look forward to?
We’ve put together a full guide of all the fighting games that are releasing this year or still receiving new updates and support.
There’s obviously many large tournaments and events to prepare for as well like Evo 2026 and Evo Japan though it’ll be interesting to see how the Capcom Cup 12 pay-per-view decision will play out in the end.
Since we have over a dozen titles to go over, let’s get right into the action for what’s on the horizon for the fighting game community.
Street Fighter 6 is still the clear big dog of the fighting game scene, but the title has been going through a long content drought for months now and may stay that way for a few more months to come.
While we don’t have his release date yet, Capcom did just drop Alex’s teaser trailer for Street Fighter 6 where we get to see the wrestler turn full heel and perform many of his signature moves on poor Andore.
We know Alex is on the way for early Spring followed by Ingrid in late Spring to close out Season 3, and things beyond that remain a question mark.
Clearly, Capcom is going to make a fourth season of content for SF6 to come after that, however, there’s something else that many players are more interested in now.
Street Fighter 6 has largely stayed the same game since the betas, so it’ll be very interesting to see if Season 4 is finally the time to really shake things up and bring some fresh air into the experience.
The game’s Director and Producer did offer up New Year’s messages to talk a bit about their plans for the game though without going into much detail.
Unless Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls or 2XKO really blow up into something fierce, Street Fighter will more than likely remain the top dog in the scene this year again.
Speaking of 2XKO, the League of Legends fighting game may be the closest thing to hitting our hands to kick off the new year first.
Riot Games is launching 2XKO Season 1 on January 20, which includes the release of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S versions of the game finally.
We already know that Caitlyn is going to be the new champion added in Season 1 this month, and they’re planning on making some more balance adjustments to the title as well.
Riot previously said they plan on doing five seasons of content in 2026 with a new character for each, so there should roster should reach 16 fighters by the end of the year.
Despite their eSports success with League and Valorant, Riot revealed they are not doing an official 2XKO pro circuit this year and will instead focus on supporting existing events with larger prize pools and the like.
Will 2XKO have what it takes to really take off and show how free-to-play fighters can work out? We’ll find out soon.
Although we reviewed Fatal Fury’s grand return quite highly, the game doesn’t seem like it’s performed as well as SNK had hoped for in its first year.
City of the Wolves finished up its first season last month early with Mr. Big, and it’s the other game that may have something new to offer first this year.
SNK already confirmed that Fatal Fury Season 2 begins sometime in January though we don’t know the exact date yet.
That means more characters and a big balance / system update are going to be arriving shortly.
While no fighters have been confirmed yet, SNK has released some very interesting animated teasers implying Wolfgang Krauser and seemingly even Fist of the North Star’s Kenshiro are coming this year.
They aren’t backing down on their support for the competitive scene either with the SNK World Championship 2026 offering a staggering $4.1 million prize pool again between Fatal Fury, The King of Fighters 15, Samurai Shodown and Art of Fighting 3.
So hopefully City of the Wolves can pick up some more steam in its second year.
Marvel Tokon shocked and rocked the fighting game world when it was first announced over six months ago, but we haven’t really seen much new from it since.
The Arc System Works-developed team fighter did run two closed beta tests in 2025 along with showing it off at some events, so players have gotten the chance at least to try out what they’ve been cooking up thus far.
We haven’t really seen any new characters or gotten a release date, though that’ll have to change at some point in the near-ish future.
Marvel Tokon is slated for a 2026 launch and will presumably be the biggest new title of the year, but it’ll probably come in the second half of the year considering it’s not on the Evo 2026 roster.
Tekken 8 finished its second season of content with Miary Zo’s release last month, but there’s certainly questions now about how the game will be handled moving forward.
Longtime Director Katsuhiro Harada suddenly departed the team at the end of last year, however, Bandai Namco has reaffirmed their support for Tekken 8’s future.
So at least the game should be getting a Season 3 update and another round of characters. Where things go from there is anyone’s guess at this point.
We should be learning more about Season 3 at the Tekken World Tour Finals at the end of this month.
And hopefully the new season gets off to a much better start than Season 2.
Guilty Gear Strive is going through a bit of a quiet period right now, but there’s some big things coming for it down the pipeline.
ArcSys already confirmed they’re working on a largescale Version 2.0 update for Strive that will shake up the game’s systems and characters.
More fighters are on the way too, but it sounds as though they may be moving away from full season passes as the title approaches its fifth birthday.
Invincible VS was another surprise reveal last year that’s going to add to the tag fighter space like Marvel Tokon, but it’ll be arriving sooner.
Skybound Games already confirmed Invincible VS is slated to launch on April 30 when they revealed their new original character Ella Mental.
They also stated the game will release with 18 playable characters, so there should still be seven more left to reveal by then plus the season pass that comes after.
Invincible VS is also going to be featured as one of the mainstage titles at Evo 2026.
It’s been over a year since the New Virtua Fighter Project was first announced now, but we’ve only gotten to see tiny bits of the game since then.
While we’re not really expecting the new game to actually release this year, Sega should be showing off a lot more of what they’ve been working on.
Virtua Fighter’s Producer pretty much confirmed that 2026 feels like the time to fully unveil the game.
The next likely place we could see more of the project is at the Virtua Fighter Open Championship at the start of March.
And this is of course on top of any more support they have planned for Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. World Stage too.
Everyone though the game was all done and wrapped up, but Dragon Ball FighterZ is coming back again for at least one more ride.
Bandai Namco dropped a new balance update this past Fall for FighterZ, but more shockingly, we’re getting another character too.
Super Saiyan 4 Goku from Dragon Ball Daima is coming to DBFZ sometime this Spring though we’ve yet to see him in action.
Granblue Rising has already been trucking along for two years already, and there’s still some more on the way for its second season.
Cygames previously released Meg this past Fall, but players are still waiting on Ilsa to close out the Season 2 roster, who should be coming in the next month or two — and we’ll probably see her next weekend at the Cygames Cup.
Beyond that, we don’t really know what’s going to happen with Rising, but we’d be a bit surprised if Granblue didn’t get a third season of content.
Avatar Legends previously popped up as another surprising fighting game announcement that revived a canceled project, and it’s showing some promise already.
They already ran a closed alpha test at the end of last year, and more tests are planned for the future.
According to the website, Avatar Legends is scheduled to launch in Summer 2026 for the PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch 2, and Xbox Series X|S.
Hunter x Hunter never really seemed to gain much traction among fighting game fans after launching last year, but the game is still going to be receiving more support.
Neferpitou and Phinks already released as DLC fighters, and there’s two more characters in the season pass slated to hit the game this Spring and Summer.
After that, we’ll have to see if they decide to keep going with a second season or not.
Fans probably don’t have much to look forward to on this front besides some more updates to the Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection.
With the Warner Bros. buyout situation going on, it’ll likely be quite some time before NetherRealm Studios gets to show off what they’re developing now.
There are rumors at least that Injustice 3 is on the way even if there’s little chance we’ll see it this year.
Finally, there’s Saturday AM Battle Manga as another tag team fighting game in the works now from an indie studio.
Battle Manga recently received its first gameplay reveal trailer for the crossover fighter.
The game is supposed to get a playable demo on PC in the near future.
That’s all we know for sure that’s coming here in 2026 in the vast realm of fighting games, and there should be enough to keep everyone busy and then some.
Let us know in the comments what you’re looking forward to most this year and if we missed out on any games.