Ken Usurps Ryu as The Most Used Character in Street Fighter 6

For most of Street Fighter's lifespan especially since when character statistics became available, Ryu has been the most popular character. This makes a lot of sense as he is the face of the franchise and is wildly popular both within the game's fanbase and even beyond. 

However, according to some of the latest stats measuring character usage, Ryu has been knocked off the top spot. This coup was carried out by none other than fugitive, and crypto bro, Ken Masters. Considering that Ken is supposed to be Ryu's best friend, this betrayal might sting a bit. 

On a more serious note, the data was presented by FGC YouTuber, Rooflemonger who released a video covering all the stats of the most played characters in the game.

About his methodology, he stated that these numbers are across all platforms and is based on players who have completed their character placement matches. 

From the list above, there are a few things that can be inferred that are intriguing

• The new characters are quite popular 
• The harder a character is, the lower they tend to be on the list
• Players aren't playing according to tier lists just yet
• Modern controls might have a bigger effect than we thought. 

Ken's spot at the top is a little surprising and while there is no official reason for this, it can be that the greater emphasis on Ken's story in the game and in the prequel comics might have played a role in his popularity. In this game, Ken is on the run, and was displayed to be an incredibly loving and able father in the comics which might have added to the growing number of Ken fans. 

It was also very interesting to see Zangief this high up on the list, and again we can only speculate. But, it would seem that with Zangief we might be seeing the influence of Modern Controls. Thanks to Modern Controls, Zangief is more accessible than he has ever been. Now players can perform an SPD with one button, greatly simplifying his game and possibly drawing more people in. We cannot state how effective Modern Controls are in picking a character, but they must be playing some sort of role.

The popularity of the new characters is also really nice to see and even a character like Lily who is as low-tier as they come, is seeing a great deal of use (about Blanka and Dhalsim combined) which is a testament for how well Capcom has integrated their new members to the SF roster. 

Dhalsim at the bottom of the list is not as surprising as you might think considering he isn't as strong as in the final days of Street Fighter V and is notoriously difficult to use. However, when used well, he is insane, this is evident by the fact that at the top of rankings sits Mister Crimson (he has a Dhalsim guide on the DashFight YouTube channel by the way)

Obviously, this is early days and it is likely that the data will change as more people get used to characters and the meta develops.