Guilty Gear Strive fights its way to 2.5 million players

Arc System Works revealed its fighting game Guilty Gear Strive has reached over 2.5 million players. Gematsu noted that this is the first game in the larger Guilty Gear series and in Arc System Works' 35-year history to hit such a benchmark.

Guilty Gear Strive originally released in 2021 for PC, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. Back in March, it came to Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S, and its inclusion on Game Pass likely helped get it to its current milestone.

As of August 2022, Strive was the best-selling title in the Guilty Gear franchise at one million copies sold. It's the first mainline entry for the franchise since Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- in 2014. The player milestone also happens to come as the Guilty Gear series turned 25 years old in Japan back in May, with its 25th North American anniversary in October.

Guilty Gear Strive and the future of fighting games

Like plenty of other fighting games, Strive has been kept going thanks to a consistent (and still ongoing) release of new fighters, along with a healthy player community. Conveniently enough, the game will be at this weekend's annual EVO fighting tournament in Las Vegas, NV.

It was during last year's EVO that Arc's CEO Minoru Kidooka expressed his belief that the future of the fighting game genre would be determined by what properties entered the space. At the time, Kidooka noted that he wanted his studio to help bring different licenses into fighting games, either as guest characters or in full-fledged titles.

Funnily enough, Kidooka's sentiment from last year is reflected in September's Mortal Kombat 1. NetherRealm's upcoming fighting game will feature Omni-Man from Invincible, Homeland from The Boys, and DC Comics' Peacemaker as guest fighters for its first slate of DLC fighters.