Tier listings for the Street Fighter 4 series

Tier listings for the Street Fighter 4 series

Fighters are ranked from 1 (best) to a max of 39 (worst). See the "Total characters" area for a breakdown of how many fighters were in each title. For example, SF4 had 25 fighters in its last version, so 25 would be the worst ranking in that game, while 39 would be the worst in SSF4 AE v2012.

NAME	S F 4	S S F 4	S S F 4 A E	A E 2 0 1 2
Total characters	25	35	39	39
Abel	12	8	21	10
Adon	-	20	17	6
Akuma	3	13	5	1
Balrog (Boxer)	4	5	7	20
Blanka	9	17	23	26
Cammy	19	6	13	2
Chun-Li	7	4	9	36
Cody	-	23	24	20
C. Viper	11	23	4	6
Dan	25	33	25	39
Dee Jay	-	19	22	32
Dhalsim	17	8	14	20
Dudley	-	26	26	32
E. Honda	12	1	16	26
El Fuerte	21	23	28	26
Evil Ryu	-	-	-	32
Fei Long	18	13	1	2
Gen	23	32	29	10
Gouken	12	27	30	15
Guile	21	3	27	20
Guy	-	31	32	15
Hakan	-	33	33	32
Ibuki	-	21	34	6
Juri	-	28	35	15
Ken	12	15	6	26
Makoto	-	35	8	10
M. Bison (Dictator)	10	2	9	15
Oni	-	-	-	15
Rose	16	16	36	26
Rufus	4	8	19	10
Ryu	2	7	15	10
Sagat	1	8	12	20
Sakura	20	30	17	2
Seth	7	8	31	2
T. Hawk	-	28	37	36
Vega (Claw)	24	21	20	36
Yang	-	-	3	26
Yun	-	-	2	6
Zangief	6	18	9	20
Total characters	25	35	39	39

Notes

• Only going up: Adon is the only character who has improved in the tier rankings in every version he's been in.

• Steady decline: These characters have had their tier ranking progressively drop in every version they've been in: Balrog, Blanka, Dee Jay and Sagat.

• Low tier heroes: These characters have never been rated 18th or better overall: Cody, Dan, Dee Jay, Dudley, El Fuerte, Hakan, T. Hawk and Vega.

• Guile was considered strong in only one game, SSF4, tier ranking wise. In every other game he's been ranked in the 20s.

• Zangief fluxuates in tier rankings in every version of the game, going from good to mediocre, to good to mediocre again.

I dont get why Dudley is so low, He was the 1st character I won games consistently with.

i think the results are based on tournament results and top tier player feedback. any character can be good depending on who`s playing as them. but inherantly, some are weaker than others.

im loving playing as el fuerte but his way down the tiers

Fuerte's ultra 2 gets me every time 

I think it's interesting how much variance there is from one version to the next.  Does Capcom really make that many changes, or is it more a matter of perception?  Viper rocketed from 23 up to 4th in one version.  That just seems hard to believe.

i know they have done alot of nerfs and buffs over the different versions so its possible

I thiink for Ultra they are trying not to nerf anyone to much but buff the lower tier characters.

Akuma has been nerfed in every version of SF that's came out after vanilla.