Street Fighter 6 Tier List: Who to main in SF6 [Elena and Sagat added]

Tier lists are a popular topic in the fighting games community (FGC), as players don’t want to waste their time on weak characters. However, this division on SF6 best characters and low-tier fighters works only with a specific level of skills. Analyzing frame data and favorable matchups makes no sense for most casual players.

Choosing a character to play in Street Fighter 6 should not be based on tier lists only. Personal preferences are often more important. You should like a fighter in terms of their look and personality. And it’s important to simply enjoy playing them. This is a mighty basis to grow further as a fighting games player — and potentially start caring about SF6 tier lists. Some pros play non-meta characters and still win.

Sure, if you equally like a few SF6 characters, why not focus on one from the top tier? Giving yourself space for potential growth is always a good idea.

In this article, you’ll find an SF6 tier list for competitive play: the characters that can take you to the ranking heights and esports tournaments. Also, we created a separate casual tier list: Street Fighter 6 characters that are easy to play and still pretty strong.

Check out a competitive Street Fighter 6 tier list in the image below.

The current version of our competitive SF6 tier list has been built after the addition of Elena and Sagat. The readjusted meta was highlighted by pro players during the Street Fighter 6 Esports World Cup 2025.

It’s a tier for the characters that demonstrate the best results in the current SF6 meta.

JP is here: Kakeru won the Capcom Cup 11 with this character. Playing JP is rather difficult, as you need to create tricky setups for his combos. The potential may be worth the time spent for thorough practice.

Ryu shined greatly in the hands of Blaz, a young sensation at the Capcom Cup 11 and the EWC 2025. He became even stronger, as Ryu was one of the most buffed characters at the SF6 Elena update. With Denjin Charge, his projectiles are much quicker, and his level 2 has much better frames for combo pressure.

Akuma has a great presence on the SF6 esports scene. AngryBird, Kawano, Bonchan, and others play Great Demon.

Ed is not as popular around the world as he is in Japan. Whenever there is a tournament in this country, like Japan Super Premier, many players pick Ed and demonstrate his strength. The fighter has a pretty complicated gameplan, but in skilled hands, Ed is certainly among the SF6 best characters. Fuudo and Leshar main Ed and win big international events.

The selection of Street Fighter 6 characters in our A-tier group is filled with super great picks. Everyone here has a potential to win ranked matches and esports tournaments. However, they are not universally great and may struggle in specific situations.

M. Bison is very strong, even if somewhat inconsistent. Some top players pick him for suitable matchups but still have other characters: Xiaohai and DCQ. Luke and Ken are often in the top 8 placements, witch different players, such as Tokido, Blaz, and AngryBird (Ken as one of the picks) and NoahTheProdigy (Luke).

Xiaohai won EWC 2025 with Mai on his side. Switching to this FATAL FURY character helped him recover in the grand final. moke and other players have Mai in their arsenal. She is still rather a player-specific choice.

Cammy is a common pick at tournaments, but recently, she’s not taking the players to top 1. Punk and Phenom play her. Higuchi mains Guile, and we saw what the American army guy is capable of during the Esports World Cup.

Chun-Li is a pick of GO1, and he can handle her punishable moves. Kimberly got good buffs with the Elena update. Specifically, her Shuriken Bomb Spread explode at different time, which opens a better combo potential. At EWC 2025, Matsu56 and Shine played her.

Such players as BigBird, Dual Kevin, and Oil King proved how good Rashid is in the Street Fighter 6 meta right now. The character has rather little top placements as for the S tier. Terry is one of the possible picks for Leshar, and a few other competitors play him.

As a still relatively fresh character, Sagat was picked at the Esports World Cup by pugera, and the player made it to the top 20. Kakeru experimented with Sagat as well.

Street Fighter 6 characters in this tier may dominate or struggle in different matchups. Fuudo picked Dee Jay to win Blink Respawn 2025, but it's rather an addition to his Ed. The same goes for Zhen at the EWC and CEO 2025.

broski played A.K.I. at Capcom Cup 11, but the lady was losing her terrifying nature when faced some opponents. Hikaru took A.K.I. to the EWC 2025 but couldn't make it further than Phase 1.

Juri is a rare tournament pick nowadays. Nephew keeps his loyalty, but the character doesn't always work even for him.

Zangief is a menace as a good grappler should be. Some character loyalists play him in the biggest tournaments, like Itabashi Zangief and Veggey.

Dhalsim also received good buffs to increase his combo potential. In terms of damage, he is a much better character than in Season 1 and the most part of Season 2. Such players as Torimeshi and YHC-Mochi benefit from improved abilities and stronger hits of Dhalsim.

The Esports World Cup 2025 was the first tournament presence for Elena. Still, this SF6 DLC character made it only to the Last Chance Qualifier: Dogura was stopped in the top 16 brackets.

Only players who enjoy these SF6 characters deeply take them to esports events.

Blanka is the favorite choice of MenaRD. The legend won Evo 2025 with this character — but that tells more about MenaRD than about Blanka! Beyond this guy, no one takes this character to big tournaments. Blanka’s moveset is too risky, and absolutely amazing skills and chaotic unpredictability are needed to succeed with him on the top level.

Manon relies on her medal power-ups too much while being weak in neutrals. iDom still keeps playing her at tournaments. Tachikawa was on Manon during the EWC 2025.

Marisa has become too predictable in the competitive play. Her anti-air options are just lacking. However, her defense got better at the end of Season 2, and her Level 1 beats throws. Shuto has Marisa as an addition to Akuma.

It is close to impossible to spot these character at top-tier Street Fighter 6 esports tournaments.

Lily is fun to play, but her gameplan is very simple. Jamie is very dependent on his drinking power-ups, even after significant buffs for some usual moves.

E. Honda is scary in casual matches, especially on Modern Controls. But skilled opponents know how to deal with those annoying pushes.

Here is a SF6 tier ranking for casual players and beginners. Top tiers highlight Street Fighter 6 characters that are easy to play and may be effective in a low-skills environment.

The Elena update affected it too, but not as much as the competitive one.

Even with straightforward movesets and accessible gameplans, these characters require some practice. They reward with growth potential in SF6 ranks and esports.

These characters are designed to be accessible for newcomers, especially Lily and Marisa. E. Honda is satisfying to play against other beginners.

On the other hand, you can’t reach far with these fighters: it’s the state of Street Fighter 6 meta.

Here we have SF6 characters that are not too simple and not too complicated. They are generally strong, but not to the level of dominating meta. 

Take them to the practice mode and play them vs the computer to feel if they are for you. Such characters as A.K.I. and Kimberly may require more practice. It’s about whether they click for you or not.

These fighters are complicated to play, and casual players may struggle with them. It may be a good idea to play Street Fighter 6 with other characters and only then return to these.

There are not many reasons for casual players and beginners in Street Fighter 6 to select these characters. Do this for your experimental research or if you just love the design very much. The challenge is real and with little reward.

The choice depends on a few factors.

Updates may change SF6 meta and shake the tier list positioning. New characters have the power to shake the preferences of competitive players. Such adjustments will be reflected in our tier lists.

For all Street Fighter 6 news and updates, stick around on esports.gg.