Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls PC Sales and Player Counts Raise Longevity Concerns Among Fans

More than a month after its release, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is facing scrutiny over its early sales and player numbers on PC, with the fighting game community worried about its long-term viability.

Arc System Works' newest tag fighter has been a hot topic in the FGC, drawing both praise and criticism for its tag mechanics and online matchmaking. The debate is hard to miss on fighting game Twitter right now. Many were thrilled about a fast-paced Marvel fighting game from the creators of Guilty Gear and Dragon Ball FighterZ, but post-launch enthusiasm appears to have soured into frustration.

According to Steam Charts, the game currently has 427 active players on Steam, with a 24-hour peak of 791. Its all-time peak on Steam stands at 13,787 players—though these figures only reflect Steam and exclude PlayStation users.

PC sales data has also fueled discussion. Alinea Analytics reports a stark platform split: 82% of copies sold on PlayStation versus just 18% on Steam. Despite this, the game has generated an estimated $49.7 million in revenue, selling around 750,000 copies across both platforms combined.

Those numbers aren't insignificant, and the competition is fierce. Street Fighter 6 remains the dominant fighting game on the market, and Tokon was never likely to dethrone it. The game is clearly performing well on PlayStation, but its troubled PC launch likely explains the huge disparity in where people are playing.

The PC version was plagued with issues at launch, even prompting prominent streamer Maximilian Dood to uninstall the game live on stream in a viral moment. A patch was released quickly to address the problems, but Tokon's producer acknowledged that rebuilding player trust would be tough, and director Kazuto Sekine issued an apology a month later.

While Tokon seems to be thriving on PlayStation, its weaker PC player base and lower Steam sales have ignited a debate within the FGC about whether the game can survive in an increasingly crowded market of IP-based tag fighters (like Invincible VS and Avatar Legends). It's also worth noting that the game was initially blocked in 132 countries due to PSN requirements.

One of the most vocal critics is Guilty Gear and Smash Bros pro William 'Leffen' Hjelte. "Unless Tokon turns the game around gameplay wise by next patch, I'm gonna drop it," he wrote in a viral post on X/Twitter. "Gameplay aside, I can't even get matches in EU, it feels like the serious playerbase is maybe, at best, 1/10th of Strive's and 2XKO's here."

He added: "I genuinely think the game is saveable if they act fast and correctly, but with us not even knowing when the patch is coming and only four characters coming (no date), I think it's probably over, at least if you care about having a big scene. Very sad, I had a lot of high hopes for Tokon."

Another player pointed out: "Dragon Ball FighterZ sold over two million copies in its first week. Tokon probably won't even break one million in six months. This is truly sad that they fumbled such an easy win."

"Yeah... This game will only have a year's worth of content, and only because it's already made or in the planning stages. I don't think Cyclops will bring in the crowd Tokon needs," another speculated.

However, some argue that it's only been just under two months since release and point to its PlayStation success as reason for optimism.

"Marvel Tokon came out August 6. Not even two months ago," said YouTuber and community member Mightykeef. "Not… even… two months ago. I've seen such an insane amount of doom posting for a fighting game that has not even been able to breath for two months, lol."

"Tokon is an incredible fighting game, but it's still a fighting game. Always a niche genre. Hell, one of the goats of the genre, UMVC3, didn't crack 600k in two months," another noted.

"It took Marvel vs Capcom 2 years to become the mythical legend it is. Started in arcade, then ported over to Dreamcast, PS2, Xbox. It's not gonna happen overnight. And I love Tokon, I want more of it. We need to really end the stupid seasonal DLC crap. Just launch with more characters," another said.

What's your take? Do you think Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is in a healthy state with a bright future, or is it already on the path to irrelevance? Let us know in the comments below.