Report: Game Popularity Research & Competitive Settings

[Higon]

Howdy. Here's my online experience report on this weekend. It was overall good. I hope this clears out some of your questions regarding "Capcom Fighting Collection".

Reception on SNS

Currently, pros and enthusiasts are discovering the netcode is really good. This title is becoming a definitive version for Vampire Savior and Hyper Street Fighter 2 online experience. Turns out, Steam version has near zero input lag while console versions are said to have 3~4 frames input lag but have much bigger population. So OG players are playing on PC. They also found Custom Match rules and Voice Chat are good for online tournament. So some streamers may be holding their own tournament.

Game Popularity (Ranked)

Platform: Steam (PC)
Sampling Date: 6/26 6:00 AM EDT (3:00 AM PDT, 7:00 PM JST)
Format: [Title], [Number of players], [Ave.LP(1-10)], [% of +LP players]

1. Vampire Savior, 1132, 8331, 71%
   
2. Hyper Street Fighter 2, 818, 4811, 65%
   
3. Super Gem Fighter, 383, 3013, 67%
   
4. Super Puzzle Fighter 2, 368, 3384, 54%
   
5. Vampire Savior 2, 328, 2171, 69%
   
6. Night Warriors, 285, 2932, 66%
   
7. Vampire Hunter 2, 194, 1357, 64%
   
8. Cyberbots, 163, 2319, 61%
   
9. Red Earth, 125, 2079, 57%
   
10. Darkstalkers, 120, 1114, 63%

My Online Experience

I live in East Asia region. Average waiting time for VS/HSF2 casual matches was less than 1 min. Connection quality and skill levels varied a lot so it's good to practice new characters. I could find all other games often. Turns out, HSF2 and Gem Fighter are giving good casual experience. If you love SF2, this title is a must have. This game is killing "30th Anniversary Collection".
Average waiting time for VS/HSF2 ranked matches was less than 3 min. Connection quality was mostly high. Skill levels varied. Due to the low participation I often saw the same player names again and again. I felt I might need to entertain them because interestingly they can refuse me before the matches start. Right now everyone has low LP so a zero LP rookie have a chance to fight against some of the best players in the world. I sometimes find Gem Fighter, Super Puzzle Fighter, Night Warriors, Vampire Savior 2 games. Other games are rare to find.

Key Competitive Settings

• Options > Network > Input Delay = 0~2 (important)
  
• Options > Network > Connection Strength = Any (4+ if laggy)
  
• Options > PC Settings > Display = Fullscreen (most important)
  
• Options > Music > Challenger Jingle = Original
  
• Online > Casual Match > Game Version = Either
  
• Online > Casual Match > One-button Special Moves = Either
  
• Online > Ranked Match > Game Version = Either
  
• Pause Menu > Display & Sound Settings > Display Filter = Type B or Type G
  
• Turn off VSync in NVidia Control Panel

[Higon]

Puzzle Fighter and Gem Fighter got some attention it seems. One streamer can change the climate.

Game Popularity (Ranked)

Platform: Steam (PC)
Sampling Date: 6/27 20:40 EDT (17:40 PDT)
Format: [Title], [Number of players], [Ave.LP(1-10)], [% of +LP players]

1. Vampire Savior, 1411, 10744, 73%
   
2. Hyper Street Fighter 2, 1022, 6237, 67%
   
3. Super Puzzle Fighter 2, 502, 4183, 56%
   
4. Super Gem Fighter, 481, 4274, 65%
   
5. Vampire Savior 2, 427, 2361, 67%
   
6. Night Warriors, 355, 3206, 63%
   
7. Vampire Hunter 2, 228, 1453, 63%
   
8. Cyberbots, 219, 3476, 60%
   
9. Red Earth, 170, 2741, 54%
   
10. Darkstalkers, 167, 1284, 66%

[Beautiful Mourning]

Good to know, thanks for this!

[Higon]

Game Popularity (Ranked)

• Platform: Steam (PC)
  
• Sampling Date: 7/1 20:30 EDT (7/1 17:30 PDT, 7/2 9:30 JST)
  
• Format: [Title], [# of players], [Ave.LP(1-10)], [% of +LP]

1. Vampire Savior, 1810, 14303, 73%
   
2. Hyper Street Fighter 2, 1371, 9527, 68%
   
3. Super Puzzle Fighter 2, 690, 6279, 55%
   
4. Gem Fighter, 654, 5701, 66%
   
5. Vampire Savior 2, 572, 3162, 68%
   
6. Night Warriors, 520, 4258, 65%
   
7. Vampire Hunter 2, 335, 1986, 61%
   
8. Cyberbots, 295, 3879, 64%
   
9. Red Earth, 231, 3401, 57%
   
10. Darkstalkers, 222, 1544, 67%

My Online Experience so far

I only played a few hundreds ranked matches this week, no casuals, with a colorful Switch Pro controller. Gold rank and Diamond rank are now filled with veterans holding stick/hitbox controllers on their hands. Some are well known pros. Looks like CFC has been accepted by those who've been playing VSav/HSF2 over a decade. This game is creating an online gathering place where old veterans are reuniting. Weird, but pretty good prequel for new kind of fighting game scene I guess.

CFC has one weird feature "Manually refusing to fight against opponents". I didn't think this is a good feature, but it's magically working. It really feels like I'm being in a local arcade. Depending on the time of day, strangers come to challenge me and go away. Some are very tough. Small number of people are rotating to face me to kick my butt. Everyone gets to know who they are facing with. Once the person recognizes me as a tough or cheap player, he avoids wasting his quaters on me for the day. When nice match happens, we just have 3 straight matches boosting our ranking LP. VSav and HSF2 have some profoundly unbalanced characters. These brutal games requires unwritten community rules to be played nicely. Interestingly "Refusing to fight" feature is making up for the shortcomings. Of course it's not fun to get refused all the time eventually but it's now a part of the game. And for that reason, I found Puzzle Fighter is really nice game to have XD

[Higon]

Game Popularity (Ranked)

• Platform: Steam (PC)
  
• Sampling Date: 7/8 21:30 EDT (7/8 18:30 PDT, 7/9 10:30 JST)
  
• Format: [Title], [# of players], [Ave.LP(1-10)], [% of +LP]

1. Vampire Savior, 2014, 15421, 73%
   
2. Hyper Street Fighter 2, 1593, 12657, 68%
   
3. Super Puzzle Fighter 2, 821, 7887, 56%
   
4. Gem Fighter, 730, 6299, 65%
   
5. Vampire Savior 2, 644, 3794, 69%
   
6. Night Warriors, 610, 4387, 63%
   
7. Vampire Hunter 2, 381, 2800, 60%
   
8. Cyberbots, 339, 4618, 64%
   
9. Darkstalkers, 256, 1704, 67%
   
10. Red Earth, 254, 3656, 57%

My Online Experience

Population growth in ranked lobby slowed down by roughly 50% compared to a
previous week. HSF2 still has high-skilled veterans flowing in constantly so HSF2 matches are all sweaty in any rank. Most Vsav veterans have been isolated in Platinum/Diamond. As the result, Vsav matches became easy up to Gold rank if you know how to play your character correctly. Vsav2 feels like a casual because people there still trying to learn Vsav2. I have no idea why they tend to use Lilith though. Gem Fighter players are now suffering from unbalanced characters. Puzzle Fighter is always fun. RedEarth/Cyberbots has a few interesting individuals who sits on ranked lobby all the time.

[Bluebeer]

The Input lag on Steam is the same as Xbox S/X if your @ 60hz

on Steam you need to be running 240hz to drop it too 1.25 frames of input lagg

https://twitter.com/kimagreGaming/status/1542163514210430976/photo/1

[Higon]

Originally posted by Bluebeer:

The Input lag on Steam is the same as Xbox S/X if your @ 60hz
on Steam you need to be running 240hz to drop it too 1.25 frames of input lagg
https://twitter.com/kimagreGaming/status/1542163514210430976/photo/1

Thx. But no, the refresh rate he's talking about seems to be his measuring tool's, not the game's. His monitoring method and results were wrong and he made an another tool running at 240Hz claiming this is the correct result. Steam has still an advantage.
https://twitter.com/inrash/status/1544916555728883717

Game Popularity (Ranked)

• Platform: Steam (PC)
  
• Sampling Date: 7/15 20:30 EDT (7/15 17:30 PDT, 7/16 09:30 JST)
  
• Format: [Title], [# of players], [Ave.LP(1-10)], [% of +LP]

1. Vampire Savior, 2150, 15961, 72%
   
2. Hyper Street Fighter 2, 1754, 15194, 70%
   
3. Super Puzzle Fighter 2, 907, 8416, 56%
   
4. Gem Fighter, 780, 7352, 64%
   
5. Vampire Savior 2, 694, 5117, 68%
   
6. Night Warriors, 664, 4473, 64%
   
7. Vampire Hunter 2, 420, 3288, 57%
   
8. Cyberbots, 363, 5403, 62%
   
9. Darkstalkers, 278, 1770, 67%
   
10. Red Earth, 277, 2921, 56%

My Online Experience

Population growth in ranked lobby has slowed down by 25% compared to a previous week. HSF2 this week was booming due to a certain pro streaming every day. Most matches I got were on HSF2, new comers are all skillful. So the matches are still sweaty in any rank. PuzzleFighter/GemFighter/VSav play like casual lobby. RedEarth/Cyberbots games are now really hard to find. Oh, and I recently checked PS4 ranked, the population on PS4 is twice the size of Steam. I can't check numbers on Switch version but I think Switch has much more than that.

[Bluebeer]

The Steam version has an advantage if you have a 240hz display.

also where are you finding the player numbers from ? the daily average is 130 players spread across all 10 games according to Steamstats.

[Higon]

Originally posted by Bluebeer:

The Steam version has an advantage if you have a 240hz display.
also where are you finding the player numbers from ? the daily average is 130 players spread across all 10 games according to Steamstats.

I'm not gatekeeping this game, man. how you interpret these numbers are up to you.

I've read the blog again, I think you are correct he's also showing 240Hz output gives 3 frames advantage on HSF2. It's strange though. In general, yes, 240hz can give players 10ms~20ms (=1 frame) input advantage over 60Hz. But not 3 frames (=50ms). If this is really happening, I'm going to buy new 240Hz monitor for sure. This is big on FPS as well.

And about the numbers. I'm taking these numbers from in-game ranking boards. This game has no crossplay, so Steam only. I'm giving these numbers because we can't see any meaningful activities from Steam Chart. With these numbers, I can say as a fact that HSF2(ranked) game alone had 161 new players this week, and the high-ranking players were hyper active on this game. Meanwhile Darkstalkers(ranked) had 22 new players and most players were inactive. RedEarth(ranked) was still being played despite of its smallest player base.

[Higon]

Game Popularity (Ranked)

• Platform: Steam (PC)
  
• Sampling Date: 7/23 6:30 EDT (7/23 3:30 PDT, 7/23 19:30 JST)
  
• Format: [Title], [# of players], [Ave.LP(1-10)], [% of +LP]

1. Vampire Savior, 2234, 16581, 72%
   
2. Hyper Street Fighter 2, 1866, 16805, 71%
   
3. Super Puzzle Fighter 2, 942, 8739, 55%
   
4. Gem Fighter, 809, 8310, 65%
   
5. Vampire Savior 2, 728, 5526, 68%
   
6. Night Warriors, 702, 4935, 65%
   
7. Vampire Hunter 2, 448, 3887, 56%
   
8. Cyberbots, 378, 5782, 63%
   
9. Darkstalkers, 304, 1947, 66%
   
10. Red Earth, 287, 4012, 57%

From my experience this week. HSF2 is the most popular and active. Most ranked matches were happening on Vsav/Vsav2/Vhunt/HSF2. Average waiting time was less than 1 min with those game. On the other hand, I didn't see other titles being played much.

[Higon]

Game Popularity (Ranked)

• Platform: Steam (PC)
  
• Sampling Date: 7/29 20:30 EDT (7/29 17:30 PDT, 7/30 9:30 JST)
  
• Format: [Title], [# of players], [Ave.LP(1-10)], [% of +LP]

1. Vampire Savior, 2275, 17383, 72%
   
2. Hyper Street Fighter 2, 1958, 18182, 71%
   
3. Super Puzzle Fighter 2, 958, 8968, 55%
   
4. Gem Fighter, 823, 8571, 65%
   
5. Vampire Savior 2, 753, 5950, 67%
   
6. Night Warriors, 723, 5055, 65%
   
7. Vampire Hunter 2, 466, 4333, 56%
   
8. Cyberbots, 386, 5914, 63%
   
9. Darkstalkers, 312, 2067, 67%
   
10. Red Earth, 289, 4068, 56%

HSF2 ranked-lobby was more active than ever. Competitions among top 20 seem to have settled finally. Now, 7 out of top 10 players are known pros/veterans/streamers. HSF2 also had a good flow of newcomers. Vsav is active as well. But, except for HSF2, numbers of new players have dwindled. We can now say Red Earth, Cyberbots and Darkstalkers1 ranked-lobbies are mostly empty. Some games won't be having new players soon until next Steam Sale or a major update.

[Higon]

Game Popularity (Ranked)

• Platform: Steam (PC)
  
• Sampling Date: 8/6 18:30 EDT (8/6 15:30 PDT, 8/7 7:30 JST)
  
• Format: [Title], [# of players], [Ave.LP(1-10)], [% of +LP]

1. Vampire Savior, 2321, 18389, 72%
   
2. Hyper Street Fighter 2, 2064, 19393, 72%
   
3. Super Puzzle Fighter 2, 973, 9668, 55%
   
4. Gem Fighter, 827, 8599, 65%
   
5. Vampire Savior 2, 768, 6241, 67%
   
6. Night Warriors, 739, 5772, 65%
   
7. Vampire Hunter 2, 476, 4410, 56%
   
8. Cyberbots, 391, 5981, 62%
   
9. Darkstalkers, 318, 2134, 67%
   
10. Red Earth, 292, 4148, 57%

Growth is almost the same as this week. Gem Fighter appears to be unpopular now. HSF2 is most popular. Only Vampire games and HSF2 are well played but from my experience the average waiting time was 2~3 minutes that was longer than last week.

[Higon]

Game Popularity (Ranked)

• Platform: Steam (PC)
  
• Sampling Date: 8/12 11:00 EDT (8/12 8:00 PDT, 8/13 0:00 JST)
  
• Format: [Title], [# of players], [Ave.LP(1-10)], [% of +LP]

1. Vampire Savior, 2344, 19145, 72%
   
2. Hyper Street Fighter 2, 2129, 21091, 72%
   
3. Super Puzzle Fighter 2, 985, 9912, 55%
   
4. Gem Fighter, 830, 8642, 65%
   
5. Vampire Savior 2, 776, 6530, 66%
   
6. Night Warriors, 749, 5978, 65%
   
7. Vampire Hunter 2, 481, 4459, 56%
   
8. Cyberbots, 395, 6060, 62%
   
9. Darkstalkers, 321, 2135, 67%
   
10. Red Earth, 292, 4245, 57%

Even growth of HSF2/Vsav halved this week. Other games don't have much new players anymore. I think evo did this XD. HSF2/VSav matchmaking was a bit slow but was working (waiting time 1~3min).

[Higon]

Game Popularity (Ranked)

• Platform: Steam (PC)
  
• Sampling Date: 8/20 3:00 EDT (8/20 0:00 PDT, 8/20 16:00 JST)
  
• Format: [Title], [# of players], [Ave.LP(1-10)], [% of +LP]

1. Vampire Savior, 2366, 19591, 72%
   
2. Hyper Street Fighter 2, 2171, 21767, 73%
   
3. Super Puzzle Fighter 2, 992, 10047, 55%
   
4. Gem Fighter, 832, 8643, 65%
   
5. Vampire Savior 2, 782, 6590, 66%
   
6. Night Warriors, 762, 6088, 65%
   
7. Vampire Hunter 2, 483, 4494, 56%
   
8. Cyberbots, 398, 6102, 62%
   
9. Darkstalkers, 324, 2213, 67%
   
10. Red Earth, 293, 4249, 57%

Seems about the same as last week's growth. HSF2 is the most active.

[Higon]

Game Popularity (Ranked)

• Platform: Steam (PC)
  
• Sampling Date: 8/27 7:15 EDT (8/27 4:15 PDT, 8/27 20:15 JST)
  
• Format: [Title], [# of players], [Ave.LP(1-10)], [% of +LP]

1. Vampire Savior, 2384, 20271, 72%
   
2. Hyper Street Fighter 2, 2223, 22523, 73%
   
3. Super Puzzle Fighter 2, 997, 10113, 55%
   
4. Gem Fighter, 839, 8657, 65%
   
5. Vampire Savior 2, 786, 6961, 66%
   
6. Night Warriors, 768, 6353, 65%
   
7. Vampire Hunter 2, 487, 4504, 56%
   
8. Cyberbots, 400, 6124, 62%
   
9. Darkstalkers, 326, 2213, 67%
   
10. Red Earth, 299, 4280, 59%

[Higon]

Game Popularity (Ranked)

• Platform: Steam (PC)
  
• Sampling Date: 9/3 3:30 EDT (9/3 0:30 PDT, 9/3 16:30 JST)
  
• Format: [Title], [# of players], [Ave.LP(1-10)], [% of +LP]

1. Vampire Savior, 2399, 20531, 72%
   
2. Hyper Street Fighter 2, 2264, 23688, 73%
   
3. Super Puzzle Fighter 2, 1000, 10099, 55%
   
4. Gem Fighter, 840, 8688, 65%
   
5. Vampire Savior 2, 791, 7210, 66%
   
6. Night Warriors, 776, 6697, 65%
   
7. Vampire Hunter 2, 492, 4494, 56%
   
8. Cyberbots, 400, 6135, 62%
   
9. Darkstalkers, 327, 2213, 68%
   
10. Red Earth, 301, 4280, 57%

HSF2 at high level is super active because of streamers.