Street Fighter 6 Tier List: JP, Sagat, and Ed Lead the Current Meta
These grades reflect RankedBoost’s community-sourced Street Fighter 6 tier list following the game’s most recent balance pass, which nerfed Mai and buffed Sagat and Elena. A new update, version 10.13.2026, was detected on October 14, 2026, so expect these rankings to shift again once its full patch notes land and the community catches up. Here’s where the 31-character roster stands right now.
S-Tier: JP, Sagat, Ed
All three S-tier characters share one trait: they throw a projectile, and RankedBoost’s data shows that 55% of the cast’s projectile users grade A-tier or better. JP tops the list despite having no OD reversal at all — of the twelve characters without one, JP is one of only three that still grades A or higher, which says a lot about how dominant his zoning and neutral tools are even without a safe wake-up option. Sagat climbed into S-tier after a balance patch buffed his low attacks, pushing a character who was previously seen as strong but “not quite top three” into the game’s best bracket. Ed rounds out the trio as a well-rounded projectile zoner who has stayed near the top since the last several balance passes.
A-Tier: Mai Holds On Despite the Nerfs
A-tier is the deepest bracket: Guile, Mai, Cammy, Terry, Blanka, M. Bison, Rashid, Luke, Ken, Ryu, and Zangief. The headline story here is Mai, who was the clear target of Capcom’s last balance patch — her standing heavy punch now drains less Drive Gauge for her, opponents gain more gauge when parrying her fireballs, her throw-loop pressure was toned down, and she can no longer freely dash or shimmy after a corner throw. Even with all of that, she still holds A-tier, which tells you how strong her kit was before the nerfs landed. Zangief is the other interesting case: he has the highest health total in the game at 11,000, yet that raw vitality is only enough for A-tier, not S, in a meta that currently rewards projectile zoning over brute durability.
B-Tier and C-Tier
B-tier: Yasmine, Dee Jay, Akuma, C. Viper, Chun-Li, Jamie, Juri, Kimberly, Elena, and Alex. Elena is worth watching here — she picked up buffs to her Level 1 Super speed and her enhanced Leopard Snap positioning in the same patch that nerfed Mai, which improved her pressure and combo routes, but hasn’t been enough to push her out of B-tier yet.
C-tier: A.K.I., Ingrid, Dhalsim, Manon, E. Honda, Lily, and Marisa round out the roster. No character currently grades D-tier, meaning even the weakest picks in Street Fighter 6 remain viable with enough player skill behind them.
Keep in mind these rankings reflect the pre-10.13.2026 patch state of the game, so treat this as a snapshot rather than the final word — we’ll revisit this tier list once the new update’s full notes are out. Ready to jump into ranked yourself? Dragon4Deals carries Street Fighter 6 PC, plus Steam Wallet Code (US) and Xbox Live Gift Card (US) for grabbing character and costume DLC on whichever platform you main.
For now, the overall shape of the list is clear: projectile characters are having a moment, grapplers and pure-health archetypes like Zangief are underperforming relative to their raw stats, and Capcom’s nerf-and-buff approach to Mai and Elena shows the devs are still actively tuning the cast rather than letting the meta sit still.
