VGChartz's Chinh Tran: "By looking at a list of fighting games this year, you may notice the lack of certain key franchises like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, or Smash Bros. Instead, the void was filled by relatively smaller fighting titles and several key newcomers. Despite this, however, fighter fans were still kept busy, particularly by the finalists.
DNF Duel from Arc System Works successfully reinvented the classic Dungeon Fighter series as a fighter by adopting simple-to-learn mechanics without sacrificing depth. Player First Games took the fighting world by storm with MultiVersus, allowing players to finally decide whether LeBron James can take on Superman, or Tom and Jerry can defeat Arya Stark. SNK also released The King of Fighters XV, building upon its storied franchise in both new and familiar ways. Finally, WWE 2K22 saw the series return to form after its disastrous predecessor."