Street Fighter 6 launched with 18 different characters that come with unique fighting styles that set them apart from one another. While some of the characters belong to a general archetype, the small details make the difference and make them more or less effective, depending on the situation and the matchup.

　　Even without considering personal skills and matchup knowledge, some characters in Street Fighter 6 are clearly above the others and have an easier time racking up wins. The meta, however, will shift as the developer introduces balance changes, so consider this tier list as a sort of journal that chronicles how competitive Street Fighter 6 will change for the duration of its lifespan.

Launch Window

　　The characters most Street Fighter 6 players will be more familiar with during the launch window are the eight that were available in the three betas - Luke, Jaime, Kimberly, Ryu, Ken, Guile, Chun-Li, and Juri. While the final version of the game introduced changes to all of them over the older builds, they don't significantly change how they play, so those that were extremely strong in the betas remain just as good in the final version of the game.

　　In my opinion, Guile will continue to be extremely dominant for the game's first season. His normals are great, his projectiles allow him to control space effectively, and his target combos make it easy to get a charge for Sonic Booms and Somersault Kicks and deal tons of damage. Guile also has an overhead that can start combos if canceled from a Drive Rush, and a Level 2 Super, Solid Puncher, which can lead to long combos in the corner, better space control in the neutral, and even some mix-up options. The only options Guile lack in Street Fighter 6 are a command grab and a divekick, but he really doesn't need them, as every other option he has is extremely strong and will make fighting against an expert player a nightmare.

　　Juri was also considered among the best characters in the Street Fighter 6 betas, and I think this will still hold true for the first season. Much like Guile, Juri has some great normals, excellent damage, a unique fireball that can help break through Drive Impact armor, an invincible reversal, and a fast divekick whose Overdrive version has decent corner carry. The only thing that may make her less viable than Guile is that she is way more complex to use, as you will need to find the time and space to store Fuha charges to unleash the maximum damage she can deal.

　　Ease of use is also what is going to limit the popularity of Chun-Li. On paper, she is as good as Guile and Juri, and possibly even better thanks to the damage she can unleash by spending resources and what she can get from a bad jump-in, but with her stances mechanics, using her properly requires a lot of practice.

　　Luke, Ryu and Ken are, in my opinion, equally good, but for slightly different reasons. All three of them belong to the shoto archetype, whose gameplay revolves around using fireballs and punishing jump-ins with their Dragon Punches, but their execution of the archetype is wildly different. Both Luke and Ryu are somewhat easy to use, but Luke is a little trickier to get max damage due to his Flash Knuckle special move, which comes with just-release mechanics. By releasing the button at the right time, the move will be more powerful and allow for more damaging combo routes, but even without perfect execution, Luke can still deal plenty of damage. Many of his normals also make him move forward, making the neutral game slightly easier. Ryu, on the other hand, is much easier to use than Luke, and can unleash tons of damage with some relatively straightforward combos. His fireball game is also much better than Luke's and Ken's, and with a Denjin-charged Hadoken, he has an easier time mixing fireballs up to confuse the opponent and control space, although not as Guile can.

　　Compared to the other two shotos, Ken is more rushdown oriented and has tons of excellent conversions that can lead to knockdowns without spending meter, excellent corner carry with his run-powered Shoryuken and Tatsumaki Senpukyaku, and very good damage. His run-powered Shoryuken is also invincible, making him the only character in Street Fighter 6 with a meterless invincible reversal, although risky. This, however, makes him strong against careless zoners, as you can use it to get through fireballs and long-reaching normal. Unlike the other two characters, however, Ken doesn't have an overhead that can be canceled from Drive Rush, but his mix-up potential is still decent without it, thanks to his Dragonlash Kick, whose heavy version is +1 on block, and Jinrai Kick, which can be canceled into three different follow-ups, one of them an overhead. So, all three of these characters are strong in their own right and can hold their own against the majority of the cast, but I don't think they will be as dominant as Guile and Juri.

　　The remaining beta characters, Kimberly and Jaime, are some weird ones. Kimberly was generally considered one of the best characters in the betas, and I somewhat agree, although her strength was mostly due to how no one knew how to deal with her tricky setups and mix-ups. While she will remain a strong character, thanks to all of her options and great normals, I feel she will start dropping in the tier list once people figure her out and learn how to use the Drive-powered defensive options properly. To make an example, in offline play, I started reacting to her dashes with Blanka's crouching light punch, which is not particularly fast, so I believe that Kimberly won't be as scary as she was in the beta once players start learning her shenanigans and how to counter them.

　　Jaime is another character that I feel will be in a weird position due to his Drink mechanics, which ultimately put him at a disadvantage. The character can drink and increase his power level four times, each time increasing his damage and getting access to new special moves. The problem is that, at level 0 and level 1, Jaime deals less damage than the other characters, 20% and 10% less, respectively. To drink safely and increase his level, he has to give up on pressuring the opponent on knockdown, something that no character has to do, so Jaime has to win two interactions to deal the same damage everyone else can from the start of the round. The weird thing is that another character powered by similar mechanics, Manon, doesn't deal less damage if she hasn't powered-up. Worse yet, Jaime starts each round at level 0, something that, again, doesn't happen with Manon, as she can keep her medal levels between rounds. At level 4, Jaime is incredibly strong, but working his way towards that will prove to be challenging, especially against oppressive zoners like Guile, Dhalsim, and, most of all, JP and rushdown characters who are always in your face like Dee Jay, Cammy, and Ken.

　　With the eight characters featured in the Street Fighter 6 beta out of the way, things start to get a lot murkier due to the limited matchup knowledge and playtime against competent players, so my analysis from here on out will not be as in-depth as it was for the first eight characters.

　　Sticking to the newcomers, they all show quite a bit of potential. In the first few weeks of the game, I feel Marisa and Lily will be the so-called scrub-killers, characters who can easily defeat players with limited knowledge of the matchup. Both of them have normals and special moves that leave them positive on block, allowing them to continue pressuring the opponent. Many of Marisa's special moves can also break armor and punish those who try to Drive Impact recklessly, and she even has a counter move for high attacks that can do great against players who attempt to pressure when they really shouldn't. Lily doesn't have any of these tools, but she will still be quite strong, as her normals have amazing reach, and a nicely spaced Condor Spire leaves her plus on block, allowing her to continue pressuring and mixing up the opponent (her command grab has five frames of startup, so it's extremely fast). The only thing that may get a bit in the way is the fact that she needs to use Condor Wind to store Windclad stocks that power her up, and some characters may shut her off at various ranges.

　　JP and Manon will also be, in my opinion, very strong characters in the right hands. Only expert players, however, will be able to use JP to his full potential, as his ranged attacks have a ton of recovery and leave him wide open to jump-ins. He's also weak at close range, despite some decent normals, and lacks a good invincible reversal (he has one, but that doesn't push the opponent away enough, installing a time bomb into the opponent instead), so if the player cannot use his unique ranged attacks well, which also include a ranged command grab and also let him teleport around the screen, JP will have a hard time against most of the cast.

　　On the other hand, Manon is a character that I think has a very good chance of being one of the best characters in the game. She really has it all: great normals, which can be used to strike easy knockdowns from jump-ins and move the enemy closer, a command grab that becomes more powerful as Manon's medal level increases, and some great special moves that move her closer to the opponent and can catch them unaware. Compared to other grapplers, like Zangief, she's also extremely easy to use, so everything really seems to be aligned properly to make her one of the strongest characters in the game. Only time will tell if the rest of the cast has the right tool to stop her rise to dominance.

　　Street Fighter 6 sees the return of all eight World Warriors, and all of them have changed considerably since their classic iterations. The one I feel has been expanded the most is E. Honda. While his turtling playstyle is still what defines him in Street Fighter 6, he has a lot of other options that make him a better-rounded character, such as a sort of command dash with a few follow-ups and a launcher for some juggling combos and his two V-Skills from Street Fighter V that let him better deal with fireballs and power-up his iconic Hundred Slaps, which is no longer a piano input so it's much easier to execute. Where he is lacking is his anti-air options, as is tradition, but with some mix-up options, including a powerful command grab that doesn't move him to the other side of the screen and lets him continue pressuring the opponent on wake up with Drive Rush, I think E.Honda is going to surprise a lot of players.

　　Blanka, on the other hand, has changed less than E. Honda but still received a fair amount of new options that I think make him much better than his middling Street Fighter V iteration. His shenanigans are back in full force, including a Backstep Rolling Attack whose direction can be controlled and can, once again, crossup even without spending meter, and have been increased thanks to additions such as the Aerial Rolling Attack, a unique divekick that can be used only during back jumps which can be spaced right to be plus on block, and the Blanka-chan Bomb, which acts a sort of projectile that can only be used three times per round. What I think makes the difference this time around is what he can get by anti-airing with standing heavy kick. On counter hit, this attack leaves the opponent in a juggle state, allowing Blanka to follow up with Rolling Attacks or with Wild Lift off his Coward Crouch, striking a knockdown that can lead to mix-ups with ambiguous Backstep Rolling Attacks. Add in Lighting Beast, which works like his V-Trigger 2 from Street Fighter V, and that can easily put a blocking opponent in Burnout state, and some surprisingly solid normals, and you get a recipe for a character that can be dangerous, even without his typical tricks.

　　Rounding up the returning characters from Street Fighter II's very first iteration are Zangief and Dhalsim. Unlike E. Honda and Blanka, they haven't changed much since their Street Fighter V days, and their position on the tier list will ultimately depend, in my opinion, on how the Drive system will be used to enhance their playstyles. Zangief, if anything, has some explosive damage. His Spinning Piledriver is as strong as it has ever been, and with Drive Impacts leaving a long window of opportunity, I can see the character being a nightmare for those who like to use that move over and over. The only downside is that Zangief gets thrown to the other side of the screen once he scores a command grab, so he will have to get it again, which he can somewhat do it more easily, thanks to the Drive mechanics. He also has a decent reversal option with Overdrive Lariat, so he definitely feels slightly better rounded this time around, although I anticipate his traditionally difficult matchups will still be an uphill battle, such as Guile, Dhalsim, and most likely JP.

　　Having never played Dhalsim properly, I really can't predict where he will stand in the Street Fighter 6 tier list. As mentioned above, he feels a lot like his Street Fighter V iteration, mixing some excellent ranged normals and projectiles with confusion teleports, which are now easier to execute, and his Yoga Mummy and Drill Kick divekicks, which can be spaced for some pressure opportunities. What I think will damage Dhalsim a lot are the systemic changes in Street Fighter 6, compared to previous entries in the series. With all normals being easier to whiff punish, and Drive Rush cancels, Dhalsim can get punished badly for whiffing his long-reaching normals, and expert players will make sure they will at all times to shut off what are some of his most effective offensive tools.

　　Two characters who made their debut in Super Street Fighter II also return in Street Fighter 6: Cammy and Dee Jay. For Cammy, there isn't a whole lot to say, as she plays like the rushdown character she has always been, with great movement speed, excellent normals, and the basic yet effective strike-throw mixup that made her so strong for so long in Street Fighter V. Both her damage and mix-up potential have been enhanced with the ability to hold the button to slightly power-up Spiral Arrow, and Cannon Spike, and with Hooligan Combination, a forward-jumping special move with multiple follow-ups. However, I feel this special move isn't particularly effective, as regular anti-airs are more than enough to stop it and leave Cammy in a juggle state, but only time and better Cammy players than me will tell if Hooligan Combination will be a useful weapon in the character's arsenal.

　　On the other hand, Dee Jay has changed completely, turning from the almost incomplete character he was in the Street Fighter IV series into a force to be reckoned with. He has finally become the rushdown version of Guile he was always meant to be, with strong and fast projectiles, an effective charged reversal, great normals that move him forward with ease, such as his heavy standing punch, and explosive damage. Add in some feints that can be really confusing to deal with, and tons of combo routes, you get the recipe for a strong and versatile character that I feel will be among the best in the game.

　　As you can tell, Street Fighter 6 looks like an extremely well-balanced game, so I feel many of the characters will be competitively viable. As of now, when the game is still young, I feel like Jaime will be the only character that will somewhat struggle due to his unique mechanics that automatically put him at a disadvantage at the start of each round, but even then, in expert hands, he will likely be strong enough to hold his own against most of the cast.