The meta takes some time to settle, but some players have figured out the overall tier list for Street Fighter ٦! Check it out.
Fresh off the YouTube ovens, two high-level Street Fighter ٦ players, Kizzie Kay and Nephew, collaborated to talk about the Street Fighter ٦ meta. If you're looking for a quick tier list for all the SF6 characters, look on below and keep reading for more explanation.
Street Fighter ٦ Season ٢ Tier List
M. Bison just came out, so they were not quite ready to place him on the tier list yet. Overall feel is to put him quite high on the A tier. He has great conversions and good walk speed.
S Tier - Guile, Ken, Rashid, Akuma
Guile has hardly any bad matchups; he's an extremely stable character and he can feel very cheap to play against, with his Sonic Boom Drivers. The chip damage on it is great too. Ken hardly got nerfed since the last season, and he has really good corner carry with good okizeme, punish counter, and so on.
Rashid has been winning big tournaments, with his amazing neutral, solid toolkit, and a very strong Level ٢ super. Akuma in S tier is a bit tentative, though lots of Japanese players are using him.
A Tier - A.K.I., Blanka, Juri, JP, Zangief, Chun-Li, Luke, Dee Jay, Cammy, Marisa
It's a bit tough to settle on A.K.I.'s placement, but she's a pretty dominating character especially if she can put her opponent in burnout. She has solid pokes, blockstrings, and very strong damage once she gets poison going.
Blanka has received some damage nerfs (considering he could burst down characters extremely quickly), but he's overall extremely solid. Chun-Li's position is a bit more tenacious now, but she is a notoriously difficult character to use. Her movespeed is still pretty good.
Juri is very strong as well, but she struggles a lot against Guile. She isn't affected too much by the universal nerf to light attacks. JP has definitely fallen off from what he used to be; lots of people dropped the character as his main. But it doesn't mean you can't win with him anymore.
Zangief fans are on the rise, as he's definitely looking solid now. Use forward MK, as it's always safe.
Luke has just received some nerfs, bringing him more in line with other characters.
Dee Jay's gameplan is still strong, but the damage nerfs brought him down to more reasonable levels. Cammy has her anti-projectile move nerfed a good amount, but she remains a strong character nonetheless.
Marisa is a fairly volatile character with some mediocre anti-airs, but her damage got even better and she should be pretty strong this season.
B Tier - Lily, Dhalsim, Kimberly, Ed, Ryu, Jamie
Lily received a new wake-up option, which is a huge deal for her, as well as increased damage. She is quite close to being an A-tier character, really.
Kimberly also has better combo routes now, but she's still struggling to rise up in the rank. She's probably stronger than other B tier characters, but not by a whole lot.
Ed is overall a fairly strong character, but his slow reversal and anti-airs are glaring weaknesses. Ryu received some good buffs, but he is still overshadowed by top tiers like Akuma and Ken.
Jamie didn't get too many buffs, but it will definitely be more challenging to beat out the stronger characters. For Dhalsim, the biggest change is the universal wake-up Drive Reversal to get people off him.
C Tier - Honda, Manon
Honda is still on the strugglebus, unfortunately. Even A tier characters like Luke and Dee Jay, who got toned down, give him a lot of trouble. Overall, he doesn't have many strong matchups, maybe Blanka at most.
Manon hasn't received any worthwhile buffs, so even though she felt comparably a B-tier character last season, she is falling behind now. Without significant changes, she's a good deal weaker than the rest of the cast.
Of course, keep in mind that a tier list is a subjective listing of relative character strength. The meta feels relatively healthy in SF6 now, with just a few character falling behind. But the majority of the cast is fairly evenly matched with a couple of strong outliers. The meta can develop more in this season, but without patches or bigger changes, it should remain fairly close to this.