Mortal Kombat 1 hits nearly 3 million copies sold: how it compares to previous MK games

Mortal Kombat has been doing well commercially, according to NetherRealm Studios’ parent company Warner Bros. Discovery. Let’s take a look at its launch sales and compare them to previous titles in the series.

Warner Bros. Discovery disclosed the sales of MK1 during its earnings call for the third quarter ended September 30. As CEO David Zaslav told investors, Mortal Kombat 1 has sold nearly 3 million copies since its launch on September 19.

“In 2023 we’ve released two of the industry’s top 10 console games, including the number one game released this year, Hogwarts Legacy, and we still have the Switch version to come, launching next week,” he said.

Mortal Kombat 1 received positive reviews from critics, with a Metascore ranging from 82 (PC) to 85 (Xbox). The game currently has a “Mostly Positive” rating on Steam, with 74% of more than 10k user reviews being positive. It also peaked at 38,129 concurrent players on the platform, making it one of the top 3 titles in the genre by that metric.

Another major fighting game of 2023, Street Fighter 6, also had a strong launch, selling over 1 million copies in its first three days. According to Capcom’s list of platinum titles, it reached 2.4 million copies sold across all platforms (as of June 30).

Mortal Kombat 1 sales compared to previous games in the series

It is hard to directly compare Mortal Kombat 1’s figures to launch sales of previous entries in the series due to the lack of official data.

For example, Mortal Kombat (2011) sold 1 million copies in its first month and reached 3 million units sold globally by the end of 2011.

According to SuperData, Mortal Kombat 11 sold 1.8 million units digitally by the end of April 2019 (the game came out on April 23), and Mortal Kombat X reached 400k digital copies sold at launch.

At the time, MK11 had the best digital launch in the series’ history. The game surpassed 8 million copies sold in October 2020.

So Mortal Kombat 1’s launch sales seem strong compared to its predecessors.

The entire Mortal Kombat franchise has sold over 80 million copies globally, including the new data for MK1. Below are the lifetime sales of previous MK titles (note that figures might be higher as some are outdated):

• Mortal Kombat 11 (2019) — 15 million copies sold (as of October 2022)
• Mortal Kombat X (2015) — over 12 million copies sold (as of March 2019)
• Mortal Kombat (2011) — 4 million copies (as of January 2013, lifetime sales are likely higher)
• Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (2008) — over 1.9 million copies (as of December 31, 2008)
• Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (2006) — 1 million copies shipped (as of January 2007)
• Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks (2005)  — over 1 million copies shipped (as of January 2007)
• Mortal Kombat: Deception (2004) — 1.9 million copies shipped (as of October 2005)
• Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance (2002) — 3.5 million copies sold (as of April 2011)