By Sagar V. Mankar 
Mortal Kombat 1 continues to thrive as NetherRealm Studios celebrates the game’s impressive milestone of over 5 million units sold since its launch in September 2023.
Ed Boon, co-creator of the franchise and chief creative officer at NetherRealm, shared the news on January 21 via X/Twitter, while also hinting at future downloadable content (DLC) for the game.
Boon expressed gratitude to fans, noting that Mortal Kombat 1 remains among the top 15 most-played games on PlayStation 5, according to Circana’s Player Engagement Tracker. However, the game has not appeared in similar rankings for Xbox or Steam. Despite this, the continued popularity on PS5 highlights the game’s ongoing success.
(4 of 7) With over 5 million games sold, seeing Mortal Kombat 1 still in the top 15 most played Playstation 5 games makes us very grateful to Mortal Kombat fans. Thanks for continuing to support NetherRealm Studios games! pic.twitter.com/1BvH5gVLOW
— Ed Boon (@noobde) January 21, 2025
Back in August, the game reached 4 million copies sold, meaning it took about five months to add another million to its total. However, it lead among the recent fighting games like Street Fighter 6 sold 4.1 million copies by November 2024, while Tekken 8 hit 2 million in its first month.
Overall, Mortal Kombat remains the best-selling fighting game franchise, with total sales exceeding 84 million units since 1992. This surpasses Super Smash Bros. [75 million], Tekken [57 million], and Street Fighter [55 million].
In addition to the sales announcement, Boon discussed recent and upcoming DLC fighters. Conan the Barbarian, the 11th DLC character, was released on January 21, while the T-1000 Terminator is slated as the next addition to the roster. Although rumors suggested that DLC plans might end due to lukewarm reception of Kombat Pack 2 and the Khaos Reigns expansion, Boon reassured fans that more content is in development. “We are excited to keep trucking forward with future DLC,” he stated.
(5 of 7) With Conan getting into player’s hands, we are excited to keep trucking forward with future DLC ! pic.twitter.com/eC3Aqj5KDc
— Ed Boon (@noobde) January 21, 2025
A known leaker previously claimed that plans for Kombat Pack 3 and a second story expansion were canceled. However, they suggested that additional “kameo” fighters could still be added due to existing development work. NetherRealm has not officially addressed these rumors. Boon’s updates and the game’s performance signal that the Mortal Kombat legacy is far from over.