Despite fans begging for Tifa, Final Fantasy 16's Clive is "significantly more popular" than any other Tekken guest fighter

Unbelievably, Clive, the Final Fantasy 16 protagonist with the most ordinary name possible, is the most popular guest character in Tekken 8, and he's even more popular than The Walking Dead's Negan was in Tekken 7.

The Tekken games already have an iconic roster of characters, from protagonists Jin and Mishima to the tiger wrestler King and gun-toting Nina Williams. But, as eclectic and exciting as they are, it doesn't hurt to throw some new faces into the batch from time to time.

For years, we've been begging Harada to put Final Fantasy 7's Tifa into Tekken. The brawler would be a perfect fit for the game, but instead, we got Clive. People didn't react well at the time, but one redditor has proven he's actually been incredibly popular since he was added December 16, 2024.

"First up, the star of this post, Clive Rosfield," writes a redditor who crunched the numbers and discovered which characters are most used in ranked mode. "He's very popular. He's literally the most popular guest character ever. He's significantly more popular than the 2nd most popular guest, Negan. And he's leagues ahead of Noctis. Despite what people said about wanting Tifa, it turns out that tons of people picked up Clive."

Tekken 8 Ranked Leaderboard Statistics - PROMINENCE! (DLC4) from r/Tekken

This speaks to a common problem in games; we simply don't know what we want. Sure, everyone says they want Tifa, but then we still end up using Clive anyway. It helps that a lot of fans have been saying he's easy to learn and overpowered, so it's no wonder he's been dominating the ranked scene for so long – he sits just behind King.

Druganov has been dethroned by Jin, which is good, because Druganov's moves always felt like they were filled with genuine malice. He fights far more viciously than anyone else. I don't know how to describe why, there's just something more sinister to him than anyone else on the roster.

When you're done climbing the ranks in Tekken, check out some of the other best fighting games you can play right now.