The challenge: Legacy brand recognition, new user base

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Street Fighter is a global household name, but legacy brand recognition does not always translate into mobile downloads, particularly in markets where casual gaming behaviour, payment preferences, and content consumption habits differ significantly from the franchise's traditional console audiences.

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Capcom needed a strategy that would re-engage long-standing fans, while opening the door to new mobile-first players who may have only a passing familiarity with the franchise.

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The campaign also had to perform in a pre-launch window, where the only conversion event available was registration, not purchase or active play.

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The strategy

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Two pillars shaped the campaign:

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Data-driven audience targeting

‍Using our proprietary audience data, the team identified users showing strong affinity signals to the Street Fighter franchise and adjacent fighting game titles, alongside lookalike segments built from existing Capcom player profiles. This allowed media spend to be concentrated on users with the highest probability of registering and converting to active players post-launch.

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Localised creative for greater resonance

‍Rather than running a single regional master asset, the team produced creative variants tailored to each market's language, cultural references, and platform preferences. This included localised character spotlights, regional voice-over treatments, and platform-native ad formats designed for short-form video consumption.

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The results

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The campaign delivered over one million pre-registrations ahead of launch and Street Fighter: Duel became the most downloaded mobile game in the target markets during its launch window.

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The Street Fighter: Duel launch is a useful case study in two often under-leveraged ideas. First, even the most globally recognisable IP benefits from genuine localisation, not just translation. Second, pre-registration campaigns work hardest when audience targeting is built on real affinity signals, rather than broad gaming interest categories. For brands with long histories looking to reach new mobile audiences, the lesson is to treat heritage as a starting point, not a finish line.

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Whether you're reviving a legacy IP or launching a brand-new title, our gaming specialists help publishers find, engage, and convert the right players across Southeast Asia and beyond. Speak to us.