I think I’ve fought maybe 3-4 Dans since SF4’s PC release in Summer 2009.
There are way more Gens, Giefs, Sakuras, Roses, Claws, Rufus’, Elfs, Sims, Feis, Sagats (Sagat is pretty rare compared to the other flowchart chars) and even Vipers.
It’s pretty good mixed up here in Middle Europe.
Of course there is sometimes Ryu army. My all-time record is 6 Ryus in a row. ^^ But I don’t get annoyed then. It’s matchup practice. 
But there is also a good amount of Blanka players and most of them are crappy and disconnect when recognizing u know the matchup.
I also face (in turn) a lot of Kens, Chuns and Boxers/Dics/Abels/Cammies.
I think it varies people seem to change pretty much monthly, you always get the usual Ryu,Ken Sagat abuse but at the start of the year I was getting nothing but Cammy and Bison, now its more like Balrog and Gief every time I play with a few Blanka’s here and there. Will be interesting to see what happens with an additional 10 characters to use or “ignore” in super. I’ve only ever played 1 Dan and I won pretty easily, I’m sure a good one would stomp me, I probably know jack about him really due to lack of play.
Usually I make it a rule to not use the popular characters but at the same time Ryu is my best/ favorite one. Dont worry, I don’t DP everything lol. Other than that I go for the offbeats like Abel(although he’s getting there), Chun Li and Dan.
Is their an unwritten law that always when someone takes half an eternity during char-selection screen it’s Ken or Ryu? Never seen another char than that when someone lets time lapse away.
Correct me if I’m wrong here, but from a P1 point of view, doesnt your cursor start on Abel and only P2 starts on Ryu?
For me it looks like it depends on daytime. When i play on weekend afternoon its: ryu, ken, blanka. Late at night Akumas spread out 
My friend plays G1, looks like it’s much better there. You fight every character available.
I actually became curious about the popularity of various characters online in this game and have been keeping track for the last week or so. After 480 matches the top 4 characters I fight are:
Ryu 77 times
Ken 77 times
Akuma 52 times
Sagat 39 times
The bottom 4 are:
Viper 3 times
Seth 2 times
Dan 2 times
Gen 1 time
I’ve seen people pick random (5 times) more then those 4 characters.
Gaymores of today just want to WIN!!, it’s all they care about. Like it actually means something in an endeavor as pointless and childish as video games.
Hence, they all gravitate to the characters that will deliver these ‘wins’. This is why today’s gaming is so boring and skill devoid.
Lol i played a very good Viper the other night. Was gdlk!
I just found out you can look at your vs. character statistics, pretty entertaining. Just go to character record under player data then change category for those who don’t know. I’ll post top 5 and bottom 5 for kicks.
In 4391 matches I’ve seen:
936 Ryu
487 Ken
376 Sagat
364 Akuma
267 Chun (though this is terribly inflated due to Chun vs Chun training)
Next two are Blanka and Balrog as exptected, at 220ish
Bottom 5:
82 Fuerte
75 Rufus
70 Gen
65 Rose
60 Dan
Everyone else is between like 100-160. Except Guile, I’ve seen slightly less Guile than Rog.
i randomly play champ mode and player match mode, (used to be exclusively champ mode but now player mode more than that)
and the characters i see the least of atm are something like
viper
dhalsim
gen
dan
im kinda glad i dont see many sims to be honest as i main sim myself and sim vs sim has gotta be one of the most ridiculous match ups in the game imo. ill have to check my statistics thing to see if im right i imagine theres a couple of those that are different from how i remember them in my head.
i really want to pick up dudley when super comes out but am dreading to thinkhow many other dud players im gonna be fighting against. so hopefully ibuki will be less popular as i couldnt stand playing mirrors all the time. im already sick of playing ryu nonstop
I’ve fought more dans and gens than rufus’ for some reason.
when facing random people, it’s generally shotos and shoto-likes…but i have also faced fei longs, abels, roses, giefs, dics, claws, boxers, ONE fuerte, one seth.
I got a viper with one friend, rufus with another, gen with another, cammy and chun from someone i know in person.
I get scrubby fuertes all the time that just spam the same head slam move. Of course i know a way around it with my main being sim, but when they see its not working they basically cant do anything against me except spam their normals lol.
I always thought how better SF4 would be only if…the harder-to-use chars were top tier, and viceversa. You would earn the privilege to main a top tier just if you would have the skills to do it.
But I guess Capcom has too much pride on their icons, oh well.
Maining Fei and not looking forward to change it. But believe me I DO get frustrated at certain matchups, but in others is all fun even if I lose
lucky you even face fuertes. they’re fun to play against at least, like mind fuck frustration, not Shoto BS frustration.
Sadly I tend to agree, there is a reason I delegate most Ryu players to the title Scrubby Nubby. Mostly because I am sick and tired of fighting the Ryu army.