Darkstalkers got some play at my local arcade at the time. When Nightwarrior arrived, the cabinet was empty like most of the time. It was the same thing with 94 and 95.
It’s true but the difference between Blazblue and FF is that Final Fantasy has a budget in the millions to back it up (and it shows), I mean yeah they’re are a couple of gems out there but I’ve yet to see a RPG series come along and blow FF out of the water in all aspects of Voice overs, dialogue, cutscenes, graphics, gameplay, etc (I still think FF12 is one of the best games I ever played)… but that doesn’t mean I won’t give other games the time of day, imo of course 
and I still take KOF over everything else
When i visited my grandparents in Chile KOF, Mortal Combat, and MvC were all popular in the arcades. I think the KoF was 94,
Now they have Arcades that run like 1000 emulators and you can playEvery KOF from 94-2000, SvC chaos, MvC, MvC2 , SF2, CvS2. Plus a bunch of other crappy games… and classics.
I dont get how KoF wasnt popular in the states yet South America got into it in the 90’s also.
My brother and i Even owned a Neo Geo with Art of Fighting and KoF and im not even sure how we heard about it??? probably through video game magazines.
KOF94 was ok, that was kind of the only high quality fighters out there other than the overplayed sf2 series.
When KOF95 came out it was an instant hit, there were so many lined up to challenge through out the whole day, it was insane.
95 was amazing
kof 95 was good, but the damage level is way too high.
From my experience in Socal…
KOF 94 was ok
KOF 95 was better. Started to develop a niche
KOF 96 killed it
Samurai Showdown 1 was ok
Samurai Showdown 2 was everywhere. Big hit.
Samurai Showdown 3 really killed the momentum.
I do remember KOF being big in south america.
Famitsu made '95 their game of the year, was huge all over the world especially in Asia and Latin America. Was a hit in London too.
Persona 3 and 4. Amazing.
But this is a fighting game forum! Back on topic!
94 had Heidern, so it was amazing! HEEEEIIIIIIDEEEEERRRRN!!!