Ive always been a fan of both series, I find KOF to be A LOT harder to get really good at… The timing, combos etc.
I think if you look at older KOF games a lot of the reason they weren’t as big here is because of the graphics, KOF looked virtually the SAME for years and SF III and the Alpha series were nice to look at.
KOF is like soccer, popular internationally, but not to America.
I think it’s also because SNK charged so much for a MVS machine back then in the 90s ($500). Also, the KOFs weren’t in consoles back then so people couldn’t get much practice out of it.
Perfect analogy, that may explain why Mexico’s such a huge fan. Only kidding. I feel that the reason KOF became a sleeper series in the States is because it was simply overshadowed by Street Fighter. World Warrior dominated every arcade, laundromat and pizza place across the U.S. and got major console releases on Super Nintendo, Genesis and PC. The level of familiarity people had with Street Fighter as more and more titles came out just alienated them from trying new things. Like why would I want to pick some punk looking guy that throws ground fireballs and twirls around in his uppercut when I can just play Ryu who’s a lot cooler? I may be wrong, I don’t know, haha.
KOF had also many releases in the 90s for Neo Geo, NGCD, Saturn and Playstation 1. there was even a PC version of KOF99, though only in Asia.
Also both Fatal Fury, World Heroes and Art of Fighting got SNES and Genesis releases
Despite this, popularity did not reach that of SF, MK, Tekken etc
it could have been popular through consoles as well.
but in comparison to SF2 conversions, the console ports of those games were inferior. So this set a precedent and prejudice for King of Fighters too, despite being a better game. Fatal Fury unfortunately wasnt known for being developed by the original SF team or else more people might have played it
the most popular SNK title in the USA were Samurai Spirits.
Then it’s a good thing most of their games are ported then 
CPSII boards were just same or easier to copy than MVS cartridge, In México, you could see a lot of of SFZero and MVC bad copies withouth background music in stages in any small commerce, was the game finally ended boring to people, also, some years ago you could see a lot arcade sites with both games (KOF98 and SFAlpha 3), the first with rows to play, the second with luck some times was people playing. Actually, only new people in fighting games plays SSFIV in México, but people “old school” doesn’t like this game for be very basic. Piracy is only a false myth.
The mainly difference is because Capcom makes a lot of marketing in USA with a lot of animes, SNKP doesn’t nothing for promote his games, in South América a game be alive only by his features, I could safely say if Capcom doesn’t do any marketing in USA SF could lost a lot popularity as happen in Mexico and South America.
KOF is popular around the world but not in USA, and people thinks for this reason this game is not popular, only see GGPO or ArcLive, KOF are the most full rooms.
You’d better not tell this guy that:
It really is my great regret that KOF and SNK is small time in North America, sure there are some hold outs who would say nuh uh, but come on, Marvel and ST get all the love and is pretty much intertwined with the American mindset of what is a fighting game. I agree with the above poster who stated that anyone who doesn’t enjoy the Garou/Samsho games is only doing themselves a disservice. Especially since they are so easy to get now for console. The Samsho collection was all platform except fro DS a few years back this was unbelievable/ undoable. So I suppose SNK games are doing better as America is able to get these realeases now but it still feels like SNK has an uphill battle ahead of them.
Hopefully the Dream match KOF14 will be done right, that is what I really want from SNK. If I ever win a major lottery I would go so far as to guarantee money for that IP to be done right. Just need to head to Osaka to talk to some SNK higher ups.
Speaking of uphill battles, take, for example, the movie Wreck-It-Ralph. This Disney movie had cameos from both Namco and Capcom fighting games (most notably Chun Li, Zangief, and Dictator/Bison), but not a single appearance by any SNK characters. SNK missed a huge opportunity to re-introduce itself to Americans right there and get a ton of royalties from Disney.
I mean, yeah, it’s a Disney movie, but it’s little things like that from an image perspective that make it an uphill battle for them. Whoever does SNK’s marketing in the USA doesn’t do a very good job at all.
I don’t think they have one anymore, that’s why atlus was doing everything for XIII. West and East Coast offices are no more.
And that’s SNK’s problem right there. Without a significant marketing presence in this country, they will be ignored.
SKN/P fighting games are like Kylie Minogue and Thalia, LOVED around the world except USA, they always been and they always will be.
Get used to it once for all.
Proud player of SNK fighting games since 1990, but realistic guy too.