Short answers, pulled from the story.
Tekken was developed by Namco and first released in arcades in 1994, followed by a PlayStation port in 1995. It began as an internal Namco project for animating 3D character models before evolving into a full fighting game directed by Virtua Fighter designer Seiichi Ishii.
As of March 2025, the Tekken franchise had shipped 61 million copies worldwide. Tekken 7 is the highest-selling individual entry, with over 12 million copies sold. This makes Tekken the third best-selling fighting game franchise.
The Mishima saga is the central storyline running through the first ten games, concluding with Tekken 8. It follows the conflict between Heihachi Mishima, his son Kazuya, and his grandson Jin Kazama, each seeking to destroy the others and control the Mishima Zaibatsu. The Guinness Book of World Records cited it as early as 2015 as the longest-running video game story without reboots, retcons, or revisions.
Tekken 3 is widely considered the critical peak of the series, holding an average of 96% on GameRankings and ranking among the greatest fighting games of all time. Tekken 2 and Tekken Tag Tournament are also frequent critical candidates, and Katsuhiro Harada himself has called Tekken 4 the best game in the series in interviews related to Tekken 8.
Tekken 7's Fated Retribution update, released to arcades on the 5th of July 2016, introduced Akuma from Street Fighter, Geese Howard from SNK's franchises, Noctis Lucis Caelum from Final Fantasy, and Negan Smith from The Walking Dead as guest characters.
Tekken has been adapted into multiple films and series. A live-action film directed by Dwight Little and starring Jon Foo premiered at the AFI Film Festival on the 5th of November 2009. A Netflix anime series, Tekken: Bloodline, loosely adapting Tekken 3, was released on the 18th of August 2022. Animated films include the 1998 OVA Tekken: The Motion Picture and the 2011 3D film Tekken: Blood Vengeance.