Expanding upon an earlier post by Rockchalk5477, the bottom ten across all platforms (not including the four DLC characters or Kratos) are, in alphabetical order:

PS3:
Cyber Sub-Zero
Kabal
Kano
Mileena
Quan Chi
Sektor
Shang Tsung
Sheeva
Sindel
Stryker

360:
Cyber Sub-Zero
Jade
Kano
Mileena
Quan Chi
Sektor
Shang Tsung
Sheeva
Sindel
Stryker

PC:
Cyber Sub-Zero
Kano
Mileena
Nightwolf
Quan Chi
Sektor
Shang Tsung
Sheeva
Sindel
Stryker

So the only variations are Jade, Kabal and Nightwolf, and it's the same nine base characters that are always at the bottom.

Mine are:
Sheeva
Quan Chi
Kano
Lui Kang
Jax.

I used Stryker alot.

Some of the stats have got to be messed up.I beat ladder with everyone on every difficulty and themortalkombat.com says that I only played as Reptile 3 times WTF?

The fuck is this bullshit? Do people not go into the lab with them or is people to stuck on "omg who won tournees so i can main dem too!11!" ??

These characters got fun combos. And what's wrong kids? Quan Chi and Shang Tsung too technical for you? I'm especially shocked at Mileena.

Me too. I play Mileena, Sheeva, Jade, Quan, Shang and they are hella fun. This tier thing is ridiculous. We r not playing tournaments we r playing for fun and that's the reason I play with characters nobody else plays. Coz when u pull off some good combos that nobody has seen is so satisfying I mean if someone pulls off Cyrax's 60%+ I go "dayum" but it's sth we've seen before 10000s of times.

Sektor and Shang were my main. LOL.

I am sure at least one of them will make the cut.

I hate people for not playing with Mileena and Sektor and overusing Sonya and Cyrax. And I hate Boon for saying these things about 5 least played characters not making the cut... Just give more attention to the ones not played that much, give Sektor and Mileena a freaking playable role in the storymode for once for example. GIVE THEM THE FREAKING CREDIT THEY DESERVE!

I hope they all burn in scorpions flames.

In general girls in fighting games that are not DOA tend to be far less popular than the guys. That's why the ratio or male to female characters are always so skewed toward the former. So it's not really surprising to only see Sonya and Kitana up there as far as playable ladies go.

That said MK2011 was the first time Mileena was playable and I didn't like her. I played her just as much as Kitana in MK2 and MK3 but she just didn't have it in MK9 for some reason. I found her really awkward to play with.

Freddy ( i didn't buy him ;-P )
Shang Tsung
Skarlet
Cyber Sub Zero
Liu Kang

Reasons why Sonya and Kitana were the most played out of the girls:
1. They were considered top tier in tourneys that is why noobs pick em up thinking they are gonna kick ass anyway.
2. They were the easiest to pick up and learn combos out of the girls imo. I usually play Mileena, Sheeva, Sindel online coz I think they are the most fun to play with if you learn them. Having said that, they were the hardest for me to pick up. Kitana and Sonya had easy combos, faster startups, safer specials. But I tend to go for a challenge so
3.They had a chapter in Story Mode. It's no coincidence that most of the least played characters didn't have a chapter (Kano, Mileena, Quan Chi, Sektor, Shang Tsung, Sheeva, Sindel).
So in general I find it really stupid to base their choice of who they are gonna put in MKX on how much MK9 characters were played. Coz honestly that was affected 100% by how they created and developed each character's moveset and place in the story.

Thought I was the only one who thought milenna was boring. Don't see the fascination with get other than the fact she's half tarkatan. Kitana and Sonya are cool though. But my top 5 are

Sheeva
Shang Tsung
Milenna
Sektor
Sindel.

That's no exuse, for example, Jade is bottom 10 in the Xbox 360 rankings and she's got a chapter in story mode, where characters with no chapter still got played over her. It's not the developers' fault that people care more for Sonya and Kitana than Mileena or Sindel

Sonya
Kitana
Kung Lao
Sektor
raidem

The only reason is: they are awesome chicks and the best ones MK has to offer. It's the truth and happens to be the simple explanation.

Noobs choose Sonya and Kitana because of the easy combos? Guess again. It's called being loyal to a character. The same two female characters have always been the top 2 women of MK. Their combos are different in every game, so the learning curve of combos don't matter. Kitana was freaking weird to master in MKDA, but it made her even more interesting.

Still, being loyal to a character doesn't give you magical points towards being better with the character. I sucked as Kitana in UMK3, but I still love her and always will.

To put it simply, some people are going long distances to "prove" that Sonya and Kitana suck and/or are overrated. Whatever you do, precious children of mine, those two are the queens of MK and nothing is going to change that. Loyalty is the key.

They are the best ones MK has to offer? According to who? You? And that makes it a fact? Please.
And yes, casual fans tend to choose the easiest character to pick up. Even Boon admitted that they tried to make Kitana accessible to new players because in the past games she was harder to pick up.
Also your point about being loyal to a character is just random since EVERY MK fan is loyal to their favorite characters. It just happens that people pick top tier characters in tourneys and online, which eventually makes them more playable than others. So since Kitana has more tools than Jade, of course people would rather pick her in a tournament! What's your point?
Stop being to defensive and childish coz no one "offended" your precious characters. It's just video game characters dude. And I just stated my opinion which I still stand by.
In fact I do like Kitana (don't care for Sonya) and I am talking facts when I'm saying that they were easier to play with than Mileena, Sindel, Jade and Sheeva. Nobody is trying to prove that Mileena or whoever is more popular than Kitana. You're tring to win a match. Do you play as a character who is safer and easier to win with? Or the opposite? It's plain logic -.-

Loyalty has nothing to do with it.
As a person who takes characters into training and discover combos on their own, even I saw the potential in Kitana.

You wanna know why Kitana is mostly played?

Because of shit like this

Look at that variety of attacks. Who the fuck else could do that to that degree?

Kitana is just that awesome in MK9. It's sad that some of the players do nothing but Fan Spam across the stage like it's going to work when she can do so much more.
Why?
Because these combos are not easy. Or at least from the combos I personally learned, I never bothered to insert kicks into her combo and now I got something to think about. But overall, the time window is sooo tight.

Sonya's combos are no joke either, so much button combination to remember to the point that you can easily botch the presses than the timing itself. With Kitana, you have at least little time to think about the next attack. When it comes to special attacks, yes I guess they're pick up and playable or whatever, but the combos is where it's at.

Exactly my point. Kitana was perfect in MK9 gameplay-wise. She had easy short combos that newbies could land AND tricky ones that dealt 50%+ damage. That's why she was more played than a lot of other characters. It's not a matter of popularity. I bet that if Sindel was that good, people would pick her too. I mean Kabal was never that popular but the fact that he was god-tier was the reason why 70% of tourney players chose him. Do people really think that Kabal is the most popular MK character just because he was everywhere in tournaments?

Nah tbh. Sindel seems to be genuinely unpopular but your point still stands. Kitana just has the tools to slay in MK9. Sonya does too although it took much MUCH longer for people to get a handle on Sonya. She really got used more towards the end of MK9's competitive life.

However I do think character loyalty does play a factor in who gets used. Kitana has the tools but she has a history of having the tools. People can go straight to Kitana because they know she'll be a good character regardless as opposed to say Mileena who will be more hit or miss.

I think the unfortunate reality is more popular characters get worked on first so they tend to have more going for them compared to the characters who get done towards the end of the development cycle.

1. Kano
2. Cyber sub-zero
3. Kenshi
4. Raiden
5. Scorpion.

You are so right with that last part. It was soooo obvious that Sheeva was the last character they created in MK9. She felt totally haf-assed and it looked like they didn't even bother to make some effort with her.

Even if Boon was telling the truth [he is known for trolling the fans] there is no way Mileena, Sindel and Sektor are being cut from the series. They're too popular to kill off for good and too important to the series.

I doubt Boon was being completely serious when he said that. He would have backpedaled very quickly if his pet Scorpion was in the Bottom 10.

Despite all the talk about Kitana's gameplay assets, the only tournament player who used her with consistent success did so because he was a loyalist.

Sure, there were other Kitana players early on, but they all fizzled.


Yes and no. If Sindel was top 3, then yeah, I absolutely agree. If Sindel was only as good as Kitana (with Kitana ranking 10th in my personal tier list), then no. I still don't see her getting much tournament play.

I say this because there were characters who were as good if not better than Kitana that still didn't show up in tournaments. Freddy was arguably top 5, yet there was only one committed Freddy player. Liu Kang was HELLA good in MK9, but he had no loyalists. The only times he showed up were for select bad match ups for a few players. I don't think there was a single competitive Raiden player at the end of MK9's tournament run.

I played a lot of characters in MK9, but Sindel was my true secondary. She wasn't even that bad. Thing is, she's one of those characters whose influences shine through heavily, and a lot of people are turned off by that. I think she's awesome personally.

Gonna have to disagree here. Mileena is too popular to go away permanently amidst the general MK populace but Sektor and especially Sindel could easily be thrown away.

Which is a shame since Sektor is probably one of my favorite characters in terms of story.

I'm surprised how many don't think Sindel has good enough combos, she's got some pretty good ones. Sure it takes time to nail them but she's not that bad of a character and I'm not saying this because I'm a fan of hers. She's got some good fast and long combos if done properly.

I never played with Baraka, Jax, Sonya, and Liu Kang.

I Disagree with that premise. just because a character is easy doesn't mean people will use them. it can be simply off who looks more attractive to the person. i could care less if sheeva was the cheesiest and easiest character ever in mk. i still would not use her. why cant you accept the fact that maybe some people like sonya and kitana over milenna. looks wise they are both more attractive to play as. the casual fan who doesn't know much will probably browse the select screen and choose who they think looks the coolest and most attractive to their eye.