Tekken 7 runs great on PC, and online matchmaking has been excellent so far

The legendary arcade quarter-eater Tekken has come to PC for the first time with Tekken 7, which is out on Steam as of yesterday. We’ll have a full review up next week, but we couldn’t let you go into the weekend without taking a first look at the PC version's performance.

In short: it’s rad like a cage-fighting panda bear. I was pleased to see Tekken 7 running at 60 fps (which it's locked to) at 1920x1080 on Ultra settings on my GTX 970. It includes a good set of standard graphics settings, as well as little extras such as an FPS counter. And there’s a huge gulf between Ultra and Low graphics options, which means that players on lower-end systems can probably still run Tekken quite well if they’re willing to give up some of the flash.

Unfortunately, while ultrawide resolutions can be selected in fullscreen mode, they result in black bars. Standard 16:9 1440p and 4K resolutions, though, are good to go.

Tekken 7 completely lacks any kind of mouse support. This is really common with these kinds of ports, but that doesn’t make it any less baffling. Navigating menus is frustrating and tedious using keyboard hotkeys—all the more so because hotkey reminders and helpful prompts reference controller button configurations. During one early practice match I had to quit all the way out to the main menu just to look up a key binding (it was V for some reason).

But let’s be real: if you’re bringing a keyboard to a Tekken fight, you’re not really taking this thing seriously. I had no issues switching between my keyboard and my controller (fight sticks also work), and the controller experience was immediately much better.

On the evening of launch, the matchmaking servers were chock-full of players. I never had to wait longer than 15 seconds or so before I found a match. In terms of time from start of matchmaking to the first punch thrown, Tekken clocks in around the same as Rocket League. Not instant, but not a slog, either. 

Most of the games I played had great connections with no noticeable lag. Two of the games, though, appeared to have some connection hiccups. Even though lag spikes are a bummer, Tekken does a great job of recognizing and adjusting for them: the game seems to pause for both players for a half-second or so, then resume once the connection stabilizes. In one game, this happened often enough to be annoying, but neither player got a competitive advantage from lag.

Some Steam users are reporting a problem loading the game—an error tracing back to a problem with the C++ executable—but it doesn’t seem to be widespread and a quick update appears to solve it. Other than that, I haven't seen the forums rioting over any one big error, so I think that counts as a win.

Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Tekken’s large file size. System requirements warn players to have at least 60GB set aside, and my install size clocked in at just over 57GB. This isn’t exactly a performance issue, but it may be a problem for people perpetually battling full hard drives. You’re going to have to clean house to free up some space for this one.

Look for PC Gamer's full review of Tekken 7 next week.

Latest in Action
Monster Hunter Wilds' stockpile master studying a manifest
Monster Hunter Wilds' new gyro controls are a fantastic option for disabled and able-bodied players alike
Manhunt 2
I played the notoriously ratings-board-ravaged Manhunt 2 and was quite glad for the censorship actually
Commander Shepard in Mass Effect 3.
Mass Effect's Jennifer Hale, who played femshep, 'saw no line' before she recorded them for Bioware's flagship trilogy: 'It was all cold reading on the spot'
A hunter hefts a massive Mega Barrel Bomb in Monster Hunter Wilds.
Monster Hunter Wilds players can't stop blowing themselves to smithereens with its rollable barrel bombs
A hunter poses with a large hammer as their palico cheers nearby in Monster Hunter Wilds.
Monster Hunter Wilds weapon tier list
Naoe looking at the wrist blade in Assassin's Creed Shadows
Ubisoft backflips, says Assassin's Creed Shadows will support Steam Deck at launch, but I doubt I'll actually want to play it there
Latest in Features
Monster Hunter Wilds' stockpile master studying a manifest
Monster Hunter Wilds' new gyro controls are a fantastic option for disabled and able-bodied players alike
Manhunt 2
I played the notoriously ratings-board-ravaged Manhunt 2 and was quite glad for the censorship actually
A busy marketplace in The Bazaar.
The Bazaar could be the future of autobattlers, if it stops strangling itself to death with its own microtransactions
Marvel Rivals characters - Hulk with his hands out as if he's grabbing the camera.
Marvel Rivals' growing roster of heroes scares me, but the game's director seems sure that all is under control: 'Everything is progressing smoothly'
Rainbow Six Siege year 9 season 2 key art - two Rainbow Six Siege operators facing each other
'Siege 2 was never on the table': Rainbow Six Siege X director explains why the 10-year-old FPS doesn't need a sequel
Gallica and the protagonist from Metaphor: ReFantazio.
The best deals in the 2025 Steam Spring Sale