Mortal Kombat creator Ed Boon’s X poll shows Xbox’s Killer Instinct leading

Killer Instinct has remained largely dormant over the last few years, featuring only an occasional update and balance change from a small team at Xbox. According to Windows Central, the player base for the fighting game is miniscule today, likely numbering in the dozens rather than hundreds based on Steam statistics.

Ed Boon Polls Social Media Users on Fighting Game Revivals

Mortal Kombat creator Ed Boon sparked discussion across the fighting game community on September 27, 2026, by asking users on social media which dormant title should come back for another swing at the plate. The poll listed several recent projects: Riot’s ill-fated 2XKO, Rumbleverse, Warner Bros.’ cancelled Smash-clone MultiVersus, and Xbox’s dormant Killer Instinct.

Within the voting, Xbox’s dormant Killer Instinct surged ahead to capture more than 50% of the total vote by a sizeable margin. This is not the first time Boon has spoken about interest in picking up Killer Instinct.

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The History and Current Status of Killer Instinct

Originally a Rare classic before being revived as an Xbox One launch title, Killer Instinct earned legendary status for its combo-heavy mechanics, creative character roster, and the iconic announcer shouting C-C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER when players disrupted enemy attacks. Over time, the game received extensive post-launch support that added guest fighters from other Xbox franchises, such as the Arbiter from Halo and RAAM from Gears of War. However, competition from PlayStation’s exclusives eventually hampered its momentum, and the game slipped into maintenance mode.

Nevertheless, prominent community influencers like Maximilian_Dood frequently advocate for a revival, leaving fans to wonder if a studio like Warner Bros.’ NetherRealm could ever take a cinematic approach to the universe.