What was the first game in the Tekken series?

The first game in the Tekken series was Tekken (1994). Namco released it in arcades on December 9, 1994, before bringing it to the PlayStation in 1995. The original game established the King of Iron Fist Tournament and the Mishima family conflict that became the franchise's central storyline.

Tekken was designed by Seiichi Ishii, who had previously worked on Virtua Fighter at Sega. Namco developed it as an answer to the growing popularity of 3D fighting games, using the Namco System 11 arcade board, which was based on PlayStation hardware.

The arcade version had eight playable characters, each with a designated sub-boss. The PlayStation release expanded the roster to 18 playable fighters, including several sub-bosses and Devil Kazuya. It also added character endings that helped establish the series' cinematic storytelling style.

Tekken 2 followed in 1995, but it was not the beginning of the franchise. Tekken Tag Tournament and Tekken 3 were later entries or spin-offs, making the self-titled 1994 game the canonical first installment.