Sparking! ZERO is the current Dragon Ball arena fighter and the one most new players should be learning in 2026.
Developed by Spike Chunsoft with Bandai Namco and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO launched on October 11, 2024 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC (Steam). It is built on Unreal Engine 4 and follows the Budokai Tenkaichi lineage of 3D arena fighters rather than FighterZ's 2.5D model. Switch and Switch 2 versions of the NEO expansion are scheduled for spring 2027, so the platforms have not all arrived at once.
Sparking! ZERO is a full 3D arena fighter: long-range beam exchanges, flight, character-specific gimmicks, a beam clash system that turns the most dramatic attacks into a mind game, and a Limit Break super system that costs a dedicated gauge rather than ordinary Ki. Where FighterZ rewards precise reads in a side-on plane, Sparking! ZERO is about spacing in three dimensions and managing the resources that let you take a turn at the front. The learning curve is steeper and the payoff for dedicated players is deeper.
The big paid expansion released on July 30, 2026 on PS5, Xbox and PC. It added 33 new fighters - among them Champa, Super Saiyan Bardock, Grandpa Gohan, Mercenary Tao, Zangya, Pikkon, HF17 and Nuova Shenron, with several making their Budokai Tenkaichi series debut - along with new costumes, new stages and a new single-player mode called Limit Breaker Journey, a character training and levelling roguelike.
The free content is where most of the game's value has landed. A free update added the Sparking! Boost and Chain Blast actions plus three new stage variations, and the Mission 100 update began on January 26, 2026. On the roadmap for the game's second anniversary and beyond: Tower of Power as a solo mode in winter 2026 and as a team mode for up to five players in spring 2027, Mission 100 SP, Survival Mode SP, and a cross-play beta after summer 2027 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Steam. Switch is excluded from the cross-play plan, which matters if you play on Switch and want to face PC players.
If you want to compete, Sparking! ZERO is where the current tournament activity is, and the cross-play beta will consolidate that further. If you want the deeper mechanical conversation and the more legible matches, FighterZ remains the better-made game and the easier entry point. Plenty of players run both, because they ask genuinely different questions of the same roster.