Tekken 3 (Japanese: 鉄拳3) is a fighting game, the third installment in the Tekken series. It was released in arcades in March 1997, and for the PlayStation in 1998. The original arcade version of the game was released in 2005 for the PlayStation 2 as part of Tekken 5's Arcade History mode.
Tekken 3 was the first game released on Namco System 12 hardware (the original two Tekken games used System 11). The game features a largely new cast of characters, including the debut of several now-staple characters such as Jin Kazama, Ling Xiaoyu, Julia Chang and Hwoarang, with a total of twenty-three characters. The home version included a new beat'em up mode called Tekken Force, as well as the bonus Tekken Ball mode.
Tekken 3 is considered one of the greatest games of all time. With more than 8.5 million copies sold worldwide, Tekken 3 is the second best selling fighting game of all time and the fourth best-selling PlayStation game. A non-canonical sequel was released in 1999 and 2000 in arcades and on the PlayStation 2 respectively, titled Tekken Tag Tournament. It was followed by the canonical sequel Tekken 4 in arcades and on the PlayStation 2 in 2001 and 2002, respectively.