List of Mortal Kombat characters

This is a list of playable characters from the Mortal Kombat fighting game series and the games in which they appear. The series takes place in a fictional universe composed of six realms, which were created by the Elder Gods. The Elder Gods created a fighting tournament called Mortal Kombat to reduce the wars between the realms. The first Mortal Kombat game introduces a tournament in which Earthrealm can be destroyed if it loses once again.

The Earthrealm warriors manage to defeat the champion Goro and tournament host Shang Tsung, but this leads Tsung to search for other ways to destroy Earthrealm. Since then, every game features a new mortal who wishes to conquer the realms, therefore violating the rules of Mortal Kombat. By Mortal Kombat: Deception, most of the main characters had been killed by Shang Tsung and Quan Chi (neither of whom were playable in the game), but by Mortal Kombat: Armageddon all of them return.