3rd Strike was released in 1999 and featured completely new backgrounds, music, endings and more. Five new characters were added, including fan favorite Chun Li.

And since every character from the previous game returned, Hugo was back. This time he wants to create his own wrestling league and sets out to get as many people to join as possible. The H.W.A. (Huge Wrestling Army) needs members, so he and Poison come up with the idea that any fighters Hugo beats have to join. Hugo has all of his moves from the previous game, and was given a new intro animation when facing Alex -the two stare each other down, then Poison tells them to get on with it. Hugo then pushes Alex back. This is a reference to former WWF stars Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan, who did a similar thing in a match.

3rd Strike was originally ported to the SEGA Dreamcast. It also appeared on the Street Fighter Anniversary Collection for Playstation 2 and Xbox. It was then released for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 as Street Fighter III 3rd Strike: Online Edition. More recently, it was one of the games included in the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, which is available on PC, Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch and Xbox One.