Virtua Fighter 5 is the fifth installment in 's series of . The original version was released on the arcade system board. The first location tests took place on November 26, 2005 leading to the official release on July 12, 2006 in Japanese . An export version, based on Version B, was released to arcades outside of Japan in February 2007.
The revised Version B update was released in Japanese arcades in December 2006 and was to the , for which it was released on February 20, 2007 (despite the advertised date of February 23) and was a for the console's European release on March 23, 2007. Version C was released in Japanese arcades in July 2007 and was ported to the , for which it was released on October 26, 2007 in Europe and October 30, 2007 in North America. The Xbox 360 version would allow users to compete online via Xbox Live, a feature that was not available on the PlayStation 3 version. While Japanese arcade received the first major update Virtua Fighter 5 R, the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and arcades would get the second update Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown.
An enhanced remake of the game, titled Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown was released worldwide for on June 1, 2021 and Japanese arcades on June 2, 2021.