Haruo "Beastly Fingers" Yaguchi rules the arcade gaming scene, but beneath his famous identity as a pro gamer is a plain sixth grader with an uneventful life. Neither popular, smart, nor athletic, he excels in only one thing: video games. Haruo would rather spend hours at the local arcade honing his gaming skills than take his life and academics seriously.

One day, Haruo meets his match in fellow classmate Akira Oono. Akira is not the type of person to frequent an arcade: she has perfect grades, is well-loved, and comes from a wealthy background. Even so, not only is she able to score a 29-game win streak, but she also manages to beat Haruo seven times in a row. Eager to end her domination, Haruo duels Akira in Street Fighter 2 and resorts to underhanded tactics—which earns him a slap in the face from the shy girl. This encounter starts a strange and rocky relationship between the two rival gamers.

High Score Girl was nominated for the 6th Manga Taishou Award and the 17th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2013. In the same year, it placed 2nd on the Kono Manga ga Sugoi! Top 20 Manga for Male Readers survey and ranked 9th for the Comic Natalie Grand Prize.

The series was put on hiatus between August 2014 and August 2015 due to copyright violation charges against publisher Square Enix by game company SNK Playmore for using characters from its games without permission. On July 25, 2016, serialization was officially resumed, and revised editions of volumes 1 to 5 were released under the title High Score Girl Continue.

High Score Girl was published in English as Hi Score Girl by Square Enix from February 25, 2020, to January 17, 2023.