Street Fighter 5's Season 2 DLC characters have, with the exception of Akuma back in December, all been brand new in the sense that none of them have ever been playable in a Street Fighter game before.

The approach has been interesting, and though these newcomers don't enjoy the perks of automatic charisma that legacy fighters generate, they are opportunities for fresh fighting styles, designs and icons in the franchise.

As such, Kolin, Ed, Abigail and the two unnamed still to come are, at least to a degree, risks. Street Fighter has seen plenty of characters come and go over the years, a good portion of which don't resonate all that well with the majority of fans.

Though it's early to pass anything close to a final judgement, Ed has been getting more flack than flaunt in recent weeks. Forums and social media seem to deem the young Shadaloo clone a nice try at best, ultimately being easily forgettable and difficult to win with.

The character very notably has the simplest inputs for commands in the game, requiring button presses alone to do any special outside of his Critical Art. This, in theory, should act as a draw to less experienced players, and it very well may be doing its job.

According to Capcom's Combat Research Institute SF5 resource page, however, Ed was actually the second most used character online for the month of June, so what gives?

For all battles in Ranked Match, Casual Match, and the Battle Lounge, Ed was used 8.331% of the time, placing him second only to Ryu, who nabbed 12.801% of the community's attention.

Is the community more interested in Ed than social media seems to let on? We do have to acknowledge that it very well could be solely his newness that's getting him an inflated amount of playtime, and that things may be changing in an arc similar to that of Kolin.

Kolin dropped in late February and saw similar levels of popularity in her first full month. She too was the second most used character at 10.237% in March.

Her time at the cool kids' table was fairly short lived however, as we saw her usage drop to 4.201% (9th) in April, 3.331% (14th) in May and then to 2.374% (20th) in June.

If marketplace talk is any indication, we very well could see Ed follow the same route as Kolin down to the social outcasts table, but we'll be very much looking forward to seeing his place on the chart when Capcom comes out with their July report.

Do you think Ed will retain player interest, or is he destined to fall by the wayside? Taking things even a step further, do you think Abigail (a character that has seen more release hype than most other DLC fighters in SF5) will wind up following a polar spike trend? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.