When I was making my massive stat post for Smash 4 during late April & early May, I had often wondered what the character stats looked like for other games. I thought it’d be entertaining to sift through the national results of the game that got me into competitive Smash – Project M – and then I thought it’d be entertaining to see how dominant Meta Knight was in Brawl in terms of saturation.

At that point, I thought it’d be best to just do all five games, so I threw Melee and 64 into the mix and made it a bigger project. It was intended to be posted months ago, but I ended up letting it sit too long and had to re-construct it.

I decided to use pertinent data up to Super Smash Con 2017.

Table of contents

1A: Methodology

2A: Super Smash Bros

3A: Super Smash Bros. Melee

4A: Super Smash Bros. Brawl

5A: Super Smash Bros. For Wii U

6A: Project M

1B: Conclusion

2B: Sources

1A: METHODOLOGY

I mainly took from ssbwiki for national results and limited my research to (mostly) national-level tournaments. The Smash 4 data compiling took an actual work schedule to finish, and that was for a year’s period. For the other games, I would be using bigger tournaments throughout multiple years.

The basic methodology is shared from my Smash 4 database. I split tournaments into different “categories” depending on skill pools. These skill pools determine the number of players used, which determines the sliding scoring scale:

Category 5 – Top 64 used. 1st = 16 points, 49th = 5 points.

Category 4 – Top 32 used. 1st = 12 points, 25th = 3 points.

Category 3 – Top 16 used. 1st = 8 points, 13th = 1 point.

Category 2 – Top 8 used. 1st = 6 points, 7th = 1 point.

Category 1 – Top 4 used. 1st = 4 points, 4th = 1 point.

Secondaries score half the points of a primary. If Armada wins a Category 5 tournament using Peach but had used Fox in certain matchups, Peach gets 16 points and Fox gets 8. This policy for my database collecting is subject to modification during the start of September to allow for more accurate data collection, but this method has been relatively reliable for large-scale projects like these.

As I’ve noted and cautioned before, this isn’t a definitive tier list. Saturation of mains among popular characters is something that happens often enough that it makes using these charts as a viably guide a pretty bad idea. There is a significant amount of correlation between results and viability, of course, but these things aren’t good at accurate tier lists as they do not take match-ups or character interactions into account.

2A: SUPER SMASH BROS.

Results and percentages: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CpEaU0H8WKNp2jT2OttBbofPyl5CQxbaw5dxbbTyCxg/edit?usp=sharing

There are a couple of significant deviations from the current Smash 64 Tier List. One is Yoshi over Fox, and the other is Falcon over Kirby. However, based on my look over of national results, this is largely due to with character popularity. Part of this is propelled by Falcon being a very common secondary character, too.

Fox is also rated higher than Yoshi on the current 64 Tier List, however, Yoshi scores higher – but this is likely due to more top professionals using Yoshi in tournament. This is evident in the 64 League Rankings, with 9 Yoshi mains (5 in the top 20) and 5 Fox mains (1 in the top 20.)

There’s not much to comment on otherwise. The makeup of the list is very comparable to the 64 tier list.

3A: SUPER SMASH BROS. MELEE

Results & percentages: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1z09qVR-ZzLJmIZ3DMvCt41V7WSWF7YsJksFmnXZfYrA/edit?usp=sharing

As with Smash 64, one of the reasons divergence tends to exist between tiers and results numbers is saturation. If enough mains of a character don’t exist, their results numbers will likely get swamped over by other, more popular characters. Where this applies to Kirby in 64, this applies in spades to Jigglypuff for Melee.

The reason for this is well-known. Hungrybox is the only tippy-top Puff main (Abu being arguable post-EVO), and the vast majority of points contributed come from his placements. As a result, her score lives and dies on his attendance and performances. Still, despite that, Jigglypuff outscores Ice Climbers. The big discrepancy is that she falls out of the top 6 (behind Falcon), but Falcon is a popular character with consistently solid results over the years. The popularity gap explains why Puff isn’t 1-2 spots higher.

Sheik in the #2 spot is interesting to me. I had no idea that Sheik was as popular at the top level as she is – especially when she’s one of the few top 6-ish characters that doesn’t tend to win events. Her saturation in the top level is very high, building to a comfortable 2nd place spot that maintained itself and grew as years went by.

In an old version of this article from 3-4 months ago that I shelved, the original data set had Falco over Marth. I predicted this would change, and it did. Marth ultimately overtook Falco in terms of results. This is due to Marth’s increased popularity in the last 2 years compared to Falco’s perceived waning popularity. While Falco has made somewhat of a comeback recently, Marth’s saturation was enough to secure him a #3 spot in results.

Young Link’s high placement is dictated almost entirely by Armada using him as a secondary for a period of time – this is enough for Young Link to outscore Ganon mains’ efforts on a solo level, which might be a depressing statement on Ganon’s current state of affairs. Yoshi, similarly to Puff & Doc, is carried by one player – aMSa.

The last big dropoff occurs after Dr. Mario. Shroomed contributed to most of Doc’s score, and after this you get straggler characters – Mewtwo, Mario, Link, and so forth – that go onto the list from a mid/low tier user getting 49th/33rd/etc. at a Category 5 event or 25th at a Category 4 event.

Characters that scored no points:

Zelda Pichu Ness Mr. Game & Watch Kirby

Bottom 5:

Donkey Kong (8 points, 0.1%)

Mario (6.5 points, 0.1%)

Link (5 points, 0.1%)

Roy (2.5 points, >0.1%)

Bowser (1.5 points, >0.1%)

Anybody familiar with the Melee metagame shouldn’t be particularly surprised by the dearth in results for a large number of characters. Bowser getting any at all is surprising since he’s often perceived as the worst (or 2nd worst), but he was listed as a secondary when I scored him.

4A: SUPER SMASH BROS. BRAWL

Results & percentages: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EhG8CsGZCOk8jar0HgyeEhOgxJ-_WB9dPd1LDm48_Lc/edit?usp=sharing

While people may feel inclined to point out that the top tier of each respective game up to this point carries a remarkably similar percentage of control over meta results, this is mitigated by the ever-increasing roster size. Meta Knight is the apex of this.

Pikachu – 29.4%

Fox – 29.6% (100%> roster increase)

Meta Knight – 29.5% (50% roster increase)

This makes Brawl – by a very significant margin – the least balanced Smash game in terms of character diversity. Not exactly a revelation, but this is really demonstrated in the total dearth of character diversity in Top 64 or Top 32 lists used. Meta Knight effectively swamped every tournament and often dominated or took up half the results in any given national top 8.

This is less in line with the current Brawl tier list, but the variance of characters changed over the years. Diddy Kong, Olimar, and Ice Climbers all became increasingly popular later in the game’s life, while Snake’s scoring had a noticeable drop off over the time.

Since I only gathered from national level results, some regional context may be missing. Fox and Peach are fairly low in comparison with their rankings, and it’s possible regional-level tournies could fill in the gap.

Bottom 5:

Lucas (30 points, 0.5%)

Bowser (11.5 points, 0.2%)

Mario (6 points, 0.1%)

Pokemon Trainer (6 points, 0.1%)

Samus (1 point, >0.1%)

Characters that scored no points:

Zelda

Link

Jigglypuff

Captain Falcon

Ganondorf

Interestingly, this matches up almost perfectly with the game’s bottom 10. The order of 6-10 aren’t the same, but the actual characters in question are.

WHOBO 4 & 5 were excluded from this list since the character pool was different due to the banning of Meta Knight & Ice Climbers. This would dilute the data.

5A: SUPER SMASH BROS. FOR WII U

Results & percentages: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-rSqMC8aJPZOLBYNeG0p0HdhdnbLBYeytRCMZMHE8s8/edit?usp=sharing

Smash 4 is my data collecting forte. I do frequent posts on the subject and maintain a database of tournament results, and I share work with freeziebeatz over our player ranking. As a result, I have better historical context to go on since Smash 4 has the most available tourney data relative to its age.

2015 data, while collected, was not used. Since I was selective with every game’s eras to use, I decided to include data from what is generally referred to as the “Post Patch Era”. Technically this data chart starts in March prior to the Bayonetta nerfs, but the raw data of Bayonetta’s relevance only dipped for 3-4 months after those nerfs, with similar trends and events occurring that lead me to believe using the brief March-May period in the data is warranted.

Diddy Kong retains 9.4% of results nationally, the smallest of any #1 character outside of Project M. This is notably mitigated by the significant roster increase from 39 to 58, but this number is well below either Fox from Melee or Meta Knight from Brawl.

The character diversity in this game is pretty strong and that’s demonstrated by no character typically ever having more than 5-6 representatives in a Top 32 or Top 64 at major-tier events.

I also have year-by-year data for 2016 and 2017 split up. I don’t have the percentages available, but the raw scores tell an interesting story:

2016 and 2017 character data, separated: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15DGBE-FiW9Bauo9W4E9liHpB3qfRwhCy5-o2NGscxFo/edit?usp=sharing

Those who follow my posts are aware that I’m doing a very extensive and very detailed post regarding Bayonetta. This is taking a lot of time, but as with the character data from May, I want it to be as perfect as possible. This portion of my article was a necessary pretense as it shows an extensive climb on Bayonetta’s part.

This shows several details that may not have been widespread knowledge. Cloud, Diddy Kong, and Bayonetta statistically share roughly the same amount of influence over the national metagame currently while characters like Mario have sharply declined. I may go into more detail on this subject in a separate article.

Lucina’s results in all mediums should be noted. In accordance with upcoming methodology chances to rectify issues like Lucina’s scoring, I halved her score. This isn’t as meticulous as it should be in this situation, but a large number of points are from game wins that did not lead to set wins, which will score ¼ points instead of ½ starting September.

For those interested in the 2015 data, here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zQ8GidS835lGt1ZJCoqjRti-YkYS7Vqi7J6DPDDnn6Q/edit?usp=sharing

I put the most work into this section since I know more about this game than the others. Most pertinent data could be discerned by my post earlier in the year, but this is a more detailed rundown of national-only results.

Bottom 5:

Jigglypuff (5 points.)

Zelda (5 points.)

Ganondorf (4 points.)

Dr. Mario (3.5 points.)

Mii Brawler (2.5 points.)

Characters that scored no points:

Bowser Jr.

Mii Gunner

Mii Swordfighter

6A: PROJECT M

Results & percentages: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pWABF_le4IVlH00S_NpoHQsIx2uQfO2zkBAWKTefuL4/edit?usp=sharing

Because I’m an oldie who doesn’t into technology, I used Microsoft Word for my scoring files rather than google spreadsheets. Whenever I’d start a game, I’d just throw in top tier names from the game I was doing to get it out of the way. Fun thing about this game? Pretty much everybody’s viable.

Every character in the game – all 41 – score on this. The only character with a particularly low score is Olimar, taking home a meager 4.5 points. Yoshi, ranked 40th, took home 30.5. The % gaps between characters are generally very narrow, and there’s no real indication based on tournament results who the #1 character might be.

Even more notable that Fox carried 7.2% and Diddy carried 6.9% originally during the unreleased May iteration of this article, meaning both characters declined by 1.2% in the proceeding months. Nothing seems to indicate that either character is on a long-term dominance streak. The current differential may refute an old assertion of mine (that Diddy Kong would overtake Fox) but it does demonstrate the game’s steadfast character diversity.

Because this doesn’t account for developer patches, some long-term scores may have inflation for certain characters if you compare this to the current P:M metagame. The nerfs to Pit, for example, resulted in a total falloff in results for the character, but he maintains a strong presence on the list due to his per-nerf status. If I only took in more recent results, he may score as low or lower than Olimar in a national context.

Bottom 5:

Pikachu (61.5 points, 1.1%)

Charizard (58 points, 1.1%)

Kirby (34 points, 0.6%)

Yoshi (30.5 points, 0.6%)

Olimar (4.5 points, 0.1%)

Evidently, Pikachu being a bottom 5 character results-wise did not deter Anthers from making 5th at The Bigger Balc, marking a solid Top 8 National result for a character that doesn’t otherwise garner extensive results. Once again, this simply shows that the game’s roster nearly accomplishes total viability at the national level.

1B: CONCLUSION

While Project M and Smash 4 enjoy a significant amount of character diversity that’s more in line with the balancing of Tradition Fighting Games, neither Melee nor 64 seem to suffer in spite of more limited rosters. 64 in particular has had its fair share of low tier hero players using Samus and Link, while mid-tiers like Jigglypuff have shown to consistently make Top 3 at supermajor events for the game in Wangera’s hands.

Melee has had very few character shake-ups in recent times. Yoshi is probably among the most memorable post-Puff rise example of a sudden top level boost, and with Axe’s hands, Young Link might be making a comeback against Puff – and perhaps more floaties, if he was inclined to try it.

In spite of Fox’s clear edge over results in Melee, we’ve had two examples this year- GENESIS 4 and EVO – where Armada successfully solo-ran Peach to the finish line. This is dependent on whether or nor Armada meets Leffen or Hungrybox in bracket, where his Fox becomes a necessity, but it still demonstrates that Melee has a solid amount of diversity in playstyle and even its limited roster in spite of Fox’s common nature.

This is mostly to emphasize that Melee sees a good amount of character playstyles and appearances despite the character numbers being similar to a game like Brawl, where a very limited cast had a stranglehold over the game.

That aspect goes back to roster size. Meta Knight carries the same numbers despite the roster size increase, meaning he has the most definitive control over any character in their respective game. Even if he wasn’t winning every event, players would almost always have him in their pocket if need-be, and a massive number of people mained him in spite of more options to choose from.

This isn’t a surprise. Brawl and Smash 4 are night and day in terms of roster balance, and this is likely due to Sakurai shifting philosophy when designing Smash 4 or simply a Nintendo executive forcing the game’s development to cater more to a competitive community, which would increase longevity.

We only have speculation to go on for that element of game balance. Rumors from an old and very detailed Smashboards post a while back (that I’ll dig up at some point if I can find it) suggested that 50>% of Brawl’s development was spent on the Subspace Emissary, and we see glitches and balance aspects that demonstrate the characters may have been somewhat sidelined.

This was changed in Smash 4, which received more multiplayer focus, a better (but still flawed) Online service, and a clear attention to detail in many areas of character balance. This is best seen in patches, which often catered to direct complaints about overpowering elements characters have. Sheik, for example, had her needle range reduced, her Fair range reduced, and lost her 50/50 on the majority of the cast. These were the three biggest complaints about the character, and they all changed.

However, it’d be fair to put something of an asterisk on Smash 4’s balance. While it’s remarkably better than previous titles in terms of roster balance, this game had the benefit of constant patches for nearly two years.

Project M is in a similar boat, however, the design philosophy was from a development team that was very different from Sakurai. The end result meant that they kept a lot of the elements to Melee that people liked while giving the Brawl cast and worse-off Melee cast a lot more refinements that made the larger cast viable.

This, too, changed with patches. Characters were very powerful at certain points in development, but by the time things wrapped up, the game found its place in terms of character balance.

At the end of the day, we see five titles – four of which have active and flourishing scenes – with different game philosophies surrounding the creation of their rosters. I wanted to analyze this, and I’m happy to have presented the data for all to see.

After around 20 hours of work on this project, I’m finished. My next project after Freezie & I’s end of Summer OrionRank update will probably be finishing out the Bayonetta article. I’ll have a few other things up that are Smash 4 related soon-ish, including a look at 10 players to look out for in the coming months.

Thanks for reading!

2B: Sources

National Tournaments (Incomplete for Smash 4)

Smash 4 Tournament Database

Smash 64 File

Melee File

Brawl File

Smash 4 File

Smash 4 File – 2016 and 2017 Separate

Smash 4 File – 2015 Data

Project M File