
Here is what I wrote at the end of my article promoting the just-happened Super Smash Bros. Ultimate North American Online Open Spring 2020:
“It will be very interesting to see how much Byleth's play rate collapses a month and a half after his introduction compared to two weeks after his introduction. I'll certainly publish that data in March.”
Last month, I published that Byleth became the second-most used character in the online metagame for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate shortly after his release—behind Joker. (Joker has been #1 since his release.) We're now one more month away from that. Has the Byleth proliferation died down, or do they remain popular like the other DLC characters?
First, allow me to congratulate Tearbear (Banjo & Kazooie player from California), Whisky (Robin player from Mexico), YoseFu (Simon Belmont player from Tennessee/Mississippi), and Sharp (Sheik player from Rhode Island) for winning tickets to CEO Dreamland. Wrath, the Sonic player from Georgia, could've won a ticket as well (he was eligible for the cross-region top 8), but he was simultaneously participating in the Wi-Fi Soaked Series Invitational tournament and got $4,000 for getting in second place in that.
Like Battlefy, Smash.gg collects character usage stats, but the tournaments have far less statistical significance due to far less people participating and far less matches occurring. I also believe it's less representative of the online metagame than the North American Online Open series, which has a bigger cross-section of the population due to Nintendo sponsorship and advertisement.
This article seeks to give you actionable information that YOU, an average Super Smash Bros. Ultimate player, can practice with and focus your match-up priorities on. Check out this circle chart, and then keep reading for a text-searchable list:
![]() |
This pie chart is actually wrong. See the stats below. (Bowser should be #2, Bowser Jr. is even lower. Apologies.) |
You can read this list by the following: Usage rank, character name, games participated in the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate North American Online Open Spring 2020, the percentage the character was used out of all of the games, and movement in the usage rankings relative to the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate North American Online Open February 2020. This time, I've highlighted all of the DLC characters in pink, just for reference.
- Joker 3590 5.89% 0
- Bowser 2127 3.49% 3
- Cloud 2083 3.42% 6
- Banjo & Kazooie 1870 3.07% -1
- Ness 1832 3.00% 2
- Link 1769 2.90% -2
- Terry 1733 2.84% 1
- Mario 1640 2.69% 3
- Byleth 1584 2.60% -7
- Ganondorf 1510 2.48% 2
- King K. Rool 1505 2.47% -5
- Kirby 1387 2.27% 5
- Yoshi 1356 2.22% 3
- Hero 1330 2.18% 4
- Samus 1264 2.07% 4
- Inkling 1174 1.93% -3
- Little Mac 1123 1.84% 14
- Luigi 1112 1.82% 8
- Pikachu 1111 1.82% 10
- Sonic 1106 1.81% 10
- Donkey Kong 1084 1.78% -7
- King Dedede 1071 1.76% 3
- Piranha Plant 1057 1.73% -3
- Captain Falcon 1043 1.71% -14
- Ridley 990 1.62% 2
- Palutena 970 1.59% -3
- Zelda 968 1.59% 6
- Roy 953 1.56% 4
- Young Link 904 1.48% -8
- Pokémon Trainer 869 1.43% -2
- Lucas 849 1.39% -9
- Wolf 835 1.37% -8
- Lucina 830 1.36% -18
- R.O.B. 753 1.23% 6
- Mr. Game & Watch 747 1.23% -1
- Jigglypuff 730 1.20% 0
- Chrom 644 1.06% 7
- Toon Link 643 1.05% 0
- Dark Samus 611 1.00% 11
- Dark Pit 561 0.92% 20
- Incineroar 527 0.86% 8
- Wii Fit Trainer 526 0.86% 3
- Zero Suit Samus 495 0.81% -2
- Snake 488 0.80% -9
- Bowser Jr. 472 0.77% -3
- Ike 463 0.76% -9
- PAC-MAN 432 0.71% 0
- Ken 418 0.69% 21
- Pichu 412 0.68% 10
- Corrin 410 0.67% 5
- Marth 397 0.65% -3
- Greninja 364 0.60% -6
- Bayonetta 350 0.57% -10
- Peach 347 0.57% 20
- Mii Gunner 341 0.56% 6
- Isabelle 333 0.55% 2
- Falco 329 0.54% 0
- Mega Man 319 0.52% -19
- Mewtwo 283 0.46% -9
- Fox 282 0.46% -7
- Lucario 274 0.45% 3
- Wario 252 0.41% 11
- Villager 243 0.40% 3
- Mii Swordfighter 241 0.40% -1
- Sheik 237 0.39% 3
- Robin 231 0.38% -15
- Rosalina & Luma 221 0.36% -4
- Richter 217 0.36% -1
- Mii Brawler 210 0.34% -4
- Meta Knight 185 0.30% 1
- Pit 184 0.30% 6
- Diddy Kong 166 0.27% -2
- Daisy 159 0.26% 2
- Ryu 137 0.22% 4
- Duck Hunt 136 0.22% 4
- Ice Climbers 135 0.22% -4
- Simon 132 0.22% -1
- Shulk 128 0.21% -24
- Dr. Mario 118 0.19% -23
- Olimar 62 0.10% 0
There were no patches or changes to the game since Byleth was introduced, which means there shouldn't be substantial movement relative to the post-Byleth Online Open February 2020. As expected, Byleth became less popular because they are a boring and lame character that just can't compare to the Koopalings. (Bowser Jr. continues to go up.) I wouldn't characterise the rest of the results as happening due to the implications of Byleth dropping.
It's possible that some of the 7.0.0 patch effects are being felt only now because Byleth sucked up all of the oxygen for weeks. That's why Cloud went up after being stagnant in the February tournament relative to the November tournament. I'll note that, despite having far more activity than the Soaked Series Invitational, the Spring 2020 tournament had less activity than the February 2020 tournament (though a few characters, like Cloud, got a boost in absolute numbers as well as relative). I don't know why. Orlando is better than Detroit.
Dr. Mario obviously fell because he's a fake doctor, and in an age of coronavirus, people are looking for legitimate doctors who aren't trying to cause massive harm to the planet.
I wish I had more interesting analysis to present than that, but some folks really want to just see this list and would rather me publish this now instead of waiting for me trying to be thoughtful. I'm here to please you, so...published!
Check out the underlying data, which also splits things on a per-region basis, in the spreadsheet over here. If YOU would like to be thoughtful with this data, you should respond with those thoughts in the comments section! Ludwig has no information on when the next Nintendo-sponsored tournament will be, but when he does, he'll write about it on KoopaTV. If you're reading KoopaTV (and you can get articles sent to your email inbox the day after they're published), that means you'll know about it, AND you'll get value-added information that you won't find anywhere else.
The next Nintendo-sponsored Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tournament takes place over the month of June and the last two days of May.
And here are those June 2020 usage stats and how they compare to Spring 2020.
My apologies. I accidentally had Bowser Jr. where Bowser should've been on Region 2, which made Bowser lower in the stats and Bowser Jr. much higher. The list and spreadsheet have been corrected, though the pie chart hasn't since that's a pain.
ReplyDeleteThis actually means Bowser was the #2 character, not Cloud.
Hello, I'm sorry but I didn't understand well where you took the data from. Anyways thanks for your work !
ReplyDeleteThe data comes from aggregating all of the usage stats from the official Super Smash Bros. Ultimate North American Online Open Spring 2020 tournament, which was set across eight different regions but I put them all together (by hand, mind you).
DeleteThe latest tournament usage stats I've published are recent as of October 2020.