Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Spring 2020 Fighter Usage Stats!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - It's not actually Spring 2020 yet, but these should be consistent throughout most of the season until the next patch.

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.

1. Joker    3590    5.89%    0
2. Bowser    2127    3.49%    3
3. Cloud    2083    3.42%    6
4. Banjo & Kazooie    1870    3.07%    -1
5. Ness    1832    3.00%    2
6. Link    1769    2.90%    -2
7. Terry    1733    2.84%    1
8. Mario    1640    2.69%    3
9. Byleth    1584    2.60%    -7
10. Ganondorf    1510    2.48%    2
11. King K. Rool    1505    2.47%    -5
12. Kirby    1387    2.27%    5
13. Yoshi    1356    2.22%    3
14. Hero    1330    2.18%    4
15. Samus    1264    2.07%    4
16. Inkling    1174    1.93%    -3
17. Little Mac    1123    1.84%    14
18. Luigi    1112    1.82%    8
19. Pikachu    1111    1.82%    10
20. Sonic    1106    1.81%    10
21. Donkey Kong    1084    1.78%    -7
22. King Dedede    1071    1.76%    3
23. Piranha Plant    1057    1.73%    -3
24. Captain Falcon    1043    1.71%    -14
25. Ridley    990    1.62%    2
26. Palutena    970    1.59%    -3
27. Zelda    968    1.59%    6
28. Roy    953    1.56%    4
29. Young Link    904    1.48%    -8
30. Pokémon Trainer    869    1.43%    -2
31. Lucas    849    1.39%    -9
32. Wolf    835    1.37%    -8
33. Lucina    830    1.36%    -18
34. R.O.B.    753    1.23%    6
35. Mr. Game & Watch    747    1.23%    -1
36. Jigglypuff    730    1.20%    0
37. Chrom    644    1.06%    7
38. Toon Link    643    1.05%    0
39. Dark Samus    611    1.00%    11
40. Dark Pit    561    0.92%    20
41. Incineroar    527    0.86%    8
42. Wii Fit Trainer    526    0.86%    3
43. Zero Suit Samus    495    0.81%    -2
44. Snake    488    0.80%    -9
45. Bowser Jr.    472   0.77%    -3
46. Ike    463    0.76%    -9
47. PAC-MAN    432    0.71%    0
48. Ken    418    0.69%    21
49. Pichu    412    0.68%    10
50. Corrin    410    0.67%    5
51. Marth    397    0.65%    -3
52. Greninja    364    0.60%    -6
53. Bayonetta    350    0.57%    -10
54. Peach    347    0.57%    20
55. Mii Gunner    341    0.56%    6
56. Isabelle    333    0.55%    2
57. Falco    329    0.54%    0
58. Mega Man    319    0.52%    -19
59. Mewtwo    283    0.46%    -9
60. Fox    282    0.46%    -7
61. Lucario    274    0.45%    3
62. Wario    252    0.41%    11
63. Villager    243    0.40%    3
64. Mii Swordfighter    241    0.40%    -1
65. Sheik    237    0.39%    3
66. Robin    231    0.38%    -15
67. Rosalina & Luma    221    0.36%    -4
68. Richter    217    0.36%    -1
69. Mii Brawler    210    0.34%    -4
70. Meta Knight    185    0.30%    1
71. Pit    184    0.30%    6
72. Diddy Kong    166    0.27%    -2
73. Daisy    159    0.26%    2
74. Ryu    137    0.22%    4
75. Duck Hunt    136    0.22%    4
76. Ice Climbers    135    0.22%    -4
77. Simon    132    0.22%    -1
78. Shulk    128    0.21%    -24
79. Dr. Mario    118    0.19%    -23
80. 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.