Editing Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot

During the [[Final Video Presentation]] on December 15, 2015, {{SSB4|Bayonetta}} was declared as the winner of the ballot. She was stated as the #1 choice in Europe and in the top 5 in North America, while also being stated as the #1 choice among "realizable and negotiable" characters, which was the real deciding factor. Bayonetta was released as the final ''Smash 4'' DLC fighter on February 3, 2016 alongside the [[Umbra Clock Tower]] stage.

Shortly after the release of {{SSB4|Mewtwo}}, five additional placeholder slots for future {{SSB4|downloadable content}}, under the name "mario", were found, with a sixth one added after the release of wave 2 ({{SSB4|Lucas}}, {{SSB4|Roy}}, and {{SSB4|Ryu}}), later into the ballot's run. On July 2, 2018, decompiler {{Sm|Ruben}} found that {{SSB4|Bayonetta}}'s stats were added to one of the original five placeholder slots, as early as before version [[1.0.6]], as her character slot was added to the game in that patch, which was launched only two weeks after the Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot opened and several months before Bayonetta was announced as the winner of the ballot. Decompilers Marioking64DS and Ehm from The Cutting Room Floor later confirmed that the character slot for Bayonetta existed in the patch, whose parameters were a near 1:1 copy of {{SSB4|Zero Suit Samus}}, which would then gradually change in the subsequent patches to eventually match Bayonetta's parameters when she was released in [[1.1.4]].<ref>https://sourcegaming.info/2018/07/03/bayo106/</ref> The sixth placeholder slot would later be used for {{SSB4|Corrin}} with his parameters being added in version [[1.0.8]].

All of this prompted skepticism about Bayonetta's placement in the final results. Many pointed out that it would be highly unlikely for Bayonetta to have been chosen at the conclusion of the Ballot due to the length of time required to develop even a single fighter for the game. As Bayonetta was also a third-party character, this would also include negotiations with her rightsholder Sega to acquire permission to use the character. This is also further supported by the statement that she was the winner "among realizable and negotiable characters", which many have argued is too vague of a qualifier that could be applied to any character to work. Some argue that the ballot's votes were frontloaded during the first two weeks it was open and so the ballot winner was chosen off of such early results, though it has also been counterargued that less than two weeks would have been too short a lead time to observe the ballot results, complete the licensing for Bayonetta, and get the development process far enough along for her to appear in the game data by 1.0.6. This information suggests that Bayonetta had already been decided as a character early and was not the overall ballot winner.

On October 5, 2021, {{SSBU|Sora}} was revealed as the final addition to ''Ultimate''{{'}}s roster. Sakurai revealed during the [[Mr. Sakurai Presents#Battling with Sora|presentation]] that Sora was the winner of the Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot, revealing him as being the most requested new fighter in the ballot.<ref> https://sourcegaming.info/2018/08/22/more-information-about-the-smash-direct-sakurais-famitsu-column-vol-561/</ref><ref> https://web.archive.org/web/20201026070354/https://japanesenintendo.com/2019/01/21/decidueye-almost-chosen-for-smash-in-an-interview//</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://twitter.com/pushdustin/status/1450855082203901954|title=Translated Famitsu column}}</ref> In a Famitsu column published after Sora's reveal that, Sakurai stated that he met a [[Disney]] executive at a "certain awards show" and from there was able to pitch the idea to them and add Sora to the plans for Fighters Pass Volume 2.<ref name="PushDustIn">{{cite web|url=https://twitter.com/PushDustIn/status/1450855103473143809|title=PushDustIn on Twitter: "But, one day an opportunity came through. At a certain award venue, Sakurai had the chance to meet with a Disney representative. They said it would be great if Sora could get in!"}}</ref> He also added that he and Satoru Iwata had elected not to reveal the official results to prevent fans from harassing the companies who owned winning characters that were not added.

* The Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot draws multiple parallels with the [[Super Smash Bros. Poll]] from 1999, where players voted on the characters they wish were in [[Super Smash Bros.]]; most characters even mentioned in that poll have seen appearances in ''Smash'' in some capacity, from [[Spirit]]s to fully playable characters.