List of SSBU tier lists
The UltRank Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tier list was published more than one year after the end of the final balance patch, patch 13.0.1. All versions of the list are as follows.
First tier list (February 24th, 2023)
| Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Tier List #1 [13.0.1] | |||||||||||||||||||
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| S+ | S | S- | |||||||||||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | |
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| 10.427 | 10.257 | 10.065 | 9.648 | 9.181 | 9.166 | 9.148 | 9.066 | 8.939 | 8.689 | 8.671 | 8.666 | 8.631 | 8.547 | 8.504 | 8.500 | 8.500 | 8.471 | 8.398 | |
| A+ | A- | ||||||||||||||||||
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | |
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| 8.177 | 8.125 | 8.046 | 7.875 | 7.846 | 7.745 | 7.560 | 7.547 | 7.311 | 7.298 | 7.224 | 7.202 | 7.135 | 7.101 | 7.022 | 7.016 | 6.993 | 6.974 | 6.927 | |
| B+ | B- | ||||||||||||||||||
| 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | ||
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| 6.647 | 6.600 | 6.478 | 6.400 | 6.324 | 6.276 | 6.270 | 6.262 | 6.136 | 6.047 | 5.985 | 5.863 | 5.782 | 5.747 | 5.740 | 5.719 | 5.686 | 5.647 | ||
| C+ | C- | ||||||||||||||||||
| 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | ||||
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| 5.193 | 5.038 | 4.901 | 4.825 | 4.718 | 4.636 | 4.604 | 4.566 | 4.524 | 4.420 | 4.404 | 4.387 | 4.310 | 4.276 | 4.176 | 3.928 | ||||
| D+ | D- | ||||||||||||||||||
| 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | ||||||||||
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| 3.577 | 3.512 | 3.500 | 3.461 | 3.304 | 3.292 | 3.244 | 3.176 | 2.537 | 1.815 | ||||||||||
This is the first tier list released by LumiRank.[1][2] Players were eligible to be a panelist if they were ranked in the Top 101 of six global rankings for the majority of 2022: UltRank 2022, OrionRank 2022, EchoRank 2022, ΩRank 2022, 1000Rank 2022, and RaccRank 2022. Out of 155 eligible players, 71 players participated as panelists, with panelists from every major Ultimate region around the world. Panelists were asked to rate characters from 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest and 1 being the lowest. Panelists were also asked to give an ordered list of their Top 5 characters, and after panelist responses were normalized, their Top 5 would be scored from as 10.X (from 10.5 to 10.1). Each character's highest and lowest 3 responses were then removed. To avoid higher or lower participation from different regions from biasing the list, responses were weighted by region according to each region's representation on OrionRank 2022. Finally, tiers were split up by K-means clustering. Interestingly, the numerical ordering has been inverted from the tier lists of previous games, as the best characters now have the highest numbers instead of the lowest numbers.
Pokémon Trainer was voted as the entire team instead of individually, as were Pyra and Mythra. Miis were ranked, unlike the last SSB4 tier list. Additionally, the following Echo Fighter pairs were voted together due to their lack of significant differences: Peach and Daisy, Simon and Richter, Samus and Dark Samus, and Pit and Dark Pit. Although Min Min and Palutena appeared to have the same score, they differed past the 3 decimal places shown.
The tiers in this list were split into groups: Top (S+, S, S-); High (A+, A-); Upper Mid (B+, B-); Lower Mid (C+, C-); Low (D+, D-).
Steve was ranked as the #1 character by 41 out of 71 panelists, with multiple other panelists ranking Sonic, Joker, Pyra and Mythra, or Fox as #1. Pyra and Mythra were ranked as the #2 character the most, and was the most agreed upon among panelists, having the lowest standard deviation. Ganondorf was given the lowest score by 54 out of 68 panelists, and Little Mac and Ganondorf had the largest gap between two consecutive characters on the tier list. Pyra and Mythra, Steve, Joker, Ryu, and Captain Falcon had the lowest standard deviations, while Pikachu, Mii Swordfighter, Piranha Plant, Luigi, and Lucario had the greatest standard deviations.
As listed in the header, this tier list was created in February 2023, over four years after the game launched. The reason for this delay are due to several factors. The first and main reason is that the game received frequent character balance changes until version 13.0.1, which was released in December 2021. To avoid making tier lists as frequent as the updates like what happened with Smash 4, the community agreed to wait until a significant amount of time after active development sunsetted to seriously discuss the making of a tier list. Another reason is that the COVID-19 pandemic shut down offline tournaments for a long time and forced players to play online, which significantly altered and skewed data, forcing tier list makers to consider the new outcomes that come with online play. A third reason is that an "official" tier list maker could not be decided on. Due to SmashBoards generally falling out of favor as the premier location for Smash discourse after the release of Ultimate, many alternatives were proposed. Several organizations suggested they be the organizer of the first tier list, while others suggested getting rid of the traditional panel ranking in favor of raw community statistics. Some even questioned if a tier list for Ultimate was feasible or even necessary given its large roster and it generally being regarded as well-balanced.
Data aggregation organization PG Stats was the first to announce they would be making a tier list, as they did with the official Melee tier list starting in 2021, and promised to present what they created at some point in late 2022 to early 2023. However, several controversies and a company-wide exodus from parent company Panda caused these plans to be canceled. LumiRank then stepped in a few months later and is now considered the official tier list maker for Ultimate going forward.
Second tier list (February 15th, 2024)
| Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Tier List #2 [13.0.1] | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| S+ | S | S- | ||||||||||||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | |||||||||||
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| 10.474 | 10.315 | 9.784 | 9.698 | 9.631 | 9.620 | 9.040 | 9.019 | 8.870 | 8.827 | |||||||||||
| A+ | A | A- | ||||||||||||||||||
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | |
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| 8.638 | 8.565 | 8.537 | 8.496 | 8.262 | 8.143 | 8.123 | 8.078 | 8.077 | 8.031 | 7.856 | 7.844 | 7.815 | 7.608 | 7.558 | 7.458 | 7.382 | 7.366 | 7.324 | 7.302 | |
| B+ | B- | |||||||||||||||||||
| 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | |
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| 7.115 | 6.981 | 6.973 | 6.890 | 6.871 | 6.807 | 6.722 | 6.694 | 6.593 | 6.441 | 6.396 | 6.371 | 6.364 | 6.348 | 6.319 | 6.249 | 6.174 | 6.163 | 5.923 | 5.792 | |
| C+ | C- | |||||||||||||||||||
| 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | ||||||
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| 5.505 | 5.450 | 5.280 | 5.222 | 5.199 | 5.143 | 5.058 | 5.041 | 5.003 | 4.992 | 4.773 | 4.674 | 4.553 | 4.521 | 4.489 | ||||||
| D+ | D- | E+ | E- | |||||||||||||||||
| 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | ||||
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| 4.354 | 4.206 | 4.149 | 4.120 | 3.857 | 3.829 | 3.776 | 3.745 | 3.656 | 3.633 | 3.514 | 3.402 | 3.394 | 3.009 | 2.877 | 2.275 | 1.467 | ||||
This is the second tier list released by LumiRank.[3] The methodology remained largely the same from the first. Any player ranked on the LumiRank Mid-Year 2023 or LumiRank 2023 was eligible to vote, and 63 players ultimately submitted a ballot, although two were tossed out due to scoring less than five characters, while one other was tossed for being a troll ballot. Not every character was scored by every panelist: only Bayonetta, Fox, Palutena, Peach/Daisy, Pyra/Mythra, R.O.B., Shulk, Steve, and Wolf were scored by every panelist, while Mii Swordfighter was scored by the fewest (55). A new tier was introduced (E tier). Despite that, the tiers themselves were not explicitly defined.
The largest rise on the tier list was Bayonetta, who rose 19 spots due to the character's consistent popularity in the metagame and the success of players such as Bloom4Eva, Lima, and TamaPDaifuku. In addition, Corrin rose 15 spots due to a renaissance period in 2023 spearheaded by Neo and SHADIC; Sora rose 13 spots as he finally gained more recognition in top level play; and Snake and both Samus and Dark Samus rose double digits due to being some of the most popular characters in the current metagame. Two characters that defined the current metagame and were mains of one of the Four Horsemen — Sonic and Mr. Game & Watch — rose into the top 3, and 9 panelists notably listed Sonic as first instead of Steve. In the lower tiers, Lucario, Incineroar, and the Pits all rose double digits due to improving results, thanks to the efforts of both Armadillo and Gachipi for Lucario, Skyjay for Incineroar, and Zackray and a slew of Japanese players for the Pits.
On the other hand, the biggest drops were from characters that either lost their best players to other characters (such as Byleth and Mega Man) or had noticeably worse performances in the current metagame (such as Bowser and Young Link). In the higher tiers, the most notable drops were Roy, who fell 11 spots due to the decline, retirement, or hiatus of his best players that year; Wolf, who fell 10 spots due to the character's weaknesses being more exploitable (such as his recovery) and growing opinions that the character was overrated despite his popularity; and Joker, who fell out of the top 3 due to MkLeo's decline and Zackray's greater focus on the Pits, with newer Joker players not being as strong as the two.
The change in a character's score generally correlated with the the direction they moved. The exceptions to this were Jigglypuff, who fell a spot despite its score going up, as well as Pichu, Palutena, Mii Brawler, King Dedede, Bowser Jr., Ryu, Donkey Kong, and the Ice Climbers, who rose on the tier list despite their scores going down.
Tier list chart
This table shows the ranks of each character through all of the tier lists, as well as a numbered description of their change in rank each time. "Change" lists how much a character's position changed between the two tier lists it is in between. "Highest" represents a character's highest position, "Lowest" represents their lowest position, and "Difference" lists the difference between the highest and lowest position. "Overall change" represents a character's change between the first tier list and the current tier list.
| Character | 1st tier list | Change | 2nd (Current) tier list | Highest | Lowest | Range | Overall change |
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| Banjo & Kazooie | 66 | +4 | 62 | 62 | 66 | 4 | +4 |
| Bayonetta | 45 | +19 | 26 | 26 | 45 | 19 | +19 |
| Bowser | 50 | -9 | 59 | 50 | 59 | 9 | -9 |
| Bowser Jr. | 72 | +2 | 70 | 70 | 72 | 2 | +2 |
| Byleth | 32 | -10 | 42 | 32 | 42 | 10 | -10 |
| Captain Falcon | 39 | -1 | 40 | 39 | 40 | 1 | -1 |
| Chrom | 43 | -11 | 54 | 43 | 54 | 11 | -11 |
| Cloud | 10 | -3 | 13 | 10 | 13 | 3 | -3 |
| Corrin | 42 | +15 | 27 | 27 | 42 | 15 | +15 |
| Diddy Kong | 12 | +3 | 9 | 9 | 12 | 3 | +3 |
| Donkey Kong | 70 | +2 | 68 | 68 | 70 | 2 | +2 |
| Dr. Mario | 79 | +1 | 78 | 78 | 79 | 1 | +1 |
| Duck Hunt | 67 | +2 | 65 | 65 | 67 | 2 | +2 |
| Falco | 41 | +6 | 35 | 35 | 41 | 6 | +6 |
| Fox | 5 | -3 | 8 | 5 | 8 | 3 | -3 |
| Ganondorf | 82 | ±0 | 82 | 82 | 82 | 0 | ±0 |
| Greninja | 33 | -1 | 34 | 33 | 34 | 1 | -1 |
| Hero | 44 | ±0 | 44 | 44 | 44 | 0 | ±0 |
| Ice Climbers | 56 | +5 | 51 | 51 | 55 | 5 | +5 |
| Ike | 65 | -6 | 71 | 65 | 71 | 6 | -6 |
| Incineroar | 64 | +12 | 52 | 52 | 64 | 12 | +12 |
| Inkling | 46 | -3 | 49 | 46 | 49 | 3 | -3 |
| Isabelle | 73 | +4 | 69 | 69 | 71 | 4 | +4 |
| Jigglypuff | 59 | -1 | 60 | 59 | 60 | 1 | -1 |
| Joker | 3 | -7 | 10 | 3 | 10 | 7 | -7 |
| Kazuya | 7 | -4 | 11 | 7 | 11 | 4 | -4 |
| Ken | 34 | -11 | 45 | 34 | 45 | 11 | -11 |
| King Dedede | 80 | +1 | 79 | 79 | 80 | 1 | +1 |
| King K. Rool | 74 | -6 | 80 | 74 | 80 | 6 | -6 |
| Kirby | 76 | +1 | 75 | 75 | 76 | 1 | +1 |
| Link | 53 | -3 | 56 | 53 | 56 | 3 | -3 |
| Little Mac | 81 | ±0 | 81 | 81 | 81 | 0 | ±0 |
| Lucario | 71 | +14 | 57 | 57 | 71 | 14 | +14 |
| Lucas | 58 | -3 | 61 | 58 | 61 | 3 | -3 |
| Lucina | 22 | -6 | 28 | 22 | 28 | 6 | -6 |
| Luigi | 47 | +8 | 39 | 39 | 47 | 8 | +8 |
| Mario | 21 | -1 | 22 | 21 | 22 | 1 | -1 |
| Marth | 54 | -1 | 55 | 54 | 55 | 1 | -1 |
| Mega Man | 38 | -10 | 48 | 38 | 40 | 10 | -10 |
| Meta Knight | 51 | +1 | 50 | 50 | 51 | 1 | +1 |
| Mewtwo | 63 | -3 | 66 | 63 | 66 | 3 | -3 |
| Mii Brawler | 37 | +1 | 36 | 36 | 37 | 1 | +1 |
| Mii Gunner | 61 | +3 | 58 | 58 | 61 | 3 | +3 |
| Mii Swordfighter | 78 | +2 | 76 | 76 | 78 | 2 | +2 |
| Min Min | 16 | +4 | 12 | 12 | 16 | 4 | +4 |
| Mr. Game & Watch | 18 | +15 | 3 | 3 | 18 | 15 | +15 |
| Ness | 40 | -7 | 47 | 40 | 47 | 7 | -7 |
| Olimar | 28 | -5 | 33 | 28 | 33 | 5 | -5 |
| Pac-Man | 14 | -9 | 23 | 14 | 23 | 9 | -9 |
| Palutena | 17 | +1 | 16 | 16 | 17 | 1 | +1 |
| Peach / Daisy | 9 | +2 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 2 | +2 |
| Pichu | 55 | +2 | 53 | 53 | 55 | 2 | +2 |
| Pikachu | 13 | -4 | 17 | 13 | 17 | 4 | -4 |
| Piranha Plant | 77 | ±0 | 77 | 77 | 77 | 0 | ±0 |
| Pit / Dark Pit | 52 | +11 | 41 | 41 | 52 | 11 | +11 |
| Pokémon Trainer | 23 | -1 | 24 | 23 | 24 | 1 | -1 |
| Pyra / Mythra | 2 | -3 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 3 | -3 |
| Ridley | 60 | -4 | 64 | 60 | 64 | 4 | -4 |
| R.O.B. | 6 | ±0 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 0 | ±0 |
| Robin | 62 | -5 | 67 | 62 | 67 | 5 | -5 |
| Rosalina & Luma | 48 | +5 | 43 | 43 | 48 | 5 | +5 |
| Roy | 8 | -11 | 19 | 8 | 19 | 11 | -11 |
| Ryu | 36 | +4 | 32 | 32 | 36 | 4 | +4 |
| Samus / Dark Samus | 25 | +10 | 15 | 15 | 25 | 10 | +10 |
| Sephiroth | 27 | -10 | 37 | 27 | 37 | 10 | -10 |
| Sheik | 35 | +4 | 31 | 31 | 34 | 4 | +4 |
| Shulk | 19 | -6 | 25 | 19 | 25 | 6 | -6 |
| Simon / Richter | 68 | -6 | 74 | 68 | 74 | 6 | -6 |
| Snake | 15 | +11 | 4 | 4 | 15 | 11 | +11 |
| Sonic | 4 | +2 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 2 | +2 |
| Sora | 31 | +13 | 18 | 18 | 31 | 13 | +13 |
| Steve | 1 | ±0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ±0 |
| Terry | 30 | +1 | 29 | 29 | 30 | 1 | +1 |
| Toon Link | 49 | +3 | 46 | 46 | 49 | 3 | +3 |
| Villager | 69 | -3 | 72 | 69 | 72 | 3 | -3 |
| Wario | 24 | +4 | 20 | 20 | 24 | 4 | +4 |
| Wii Fit Trainer | 57 | -6 | 63 | 57 | 63 | 6 | -6 |
| Wolf | 11 | -10 | 21 | 11 | 21 | 10 | -10 |
| Yoshi | 20 | +6 | 14 | 14 | 20 | 6 | +6 |
| Young Link | 29 | -9 | 38 | 29 | 38 | 9 | -9 |
| Zelda | 75 | +2 | 73 | 73 | 75 | 2 | +2 |
| Zero Suit Samus | 26 | -4 | 30 | 26 | 30 | 4 | -4 |
See also
- Tier list
- List of SSB tier lists (NTSC)
- List of SSBM tier lists (NTSC)
- List of SSBB tier lists (NTSC)
- List of SSB4 tier lists
- Metagame
