Super Smash Bros isn’t a brand-new fighter with players still figuring out the cast. However, a dedicated community and multiple games being used in tournaments means we see quite a lot of tournaments each year, with space for a lot of different characters. What’s really impressive, though, especially about Ultimate, is the sheer diversity in high tier characters. We’ve gotten a good view of who the most popular are recently, as a player has broken down Smash character usage stats for the 2025 competitive season.
Over the course of Ultimate’s competitive life, we’ve seen some clear patterns for characters. As DLC like Steve and Joker released, we’ve seen them go on to dominate Smash Bros esports tournaments. Are they really the most used characters, though? Thanks to a recent breakdown we have a better look at how characters show up in competitive events, along with the increasing diversity for Melee.
Source: Nintendo
Smash Character Usage – Who Topped the Charts in 2025?
A recent breakdown from EazyFreezie has looked into how much each character is used in an esports setting for 2025. The general usage stats are one thing, but this is a great way of seeing which characters rise to the top of the more competitive part of the game. In the very first place, there’s a character who is no big surprise. Out of the entire Smash Bros roster, they’re basically the most dominant in tournaments and in conversation, Steve.
Character Stats for 2025: Covering both Melee and Ultimate! Thread (1/4)
First is Placement Percentages covering the full competitive season of 2025. pic.twitter.com/pnb2mHgvYE— LG | EazyFreezie (@EazyFreezie) February 4, 2025
The Minecraft character is controversial, often a topic for being banned. They’re nearly a full percent ahead of the second placed character in tournament use, though, who is ROB. That’s followed by Palutena, Snake, Pyra/ Mythra, and then Roy. Most of the top picks aren’t a huge surprise, being noticeably common even if you only watch the biggest Smash matches from tournaments.
Over in Melee, there’s something similarly predictable for the top spot. In the Smash character usage data for 2025, Fox tops things out. He clears more than 25% here! He’s followed by Sheik and then Falco. Melee has a smaller roster. There’s still room for innovation here like with Yoshi rising since aMSa took him to the major winning level. Fox isn’t too much of a surprise though.
The Smash character usage data shows some clear trends for stand out characters. While Melee hasn’t been shaken up too much, Steve’s prominence is hard to ignore when seeing the data in this way. While more controversial though, Steve is still pretty far away from having the same prominence as Fox.
