Sakurai: Smash Bros. Ultimate characters win rates are about the same
In his latest video on YouTube, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate director Masahiro Sakurai provided insight into the game’s win rates.
Many fans have certain opinions about which characters are best to play as. You can probably find plenty of tier lists online with some fighters coming out more favorably. However, win rates in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate are probably closer than you’d think.
Despite the massive roster, it seems things are pretty close. Sakurai noted that the highest win rate any character has is 51.43 percent. The lowest? That comes in at 47.18 percent. While Sakurai wouldn’t say which characters are at the high and low ends, it seems things are pretty balanced as we’re only talking about a few percentage points.
Sakurai stated:
“For Smash Bros. Ultimate, we have data regarding win rates in online battles. This is actual data gathered from around the world, so it’s safe to say this is impartial global data, without any bias. This tells us that any fighter has a shot at winning a match. In fact, it would be difficult to make them much closer.”
Sakurai also commented on those who believe certain characters are broken or too powerful. Regarding that, he mentioned: “The internet can tend to be an echo chamber of sorts, so if people start saying something is strong or weak, that assessment will gain momentum and make people think it’s truer than it is.”
All of this information comes from Sakurai’s YouTube video going over game balance. He believes game design is about “push and pull”. Instead of trying to make everything “fair”, there’ll be a lack of fun.
Here’s the full video from Sakurai:
Average and Mediocre Are the Same Thing
Something else Sakurai recently revealed is that he cut Dolby Surround audio from Kirby Air Ride. You can read his explanation for that here.
