Summary

• Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is incredibly balanced, with all characters having a good chance of winning.
• Win rates for characters are almost equal, with the best only winning around 51% of the time.
• The franchise's future is still up in the air despite record sales for the latest entry.

Legendary game developer Masahiro Sakurai has revealed that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is incredibly balanced regarding how its characters play against one another in battles worldwide. The iconic platform fighter is so balanced that playing any character within the game provides a reasonable chance of winning against any foe players may come across.

The revelation was made by Sakurai himself in the latest video on his Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games YouTube channel. The topic was about balance within a video game and how simply averaging out the characters' abilities within a fighting game wouldn't work; a different approach was needed.

Sakurai's strategy directed the development team to build up the unique elements of Super Smash Bros. characters like Mario, amplifying weaknesses instead of removing novel aspects. The goal was to ensure variety while also having balance, which led to a shocking reveal by Sakurai at the end of the video: global Smash Ultimate data shows all 85 characters having win rates between 47.18% and 51.43%, an incredibly small margin.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Is More Balanced Than People Think

Win Rates Are Almost Dead Even Across All Characters

The Smash Bros. creator noted that by taking the global win rate data for the fighting title, the stats reveal that the game's best character, in of wins, only won just over 51% of the time. Then, when looking at the character with the worst win percentage, they won around 47% of the time. By Sakurai's own ission, this would point to the game being pretty balanced and that "any fighter has a shot at winning a match."

The game developer even joked that it would be much harder to make the game more balanced than it already is. However, Sakurai also noted that the win-loss percentages aren't everything; they only speak to how each character "feels." Thus, the game is meant to be so balanced that anyone can pick it up, choose any character they desire, and at least have a chance of winning a fight against another opponent.

The franchise's future is still up in the air; Super Smash Bros. Ultimate might be the last game in the series, depending on whether Sakurai returns to continue the series. He noted that he doesn't feel that anyone else can oversee the game but him. This was proven with the Switch title, as another developer initially made the game, but things didn't go well, so he went in to save it, resulting in the creation of the best-selling fighting game ever. Thus, many expect Nintendo to lure Sakurai back to make another entry to follow the success of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Source: Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games/YouTube