How the Meta Has Changed From Prerelease to 7.0

It’s officially been 2 years since Smash Ultimate was revealed, and Version 8.0 is nearly here! Because of this, I thought it’d be fun to use the data I’ve been gathering since release to take a walk down memory lane, and see how the meta has changed, starting from prerelease prediction tier lists all the way to the final tier lists of 7.0.

Note: all the data mentioned in this post, plus much more, can be found in this spreadsheet; this post is just the highlights.

Prerelease

If we go all the way back, then we’ll see some really weird stuff. Diddy, Marth, Mewtwo and Sheik in top tier? Fox, Pokemon Trainer, Snake, Isabelle, Palutena, Jigglypuff, and Wario all mid tier? Bowser and Yoshi low tier? Of course, there were bound to be some weird inconsistencies in a prerelease tier list, but I still think it’s interesting to look at. That being said, this is the least important part of the data, so we’ll move on quickly.

Ver. 1.0

Immediately, Peach and Inkling are identified as the best of the best, and Mii Brawler, Kirby, and Little Mac as the worst, something that’s mostly held true to this day. We see a lot of the top tiers of today shoot up drastically in the tier list from prerelease, including Palutena, Wario, and Chrom, and we watch as the most overhyped characters freefall, including K. Rool and Zelda (sorry). We also see some of the preconceptions from Smash 4 start to fade away, as its top tiers start to fall as well, including Sheik, Diddy Kong, Bayonetta, Rosalina, and Ryu.

Fighter	Prerelease Placement	Change	1.2 Placement
Sheik	11.29	↓ 43.04	54.33
Diddy Kong	4	↓ 32.29	36.29
Bayonetta	21.86	↓ 30.21	52.07
Mii Swordfighter	70.33	↑ 30.15	40.18
King K. Rool	18.29	↓ 29.85	48.14
Yoshi	57	↑ 29.29	27.71
Palutena	41.33	↑ 29.04	12.29
Wario	52.43	↑ 26.76	25.67
Chrom	35.67	↑ 26	9.67
Rosalina & Luma	29	↓ 24.77	53.77
Falco	57.67	↑ 22.13	35.54
R.O.B.	44.29	↑ 21.16	23.13
Ryu	24	↓ 20.46	44.46
King Dedede	65.5	↑ 20.23	45.27
Zelda	33.43	↓ 17.86	51.29

Ver. 2.0

Piranha Plant enters the fray as a low tier (62.94). We see the modern top/high tier start to emerge, as characters like Greninja, Pac-Man, Wolf, Mario, ZSS, and Wario are all skyrocketing. K. Rool and Ryu continue their freefall, as do some of the other overhyped characters that haven’t caught on as much as many thought they would, including Mewtwo, Simon, and Incineroar.

Fighter	1.2 Placement	Change	2.0 Placement
Greninja	34.8	↑ 19.92	14.88
Mewtwo	22.71	↓ 19.9	42.61
Pac-Man	53.08	↑ 18.87	34.21
King K. Rool	48.14	↓ 18.51	66.65
Wolf	22.8	↑ 17.41	5.39
Ryu	44.46	↓ 15.68	60.14
Isabelle	45.64	↓ 14.47	60.11
Mario	38.73	↑ 13.84	24.89
Simon (Richter)	25 (24.73)	↓ 13.79 (↓ 14.01)	38.79 (38.74)
Zero Suit Samus	35.53	↑ 12.3	23.23
Incineroar	51.4	↓ 11.95	63.35
Luigi	36.93	↓ 11.07	48
Wario	25.67	↑ 11.06	14.61
Ganondorf	58.53	↑ 9.88	48.65
Dr. Mario	46.64	↓ 9.6	56.24

Ver. 3.0

Joker enters the fray as a high tier (19.58). Incineroar bounces back from his freefall in the last update, while Mewtwo and Bayonetta continue to fall. The decline of Ryu in the tier list begins to rub off on Ken, who follows him down. Some of the more underrated characters like Mr. Game & Watch, Robin, Duck Hunt, ICs, Wii Fit Trainer, and the Miis begin their rise, while DK’s reign as the best heavy comes to a close as he falls below Bowser.

Fighter	2.0 Placement	Change	3.0 Placement
Mii Brawler	62	↑ 24.25	37.75
Incineroar	63.35	↑ 19.49	43.86
Donkey Kong	33.05	↓ 16.09	49.14
Mr. Game & Watch	52.88	↑ 16	36.88
Mewtwo	42.61	↓ 13.68	56.29
Robin	55	↑ 13.14	41.86
Duck Hunt Duo	54.21	↑ 11.71	42.5
Lucario	34	↓ 11.29	45.29
Pit (Dark Pit)	44.94 (46.75)	↓ 9.56 (↓ 10.39)	54.5 (57.14)
Ice Climbers	57.18	↑ 9.3	47.88
Ken	52.6	↓ 8.9	61.5
Wii Fit Trainer	45.38	↑ 8.71	36.67
Bayonetta	47.8	↓ 8.49	56.29
Cloud	22.62	↓ 8.26	30.88
Marth	23.45	↓ 8.22	31.67

Ver. 3.1

Diddy Kong, Ryu, and Ken all start to recover from their previous drops. People also begin to realize how much they underrated Joker on release. The Miis begin to fall back to where they were before their previous rise. Nerfs hit Olimar and Pichu. This list highlights a flaw in my methodology, though; Toon Link shoots up for no reason other than that I included more Japanese players, a meta that considers him the best Link.

Fighter	3.0 Placement	Change	3.1 Placement
Ryu (Ken)	58.5 (61.5)	↑ 22.09 (↑ 33.74)	36.41 (27.76)
Mii Brawler	37.75	↓ 21.17	58.92
Joker	19.58	↑ 14.97	4.61
Mii Swordfighter	41.25	↓ 14.75	56
Rosalina & Luma	60.14	↑ 13.69	46.45
Diddy Kong	45.86	↑ 11.86	34
Olimar	2.92	↓ 11.52	14.44
Toon Link	49.43	↑ 11.24	38.19
King Dedede	39.38	↓ 19.91	50.29
Robin	41.86	↓ 10.87	52.73
Pichu	3.69	↓ 9.46	13.15
Lucas	41.57	↓ 9.29	50.86
Captain Falcon	47	↑ 9.21	37.79
Luigi	47.29	↑ 9.08	38.21
Mii Gunner	51.75	↓ 7.25	59

Ver. 4.0

Hero enters the fray as a mid tier (44.83). The smallest patch so far, almost nothing significantly changed otherwise, other than Hyrule falling (Toon Link fell for the reasons mentioned earlier, and Ganondorf fell alongside him).

Fighter	3.1 Placement	Change	4.0 Placement
Ganondorf	51.96	↓ 9.66	61.62
Toon Link	38.19	↓ 8.02	46.21
Mii Swordfighter	56	↓ 6.89	62.89
Mr. Game & Watch	34.96	↑ 6.49	28.47
Diddy Kong	34	↓ 6.29	40.29
King Dedede	50.29	↓ 6.17	56.46
Sheik	51.29	↓ 6.09	57.38
Marth	38.5	↑ 5.8	32.7
Incineroar	49.14	↓ 5.32	54.46
Bowser Jr.	62	↑ 5.31	56.69
Mewtwo	56.4	↑ 5.02	51.38
Dr. Mario	57.76	↓ 5.01	62.77
Zelda	55.45	↓ 4.93	60.38
Ryu	36.41	↓ 4.92	41.33
Robin	52.73	↓ 4.73	57.46

Ver. 5.0

Banjo enters the fray as a mid tier (36.82). Top players give Sheik a fair shot again, and suddenly discover that she was actually pretty good the whole time! Mii Swordfighter and Toon Link recover from their fall in the last patch as Donkey Kong continues to plummet, as he’s done uninterrupted since launch day. Mr. Game & Watch continues his rise.

Fighter	4.0 Placement	Change	5.0 Placement
Sheik	57.38	↑ 12.38	45
Donkey Kong	55.21	↓ 8.27	63.48
Mii Swordfighter	62.89	↑ 8.07	54.82
Bowser Jr.	56.69	↓ 7.79	64.48
Mr. Game & Watch	28.47	↑ 7.43	21.04
Incineroar	54.46	↓ 7.39	61.85
Mii Brawler	55.67	↓ 6.77	62.44
Bayonetta	49.93	↓ 6.39	56.32
Corrin	55.77	↓ 6.28	62.05
Robin	57.46	↑ 5.99	51.47
Sonic	44.62	↑ 5.57	39.05
Toon Link	46.21	↑ 5.39	40.82
Shulk	17.56	↑ 5.37	12.19
Cloud	31.57	↓ 5.2	36.77
Ridley	54.69	↑ 5.19	49.5

Ver. 6.0

Terry enters the fray as an upper mid tier (33.83). You’ll notice that almost all of the biggest movements for this patch were characters moving up in the list (the only major exceptions being Meta Knight and Luigi). Buffs to Jigglypuff, K. Rool, and Robin generated a lot of hype, and top players are starting to get solid results with characters like Sonic and Rosalina, leading to their rise in lists as well.

Fighter	5.0 Placement	Change	6.0 Placement
Jigglypuff	69.5	↑ 12.06	57.44
Samus (Dark Samus)	46.78 (46.83)	↑ 9.56 (9.66)	37.22 (37.17)
Mii Brawler	63	↑ 8.82	54.18
Lucas	52.61	↑ 6.94	45.67
Meta Knight	45.67	↓ 7.08	52.75
Robin	51.59	↑ 6.9	44.69
King K. Rool	72.37	↑ 6.84	65.53
Sonic	38.56	↑ 6.4	32.16
Rosalina & Luma	45.58	↑ 6.19	39.39
Luigi	36.55	↓ 5.98	42.53

Ver. 7.0

Byleth enters the fray as a lower mid tier (52.44). Breaking the pattern of the last patch, the biggest movements in this patch seem to have a good balance of upward and downward movement. After the hype from Robin’s 6.0 buffs died down, he immediately fell back down the list. After Gunner’s popularity spike and subsequent tech discovery after the release of the Cuphead costume, Swordfighter was cemented in the public eye as the worst Mii, and they fell dramatically due to this perception. There were major buffs, though, to Ryu, Cloud, and Sheik, which is reflected in their placement shift.

Fighter	6.0 Placement	Change	7.0 Placement
Cloud	37.21	↑ 10.79	26.42
Sheik	49.41	↑ 8.98	40.43
Robin	44.69	↓ 8.25	52.94
Duck Hunt Duo	37.94	↓ 7.72	45.66
Mii Swordfighter	57.27	↓ 7.38	64.65
Banjo & Kazooie	41.44	↓ 6.71	48.15
Ryu (Ken)	40.36 (31.26)	↑ 6.6 (4.66)	33.76 (26.6)
Zelda	59.47	↑ 6.26	53.21
Samus (Dark Samus)	37.22 (37.17)	↑ 5.94 (5.81)	31.28 (31.36)
Simon (Richter)	48.82	↓ 5.71 (5.8)	54.53 (54.62)
Young Link	28.7	↑ 5.64	23.06
Lucario	51.29	↓ 5.52	56.81