Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is somehow already about to turn six years old, and it’s competitive meta continues to evolve despite the game no longer receiving balance updates.
Longtime pro competitor ESAM recently dropped his end of 2024 tier list for Smash Ultimate with placements that certainly have some other players talking.
One of the more interesting comes right at the very top with Sonic the Hedgehog appearing above Minecraft’s Steve, who’s generally been viewed as the best these past few seasons.
Compared to ESAM’s previous Smash tier rankings from July, he had Sonic behind Steve and Mr. Game & Watch.
If we do look at recent majors like Don’t Park on the Grass and Luminosity Makes Moves, Sonic has seen better results lately with more tops thanks to SBI|Ken and LG|Sonix carrying the blue blur.
Another pick that’s garnered attention is Bayonetta moving to a top tier position and apparently above Joker, Palutena and Pyra/Mythra.
The menace of Smash 4 has seen her stocks rise this year with more consistent top finishes in Ultimate than seemingly ever before, but having her above some of those mainstay picks is still surprising.
That being said, however, ESAM now has 21 different characters in the top tier category or around 25% of the cast including his own main Pikachu showing up fourth on the list.
At least one fighter has also seen a notable drop from his previous list like Zero Suit Samus going down to upper mid next to Captain Falcon and Young Link.
He was questioned if he really believes Toon Link is better than ZSS and he affirmed it to be true in his eyes.
Some others saw some promotions too including Piranha Plant and Ike moving from low to mid tier.
Although Ganondorf still finds himself alone at the very bottom while only six characters remain considered as low tier.
You can check out ESAM’s full tier list below for Smash Ultimate as we head to the end of 2024. It’s not stated the ranks are ordered, but they appear to be at least partially so.
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