Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Is Now The Best-Selling Fighting Game In History

Awesome sales, well done Nintendo.

Finish him !

Paytality !

Okay, now the Direct is starting to run behind on the holiday shopping season. Now it's gone from "Nintendo being oddball" to flat-out financially irresponsible!

I want to be ub this article on the face of a friend of mine who says Smash isn't a fighting game.

Smashed it. Well done mario

@Kalmaro

"Smash isn't a fighting game" yet the representative of SNK is Terry Bogard, a quintessential fighting game character, alongside Ryu and Ken. My @$$ it's not a fighting game!

The amount of content in this game is ridiculous. I doubt I’ll ever see everything in it.

Deserved. It is a masterpiece.

@Severian thank you! We have Ryu and Ken here too. What more do we need to do to make it a fighting game?

@Kalmaro It's like when Final Fantasy fans claim it's the best selling JRPG franchise because "Pokémon isn't a real RPG."

Sakurai does what Pokémon Swon't and Pokémon Should.
And he deserves nothing less for that.

This achievement is kind of bittersweet for me...on the one hand, it is well deserved because I do think it is the best fighting game ever. I'm a HUGE street fighter fan (since street fighter II all the way to V including all the crossovers) and only started playing Smash in Smash 4 on Wii U but I already prefer Smash now. On the other hand, I feel achieving that record while the game has such terrible online features will make Nintendo feel people complaining are complaining for nothing and not do anything/much to fix the issues with the game.

@Kalmaro

We have legions of fans, hyper-competitive gameplay, guides, tournaments, and haters--checks out on all the boxes!

@NIN10DOXD

And before the Square-Enix merger, most Japanese people preferred Dragon Quest over Final Fantasy, at least that's what I've heard. Ha!

I wonder how they feel about how several iterations of Dissidia, their own Final Fantasy fighting game, have been received and how they are in retrospect.

I did enjoy the first couple Dissidias, though. Don't really replay them though...

@AlexSora89 To be fair, Smash and Pokemon have widely different design philosophies that have changed over time.

Add to that, even wasnt Smash isnt immune to cut characters and content, and controversial choices (Trophies, Adventure Mode, Tripping, etc.)

Addendum: Heck, Sakurai has said not to expect a scope as big as Ultimate ever again.

All that said, Smash Ultimate deserves ALL the praise~

@Kalmaro it still isn't a fighting game. A party game yes...

best fighting game and the best game on switch (sorry botw I love you so much)

sigh

@NESlover85
Wrong. It's a fighting/platformer/party game hybrid.
In that order.

@AlexSora89 lol my bad.

Damn, what’s the Switch attach rate anyways? Sounds like it must be off the charts!

@DTFaux
As long as our conclusion is the same, I'm fine with your thoughts on the matter.
It's not about my attitude, it's about what Sakurai objectively deserves. True, a favourite feature of mine - trophies - was cut, but it was all for the best and what we got is an incredibly worthy tradeoff.
Sword and Shield, on the other hand, are definitely no day one material by any means. And it pains me to say as much, but cutting access to previous Pokémon I've worked my backside off to preserve is a one-way ticket away from my wallet.

@NESlover85
It's cool. It can't be much of a party game once you turn all items off anyway. Fighting game mechanics on the other hand are the same no matter which mode you play.

@Kalmaro - I think a lot of friends of yours (and mine) happen to have this stuck-in rutt that fighting games have to be a set way. A traditionalist way of thinking.

However, like Battleright, Smash has formed a unique breed of fighting game. It takes much of its lifeblood from the genre, frames, aerials, blocks, counters and lifebars. Only the former has been able to popularize the genre in a whole new way.

It's the same excuse to say Splatoon isn't a shooting game, either.

@KitsuneNight Pitality better.. since you have to make the other fall off the level so you can win. PITALITY lol

@Paraka I think tradition is what gets in the way for most people. If they don't see an HP bar then there's a problem.

@WiltonRoots

Other developers of this genre take note.
Smash Ultimate has 74 characters out of the box, and none of them are DLC.

As long as people can debate about Smash being a fighting game or not, the world can't be in a so bad state. First World Problems!

Yeah honestly I should've guessed there would be idiots claiming smash isn't a fighting game

I hope this will inspire more fighting game studios to make games I can actually play.

@Kalmaro - Which is funny, cause technically the damage meter is their bar, but that's too different.

Grr, change!

But really, this has just broadened the fighting genre. And Smash is a sub genre of it. I generally refer to the traditional fighters as Arcade Fighters, simply cause that gets the point across.

Good for Smash Bros, well Deserve!

That's awesome, a well deserved achievement for Sakurai and everyone who worked on this game. Definitely eager to hop back in when Terry's released.

@AlexSora89 Sakurai also gets more time for it that GameFreak and doesn't have that core team of people working on a lot of other side projects AND has a 3rd party (Bandai Namco) come in and do a lot of work with it. Not talking down Sakurai's success, not defending GameFreak/Pokemon company's practices either. The comparison is interesting though, cuz I was saying earlier this year something liken to "3 Houses do what S&S don't." But now thinking on it, all the balancing that goes into Pokemon is more similar to Smash. I dunno!

I own the game but still waiting to see if they do an edition that has all of the DLC characters on the physical card later on.

Well, S.S.B.U is now ultimate in more ways than one.

@TurboTEF Nintendo doesn't do that

@TurboTEF Not until next gen I reckon, at the earliest.

Amazing game. It's in my TOP tier, with MK8D and BotW.

Lol fighting game? no this is a party game.

Well deserved! I invested more hours into Smash than any other game on Switch.

Also, people who say Smash isn't a fighting game are boomers.

@Kalmaro if they add Ryu to Mario Kart it will be still a racing game.

@Kalmaro just stop already, my god

@Kalmaro It sort of isn't though.

@Severian that's non-logic. Since Mario is in the game does that make it a platformer?

@AlexSora89 it can still be a party game with items off. No one I play with uses items because it's BS and broken.

It's still a 2-4 player floaty fightish game.

Platform fighters are a sub-genre of fighting games. That's like saying that fuji apples aren't fruit because they're apples. Or it's more like saying that red delicious aren't apples because only your favorite kind of apple is an apple; someone mistaking their belief that one type of fighting game is better than another for a proof that only the type of fighting game they like is a fighting game.

That's very impressive

I'm glad it sold very well, this game is truly Ultimate with a roster size that large now.

Well deserved the effort and reward of all those who have worked in Smash Bros., although there are still things that are lacking compared to their previous versions, this game has really done so many things that hardly any other game can replicate, including have the license of several games from different companies, some of them strong rivals of Nintendo; and the huge soundtrack of all those games.

Well, and reading and reliving the discussion of years..., Seriously, I wonder what the "definition" of a "fighting game" will be for people who don't consider Smash Bros a fighting game.

There is a heated battle going on in my house right now.

@Kalmaro Ever since Playstation All-stars and TMNT Legends, some people apparently don't take "fighting games with no health bars" very seriously. A shame really. Tis' a border many a gamer must cross.

As a side note,
I wonder if people consider Shovel Knight: Showdown a fighting game?

I prefer ARMS, K-1 World Grand Prix PS2 / Pocket GP on GBA, Street Fighter Alpha series / III series , Animal Boxing DS rather than Smash Bros games.

@AlexSora89 smash leaked just like pokemon so i dont know where your stupid hatred is coming from

@TurboTEF they wont they didnt with the Wii U. stop

@strider100x mario party is a party game party games dont have tournaments and dont have an EVO pressence. stay mad.

@WiltonRoots honestly the only way they could make Smash Ultimate even more awesome is if they ever released something like Subspace Emissary, 2019/20 edition.

And a year ago I'd have said it'd be a pipe dream but now I can't even say it's THAT unlikely.

@GAMER1984dude

Don't tell me what to do, I'm a growned up butt man

This milestone were reached when i bought Smash Bros a week ago.

@NESlover85 whats stopping it from being both? like yeah it can be casual random fun time, but it can easily be played competitively too. and cmon man, these dudes are straight up fighting each other

This is amazing, considering Smash is a console exclusive 💁‍♂️

@boxyguy I just think it isn't a true fighting game. Okay lemme rephrase that. It isn't a traditional 1v1(2v2, 3v3, tag, etc) fighting game. Games like Guilty Gear that have a lot more strategy and depth are in a different league than Smash.

@Severian Created the platform fighter genre. Nice collection too. So much better than the tiny 3ds version that didn't even have a level creator, and of course way too many sword fighters.

Safe to say now that ARMS was a failure, and we shouldn't see that horrible game ever again.

Not a fighting game, try again.

Awesome to hear. That massive character roster really helped, I bet!

@NESlover85 smash bros is a fighting game get your facts straight.

@NESlover85 i mean thats fair to think, smash started as a party game with items and stage hazards meant to be on, and was what helped popularize the platform fighting genre, but i still dont think its fair to dismiss it as a fighting game. yeah its not one in the traditional sense, but i dont doubt that its still part of the fighter game category

Tbf, Smash Bros Ultimate is the only gamr I've played with a stranger randomly on my Switch, so it is definitely a crowd pleaser. All the people coming here and saying it's not a fighting game are only saying so because you don't have to press 20 buttons in a specific combination, with different pressures, etc.
Some may even like the game but they just want to feel superior in playing what they call "real" fighting games versus those who only play Smash.

Holy moly, never expected that a Nintendo exclusive would evet acheave this title. Because almost all third party games appear on multiple consoles (PC, Xbox, PS4)
So for a game that only appears on one console i a BIG acheavement

@The-Chosen-one

Tell me have you ever heard of Mario Kart Wii,
and it's sales number of 37,24 million ?

@Kalmaro I remember when Sony paid fighting game tournaments to kick out Smash Bros from competition and push their Playstation All Stars Battle who was a real fighting game because it contained characters from r-rated games lol. The fighting game community lost a lot of credibility during that episode. And Sony showed what kind of shameful methods they were ready to use to kill competitors instead of making better games than them.

What exactly is going on with Ryu's right arm in that picture? =¤

@GAMER1984dude
Let me tell you a story.
Stand-up comedians, in Italy, have several characters who play out their routines when on stage. These routines are rather formulaic, but adapt to a different topic each and every "episode", so to speak.
What happened with Pokémon Sword & Shield's whole National Pokédex clustertruck reminded me of Fabio De Luigi's "hello there, new customer" routine. It basically involves his character advertising an unspecified service while addressing the fourth wall, raving on about the benefits of being a "new customer".
Like, "c'mon, new customer! We'll let you make love with the old customer's wife!".
Now take this sketch and apply it to Pokémon. Just try denying it works.
Oh, and also, my posts had nothing to do with leaks whatsoever, so I have trouble understanding what exactly is your point.

@Dang69
Thing is, Smash requires third-party talks for every single third-party character involved, which, I can't stress this enough, makes up the entirety of Ultimate's DLC roster so far (Piranha Plant doesn't count).
Sakurai's announcement to the dev team that he was going to make no cuts had all of the members react with stunned silence. He was like, "you guys figure out the legal claptrap and leave the rest to me".
Now compare and contrast to the Pokémon example. Now, I'm not exactly expecting furry, detailed models out of theDetective Pikachu movie, but neither do I want something that's just like the 7th generation games without the 3DS's resolution. I'm not believing a single ounce of the supposed from-the-ground-up process that the Pokémon models have allegedly been involved in.
I just hoped the borders would have been kept closed in a Sinnoh remake, where at least it would have made at the very least a teeny weeny bit of sense. Not in the Galar region, by far.
I don't want to end up playing a Sword and Shield remake in 2035, when I - hopefully - have kids and whatnot, just because "this time everyone is here". Pokémon can be patched in post-launch and Game Freak needs to realize that, as good as the open world is, it's not worth a half-backsided selection such as the one Game Freak has made, what with "the accurate selection of older Pokémon" ending up featuring several different species for the same real-world animal (Kingler and Crawdaunt come to mind).

This is a rare case of best game in the genre getting the recognition it deserves.

@AlexSora89 TLDR. All i heard is you not being receptive to change. Must have not seen avengers endgame. all the pokemon will come back. Theres no way Meltan is kicked out of the game hes a GEN 8 pokemon hell be an event. Also, they will come back.....a remake will come out and they will include those pokemon in the next year. stop acting like your SO was touched. play it or dont.

@TurboTEF butt man ok sir try the coffee.

@TurboTEF I very much doubt that will happen, there won't be an updated physical version with all the DLC bundled on it.

@Anti-Matter Lol... I'm surprised that you even play fighting games seeing as how they are based on violence and considering your obsessive hatred for games that have mature themes and/or mature content. Also, Smash is a great fighting game... you should give it a chance.

@Dakka-Dakka
I have observed the age rating first before play games.
Like i said before, Teen / CERO B / PEGI 12 were the highest age rating i still allow. Fantasy Violence or Violence like Street Fighter or ARMS are still tolerable to watch.
But Smash Bros was the exception due to inclusion of rated M 3rd party characters inside the game. I have ZERO tolerance with the inclusion of any rated M characters. I don't even want to see their existence nor even hear their names. Thus i never consider Smash Bros games at all. Just find other fighting games that i still happy to play with rather than keep being sour and salty while playing.

Don't forget if i draw a lot of Chibi Boxers / Kickboxers based on the games i have ever played above.

@Severian It also has characters from non-fighting games...

@Savutano

So? Tons of characters who don’t originate in fighting games appear in fighting games. Noctis and Negan in Tekken, Kratos in Soul Calibur and Mortal Kombat, Rash and Arbiter in Killer Instinct, and even outside of gaming, we had Tatsunoko vs Capcom.

@glaemay sony did what?! Link us?

@Reigestugatensho no health bar equals no fighting game? Hmm bushido blade from square and then 80s games come to mind.

@mazzel

We debate it in the Third World too because sometimes it’s nice to not have to worry about the world we live in, and gaming brings us together. Mario Kart with people who don’t vote the same as us is one example that is super common, but now it’s Smash with them!

@Severian 👍✌🤘😀

@koaeinferno Awesome game if you play it with motion control! Thatar where it shines!

@GAMER1984dude
Well, judging by your acronym you're not being receptive to long-winded speeches, either. I'd say it's a tie.