Luminosity 2025 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tier list shows surprising pro meta changes

The 2025 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tier list has been revealed by esports organisation Luminosity, showing some surprising changes after last year’s competitive circuit.

Luminosity’s Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tier list is touted as the scene’s ‘official’ tier list, taking pro performances and tournament meta into account. After seeing massive changes in Ultimate’s pro scene throughout 2024, a panel of 93 globally ranked players have put together a new tier list going into the 2025 season.

Some of these changes this year are massive, including Snake sneaking his way into S+, which was previously just Sonic and Steve, two controversial characters on the roster thanks to their evasive playstyles. Snake’s move to the top may surprise some combo-hungry players, but he’s a master of stage control and recovery.

Kazuya Mishima is another interesting change, leaving A+ tier to finally reach the S tier. Luigi jumped from B+ to A+. In the bottom tier, Zelda, Piranha Plant, Dr. Mario, Simon, Richter, Villager, and Ike have fallen to D tier.

These changes were a result of the pro-player panellists ranking their top five characters, then rating each character 1 through 10.

By doing so, Steve was found to still be the top character, no question, after 62 of 93 panellists ranked him at the top. Japan was the region with the most pros to feel this way, likely due to top players like Mashita ‘acola’ Hayato using Steve to become the best player in the world at one point. Kazuya was also ranked number one by a lot of pros, with Michael ‘Riddles’ Kim and Takuma ‘Tea’ Hirooka showing his potential in major tournaments.

Tyler ‘Marss’ Martins noticed an increase in Olimar’s spot to A+, likely due to Carlos ‘Sonix’ Pérez using him throughout 2024.

Meanwhile, Sonix didn’t agree that Snake deserved his top spot, unable to understand how he’d compare to a “broken” character like Steve, but Leonardo ‘MKLeo’ López Pérez felt it was due to Japan’s meta. He also noticed Wario fell off in the recent meta. MkLeo felt the entire A+ tier should be moved to S, noting Kolawole ‘Kola’ Aideyan has won over top player Edgar ‘Sparg0’ Valdez using Cloud as an example.

Ganondorf remained at the bottom — although not as convincingly as in other years. Only 66 of 90 panellists gave him the lowest score. In Japan, Simon and Richter were picked as the worst, even lower than Ganondorf.

In the US, pros ranked Mega Man, Marth, and Pac-Man a lot higher than other countries. Latin America felt strongly about Marth, Sheik, Terry, Lucina, Robin, Bowser Jr., and Pikachu. Europe saw potential with Mewtwo and Marth.

The full analysis and methodology can be viewed here.