Why Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is Losing Popularity

I hoped I would never have to make this video but in light of recent negative sentiments going all throughout the smash community right now, I felt like it was high time to talk about this. Let's discuss why Smash Ultimate is losing popularity.

~Editor (Maniac)~

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#SSBU #Nintendo #SmashUltimate

[UltimateTS]

For me personally, I lost interest because the game just never felt like it had an end goal to keep me playing, the community got annoying, the terrible online, and the game just felt very binary in solutions to problems without much room for creativity and expression compared to some previous games.

[sinfinite]

I’m gonna say it. The death of the circuits was one of the biggest losses in the scene. Can’t believe we had two and both of them went down…

[OrashiTV]

I think COVID, the scandals, and lack of support by Nintendo is what ultimately (no pun intended) caused the decline of Ultimate’s competitive scene.

[freddiesimmons]

"Why is the game dying"
-Shows 90% STEVE clips

[HNblaz]

"Why is Smash dying ?"

> Online doesn't work
> Nintendo isn't friendly with competition
> No Content, no patch, no new meta
> Salty community
> Steve

[geri]

I'd add that the netcode and online play experience is pretty bad. Usually less community actively playing means less viewers, interest and popularity

[buenosdias]

I think the reason why ultimate is dying is because of how the meta is right now where it’s camp or be camped. Either the most optimal way to play your character would be to camp (Steve, Sonic, Min Min) or to have to camp the opponent due to how volatile approaching them would be (Rob, Kazuya). So in recent smash ultimate game times are much MUCH longer simply because of how favorable camping is rn.

[Team-Eclipse]

I saw Coney's recent video, where he talked about how the competitive ruleset affects viewership and gameplay. I will attempt to both summarise his points and expand on them in my own words here:

- The stage list is too similar, most legal stages are the same stage with small practical changes between them.
- Our stages help promote keep away playstyles by giving characters a lot of space, making it more difficult to close the gap
- Best of five sets make games longer and as a result promote viewer exhaustion. Therefore, we change the cut-off point for best of 5.
- Our Ruleset is outdated, most of ultimate rules were created in the first year of the game's lifecycle. We are now in year 5.

I thought this was interesting video, mostly because of how it suggests that we might need to take more "radical" action to create renewed interest.

[fallen]

So in summary:
● the game is getting old
●there isn't much new casually ouside of fighting new people online
●The competitive meta is getting kinda boring
●balance patches are over
●only new content that is confirmed is patching in sora's amiibo data and more spirits (not alot of people care about spirits nor amiibos)

[s-zz]

Steve and Sonic, no wants to see a block man build a house and place down more blocks and a blue hedgehog spin dash canceling for 7 minutes every game...

[dhans]

I think one of the big reasons in my opinion is that some players get too infuriated by the online play to want to continue playing. They're sick of having to lose because what they cant control heavily outweighs what they can control.

[-ism]

Doesn’t “Everyone has a chance of beating everyone” contradict “invalidating most of the roster from doing what they want to do”? I haven’t been keeping a close eye on the meta, but I got the impression that most characters can’t be solo mains anymore because they CAN’T beat everyone no matter how hard you try.

[Nefaliss]

The Lack of Updates is the biggest reason.
Even without the Smash World Tour, we would be stuck with this meta and with a game that lacks any good casual content and generally has a lot of issues (Terrible Online, Buffering System, Input Delay, Sticky Platforms, Everything being too safe and mashy, etc)

[methodtomyradness]

its been dead to me since realizing the game isnt meant to be competitive. it has depth and is fairly balanced, but the game even without items doesnt feel like both players are actually having a test of skill. there are too many wrong actions that work, or ways to win by accident

[N]

Between lack of updates, anti-support from Nintendo and frustrating gameplay patterns (Steve and Sonic come to mind), It's no wonder why it's losing popularity... Wait, did you talked about the same? I guess it's really a resounding feeling.
Then again, the own community can easily shut down the scene due to being way too impulsive (Do you remember Panda?), so maybe it was doomed from the beginning. That's factor 4: *The community doesn't want to mature and grow.*

[XBC]

Two main reasons. Over 5 years old and lack of updates/supports. Many players have had their fill of ultimate and have moved on to different games, likely newer games with new content on the way, if not a new installment altogether.

Yes, there are multiplayer games older than ultimate that are still played by some, but that isn't what is being asked. The question is why ultimate is less popular now than when it was newer getting patches and new characters and stages continally. Not why no one at all is playing it.

[barcaboy]

Ive read quite a few comments but no one has talked bout this
But i think the biggest reason for its fall is the garbage online, its soo bad that i just dont feel like playing...ever, sm4sh had better online, I feel people underestimate the impact of casual fans trying to improve and get into competitive, but due to lack of a local community they have use online and that just starts a cycle of hating the game into eventually quitting

[kaito]

Ultimate's meta is pretty frustrating rn and people aren't having enough fun with it to endure nintendo blocking out tournaments. Like the best characters in the game are steve and sonic, players don't wanna see that for years to come rip

[lastotter]

Nobody is forcing the game’s competitive rules on us aside from ourselves… game is dying already so before it’s completely dead, change it up

Try to stagelists, add the final smash meter on or something… but spice it up for players and viewers

[eanderson]

Meta is absolutely cooked

Sonic and Steve are overturned