Community
The community is a self-supporting network of people that have banded together to make the Super Smash Brothers scene what it has become today. Most major tournaments are arranged by members of the community, and are sometimes supported and advertised by organizations such as Evo. Some significant sections of the community include Smashboards, GameFAQs, Smash-Mex, All is Brawl, the Smash modding community, Global Smasher Compendium (formerly), and the Smash Wiki itself.
The history of the smash community spans about 14 years, mostly beginning with the creation of Smashboards which has become a major intersection for playing and discussing the Super Smash Bros. franchise. Some milestones include Melee's inclusion in professional tournament circuits such as MLG in 2006 and again at Evo in 2007, the creation of the Global Smasher Compendium (now discontinued), a successful petition for Melee to be broadcast at Evo, and the first unofficial community census in 2013.
Demographic
On 20 June 2013, Smashboard member GreatGonzales began an unofficial open census of the Super Smash Bros. community that took place across several community websites including Smashboards, GameFAQs, Kitty Corp Meow Mix and All is Brawl. The census was closed on 12 August with 733 people having responded to the census. An additional 41 people people were able to take the census due to an error of the census becoming open again but these responses were not included in the analysis. The census admittedly has some flaws, such as only being available in English, its open nature (making it more of a survey), and posing questions with a relatively restrictive answer list.
Results from the the census suggests that the community appears to be male-dominated, with about 25 males to every 1 female, and that most community members are between the ages of 18 and 24. Most of the responses are from people who live in North America (~85% of responses) and Europe (~10% of responses), with the remaining 5% of responses roughly divided between the remaining continents and Central America, except for Africa with remarkably little participation.
After analysis, the census suggests the overwhelming majority of the players not planning to purchase either version of the fourth iteration of Super Smash Bros. consider Melee their favorite game. The census also suggests that the presence of tiers have little statistical influence on character presence in tournaments, which may be very inaccurate.
