The Smash Back Room Super Smash Bros. 4 tier list was published just at the end of patch 1.1.3. All versions of the list are as follows. Characters with the same numerical value are listed alphabetically.
First tier list (February 1, 2016)
| Super Smash Bros. 4 Tier List #1 [1.1.3] | |||||||||||||||
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| S | A | B | C | ||||||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | |
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| 20.00 | 19.46 | 18.77 | 17.95 | 17.86 | 17.83 | 17.52 | 17.51 | 17.43 | 17.12 | 16.52 | 16.50 | 16.39 | 15.16 | 15.15 | |
| D | E | ||||||||||||||
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
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| 14.27 | 13.89 | 13.88 | 13.75 | 13.63 | 13.56 | 13.20 | 12.92 | 12.47 | 12.25 | 12.12 | 11.80 | 11.41 | 11.29 | 10.81 | 10.17 |
| F | G | ||||||||||||||
| 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43-44 | 45 | |||
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| 9.29 | 9.10 | 8.93 | 8.72 | 8.65 | 8.35 | 8.12 | 8.08 | 7.75 | 7.72 | 7.47 | 7.18 | 7.14 | |||
| H | I | J | Unreleased | ||||||||||||
| 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | — | ||||
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| 6.04 | 5.59 | 5.01 | 4.79 | 4.78 | 4.12 | 3.60 | 3.32 | 3.23 | 2.79 | 1.96 | — | ||||
This is the first tier list released by the Smash 4 Back Room.[1] It is based on votes from 53 high-level players, most of them Back Room members. In accordance with the most common tournament rules, custom special moves were not taken into account, with Mii Fighters presumed to be restricted to their default movesets.
The tiers in this list are split into groups; Top (S), High (A,B), Middle (C,D,E), Low (F,G), and Bottom (H,I,J).
Many notable members of the Smash 4 community (including ZeRo, who abstained from voting), thought that this tier list was created too early. This was partly due to the fact that patch 1.1.4 was only two days away from being released, with the imminent inclusion of Bayonetta, Corrin, and balance changes. Later, on March 15th, another patch would be released, with even more balance changes.
A follow up article was released on February 16, 2016, offering further explanation on the tiering procedure as well as insight from Back Room members on specific characters. [3]
Second tier list (August 22, 2016)
| Super Smash Bros. 4 Tier List #4 [1.1.7] | ||||||||||||||||
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| S | A | |||||||||||||||
| 1 | 2-3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7-8 | 9 | 10 | 11-12 | ||||||||
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| 1.19 | 2.49 | 2.51 | 4.68 | 5.99 | 6.46 | 6.56 | 6.60 | 9.81 | 10.38 | 11.54 | 11.61 | |||||
| B | C | |||||||||||||||
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28-29 | |
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| 13.29 | 14.39 | 17.37 | 17.97 | 18.41 | 19.07 | 19.25 | 20.14 | 20.68 | 20.82 | 23.31 | 23.73 | 24.85 | 24.96 | 25.89 | 28.62 | 28.64 |
| D | E | |||||||||||||||
| 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36-37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | |||
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| 31.59 | 32.11 | 32.27 | 32.96 | 33.21 | 34.59 | 35.11 | 35.13 | 37.95 | 38.58 | 39.12 | 39.66 | 41.95 | 43.43 | 43.96 | ||
| F | G | Unranked | ||||||||||||||
| 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52-53 | 54 | — | |||||||
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| 45.43 | 45.65 | 47.01 | 47.64 | 48.86 | 49.32 | 49.59 | 51.21 | 51.22 | 53.47 | — | ||||||
This is the second tier list released by the Smash 4 Back Room.[2] This list sees drastic shifts as a result of the three balance patches and two new characters that released between the first list and this one. Diddy Kong's consistently high placings and popularity around the world have led to him securing the top spot--this is the fastest in Smash history that a top character, in this case Sheik, has been replaced. The most outstanding improvement is Mewtwo's unprecedented 27-spot rise thanks to its buffed speed, strength, and hitboxes, leading to high tournament placings thanks to players such as Abadango. Marth also saw a great jump, courtesy of buffs to his speed and hitboxes as well as the work of mains such as Leo, Mr.E, and Pugwest. The character with the biggest drop is Roy, who, despite being technically buffed from Melee and receiving some slight lag reductions in 1.1.4, has had very limited tournament representation due to his glaring flaws: limited approach options, laggy attacks, high vulnerability to combos, and poor recovery. Jigglypuff is now dead last due to its almost nonexistent representation, attributed to its abysmal survivability, range, and combos.
Tier list chart
This table shows the ranks of each character through all of the tier lists, as well as a numbered description of their change in rank each time. "Change" lists how much a character's position changed between the two tier lists it is in between. "Highest" represents a character's highest position, "Lowest" represents their lowest position, and "Difference" lists the difference between the highest and lowest position. "Overall change" represents a character's change between the first tier list and the current tier list.
| Character | 2nd (current) tier list | Highest | Lowest | Difference | Overall change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Diddy Kong | 1 | 1 | 9 | +8 | +8 |
| Cloud | 2 | 2 | 12 | +10 | +10 |
| Sheik | 3 | 1 | 3 | -2 | -2 |
| Rosalina & Luma | 4 | 3 | 4 | -1 | -1 |
| Mario | 5 | 5 | 8 | +3 | +3 |
| Sonic | 6 | 6 | 6 | 0 | ±0 |
| Fox | 7 | 7 | 7 | 0 | ±0 |
| Zero Suit Samus | 8 | 2 | 8 | -6 | -6 |
| Ryu | 9 | 4 | 9 | -5 | -5 |
| Mewtwo | 10 | 10 | 37 | +27 | +27 |
| Bayonetta | 11 | 11 | 11 | 0 | ±0 |
| Pikachu | 12 | 5 | 12 | -7 | -7 |
| Meta Knight | 13 | 10 | 13 | -3 | -3 |
| Villager | 14 | 11 | 14 | -3 | -3 |
| Mega Man | 15 | 15 | 28 | +13 | +13 |
| Ness | 16 | 13 | 16 | -3 | -3 |
| Toon Link | 17 | 17 | 22 | +5 | +5 |
| Corrin | 18 | 18 | 18 | 0 | ±0 |
| Marth | 19 | 19 | 41 | +22 | +22 |
| Captain Falcon | 20 | 14 | 20 | -6 | -6 |
| Greninja | 21 | 21 | 25 | +4 | +4 |
| Lucario | 22 | 22 | 23 | +1 | +1 |
| Yoshi | 23 | 15 | 23 | -8 | -8 |
| Pit | 24 | 18 | 24 | -6 | -6 |
| Donkey Kong | 25 | 25 | 27 | +2 | +2 |
| Peach | 26 | 19 | 26 | -7 | -7 |
| Dark Pit | 27 | 17 | 27 | -10 | -10 |
| R.O.B | 28 | 20 | 28 | -8 | -8 |
| Luigi | 29 | 16 | 29 | -13 | -13 |
| Olimar | 30 | 24 | 30 | -6 | -6 |
| Robin | 31 | 31 | 31 | 0 | ±0 |
| Bowser | 32 | 30 | 32 | -2 | -2 |
| Lucas | 33 | 33 | 36 | +3 | +3 |
| Wario | 34 | 21 | 34 | -13 | -13 |
| Ike | 35 | 26 | 35 | -9 | -9 |
| Lucina | 36 | 36 | 47 | +11 | +11 |
| Mr. Game & Watch | 37 | 35 | 37 | -2 | -2 |
| Pac Man | 38 | 28 | 38 | -10 | -10 |
| Little Mac | 39 | 39 | 44* | +5 | +5 |
| Palutena | 40 | 40 | 50 | +10 | +10 |
| Kirby | 41 | 32 | 41 | -9 | -9 |
| Duck Hunt | 42 | 42 | 43* | +1 | +1 |
| Link | 43 | 42 | 43 | -1 | -1 |
| Shulk | 44 | 40 | 44 | -4 | -4 |
| Samus | 45 | 45 | 51 | +6 | ±0 |
| Wii Fit Trainer | 46* | 39 | 46* | -7 | -7 |
| Bowser Jr. | 47 | 34 | 47 | -13 | -13 |
| Dr. Mario | 48 | 45 | 48 | -3 | -3 |
| Falco | 49 | 38 | 49 | -11 | -11 |
| Roy | 50 | 32 | 50 | -18 | -18 |
| Charizard | 51 | 49 | 51 | -2 | -2 |
| King Dedede | 52 | 46 | 52 | -6 | -6 |
| Mii Gunner | 53 | 52 | 53 | -1 | -1 |
| Mii Brawler | 54 | 48 | 54 | -6 | ±0 |
| Zelda | 55 | 55 | 56 | +1 | +1 |
| Ganondorf | 56 | 54 | 56 | -2 | -2 |
| Mii Swordfighter | 57 | 54 | 57 | -3 | -3 |
| Jigglypuff | 58 | 55 | 58 | -3 | -3 |
* = tie