How Many Characters Are in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate?
The headline answer is 89 playable fighters — 76 in the base game plus 13 added as DLC — the largest roster in Smash history, drawn from more than 40 gaming franchises. But ask a competitive player and they’ll say 82, because they don’t count the seven near-clone “Echo” fighters. Strip out every disputed extra and you’re down to 69 truly distinct characters. All three numbers are correct — they just use different rules. The calculator below lets you pick yours.
🧮 Build your own roster count
Nintendo says 89. Competitive players often say 82. Both are right — it depends which counting rules you accept. Flip the rules and watch the number settle.
Turn everything off and you reach 69 truly distinct fighters. Turn it all on and you get the famous 89.
“Everyone Is Here” — the base 76
When Ultimate launched in December 2018, its tagline wasn’t marketing fluff: every single fighter from all four previous Smash games returned, including ones that had been cut before, like the Ice Climbers, and former guests like Snake and Cloud. That had never been done in any crossover fighting game, and Sakurai has said it required negotiating with dozens of separate rights-holders. The base game shipped with 76 fighters — the entire history of the series in one place — of which only 11 were brand-new newcomers like Inkling, Ridley and King K. Rool.
The 13 DLC fighters, in order
After launch, two Fighters Passes plus a bonus added 13 more across nearly three years, ending in October 2021. In release order:
The final fighter, Sora from Kingdom Hearts, was the single most-requested character in a global fan ballot — a fitting closer that required a deal with Disney to make happen.
Why the count splits: Echoes, forms and trainers
The gap between 89 and 82 is the seven Echo Fighters: Dark Samus, Daisy, Lucina, Chrom, Dark Pit, Ken and Richter. Each shares most of its moveset with a “parent” fighter and even shares that fighter’s roster number with a small symbol attached. Then there are the slot-sharers: the Pokémon Trainer is one slot but commands three Pokémon (Squirtle, Ivysaur, Charizard); Pyra and Mythra are one slot, two forms; the Mii Fighter is one slot, three types. Depending on whether you treat those as one entry or several, the “true” number slides between 69 and 89 — which is exactly what the calculator lets you explore.
How the roster grew across every Smash game
Ultimate’s scale only makes sense against the series’ history. Each game roughly doubled what came before:
The original. Eight starters, four unlockable — Mario, Pikachu, Kirby and friends.
The competitive cult classic, still played at tournaments 25 years on.
Added third-party guests for the first time — Snake and Sonic.
Split across two systems; introduced Mii Fighters and amiibo support.
"Everyone Is Here" — every past fighter returned, plus newcomers and DLC.
This is why the SERP is full of platform-specific searches — people remember Smash by the console they played it on, from the N64 original through Melee on GameCube, Brawl on Wii, and the 3DS / Wii U pair, to Ultimate on Switch.
40+ franchises and 900+ songs
The fighters come from over 40 series — Mario, Pokémon, Zelda, Fire Emblem, Metroid, Kirby, Donkey Kong, plus third-party guests from Street Fighter, Tekken, Persona, Castlevania, Final Fantasy, Minecraft and Kingdom Hearts. Mario’s universe contributes the most fighters, with Fire Emblem and Pokémon close behind. The game also holds the largest soundtrack in any game in the series: over 900 music tracks, more than 28 hours of music, much of it newly arranged for Ultimate.
Can the most complete game ever made even have a sequel?
Here’s the trap Nintendo built for itself. The whole appeal of Ultimate is that it’s complete — “Everyone Is Here” was a one-time miracle of licensing that brought back every fighter the series had ever had. Director Masahiro Sakurai has been blunt that it can only happen once: a future Smash almost certainly can’t keep all 89, because re-securing rights to every third-party guest (Cloud, Sora, Snake, Steve, Sephiroth) for a new game is a negotiation that may simply never line up again. So the next Smash will likely be the first in history with a smaller roster than the one before it. How do you sequel a game whose selling point was “we left nothing out”?
That’s why “new Super Smash Bros” is one of the most-searched phrases around the franchise, and why there’s no answer yet. As of early 2026, Sakurai had just finished a different project (Kirby Air Riders, late 2025) and proper development on the next Smash reportedly hadn’t begun. Insiders point to a reveal around 2027. Sakurai has even said he’d rather hand the series to someone else, hinting the next game might come with a new director — a passing of the torch.
So the count of 89 isn’t just a number — it may be a high-water mark no Smash game ever passes. Ultimate’s real achievement wasn’t being the biggest; it was being the one time everyone showed up at once. Whatever comes next will be measured against a roster that, by design, can’t be fully rebuilt.
Sources
- SmashWiki and Smashpedia, “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate” — the 76 base / 89 total figures, 82 excluding Echoes, the 7 Echo Fighters and the slot-sharing rules.
- TechRadar, “Every fighter on the roster” — the full 13-fighter DLC list and the 40-franchise count.
- 9meters / Nintendo statements — Sora as the final DLC fighter (Oct 2021) and Sakurai’s confirmation that fighter development is complete.
- Dexerto and EventHubs, 2026 — coverage of Sakurai finishing Kirby Air Riders and the state of the unannounced next Smash (reveal speculated around 2027).
Related
- How Many Mario Games Are There — the franchise with the most Smash fighters
- How Many Pokémon Are There — another roster that “depends what you count”
- How Many Characters in League of Legends
- How Many Final Fantasy Games Are There — Sephiroth and Cloud’s home series
- How Many People Play Minecraft Worldwide — Steve’s home
- Games & Gaming hub · 🎲 Surprise me
89, 82, or 69 — Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the rare game where the right answer is “which rules are you using?”, and quite possibly the most complete roster any crossover game will ever assemble.