The fan-favorite Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has officially been declared the best selling fighting game of all time, setting yet another milestone for Nintendo's franchise-fusing fighter. The title of most successful fighting game, which had been held by the legendary Street Fighter 2 for over twenty-eight years, now belongs to Super Smash Bros., and it didn't even take the game a year to accomplish that feat.
Originally released back in December of 2018, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has not only become the best selling fighting game of all time, but also Nintendo's fastest selling game of all time, and only trails Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as the best selling game on the Nintendo Switch. Smash is behind Mario Kart by about 3 million units, and at its current pace the game has a great chance at surpassing the Mario-themed racer.
It's no wonder why the game has done so well since its release. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate truly is the "ultimate" title in the Smash Bros. franchise, accumulating 74 different characters in the game's original release, and currently standing at 82 following the game's DLC. From Mario, to Pikachu, to Pac-Man and even Metal Gear's Snake, Nintendo spared no expense in allowing players to use fan-favorite characters. Ultimate set out to include nearly every character from the previous Smash Bros. titles that had been released on the N64, GameCube, and Nintendo Wii, and that's exactly what the game did.
By bringing together nearly every character that fans might feel nostalgia towards from their Smash Bros. experiences of the past, and polishing the game up to today's standards, Smash Bros. Ultimate was able to appeal to a large audience, resulting in the recording breaking sales that we're seeing less than a year following its release. With its simple mechanics and deep combat system, the game does a great job of allowing newcomers to pick the game up without feeling overwhelmed, while simultaneously setting the stage up for an intense competitive scene.
Overall, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is one heck of a good time, and it's no surprise that the game continues to fly off the shelves. As Nintendo continues to release DLC characters, and as the Smash Bros. competitive scene continues to grow, it doesn't look like the game will be going anywhere soon, and we can expect people to continue buying it for the foreseeable future.