I don't get it either, the Rayman fanbase is rather harmless from my own experience, yet one of the characters I see a lot of people against. Probably because of a dislike for Ubisoft or something, which I understand, but then again, Konami has a lot of rep in Smash and I don't see anyone complaining so...
A lot of people put down Rayman as this random nobody that's not important and that Assasins Creed and the like are more likely. At least that's what the some of the users of the newcomer thread seems to imply.
It's true that Rayman has seen better days, but when it comes to third parties, the most iconic doesn't always mean the default one.
Look at Capcom. Mega Man's best selling game was MM2 over 20 years ago, and the game only sold 1 million copies, it's not even in the top 20 best selling Capcom games. The only reason the series sells so much is because there are so many games out there, but individually they don't sell very well. and yet, Mega Man was the one who got top billing in Smash 4 with all love possible in-game appearing in multiple trailers and posters, and that love continued in Ultimate.
Meanwhile, Resident Evil, Capcom's BEST SELLING series of all time that features movies, and remakes and ports of said remakes, etc, etc................got post-release spirits. and Monster Hunter got a Boss and that's it (and Mii Costumes in 4)
People said the same about Steve. Most iconic franchise of all time, far more popular in Japan than Banjo ever was, and yet it was Banjo who came out on top. Probably because it was the character that Nintendo asked for. Kojima "begged" Sakurai for Snake, he got Snake. Phil Spencer gave Banjo the OK, Sakurai gave Banjo the OK.
I don't know if Ubisoft or Michel Ancel ever specifically said that they wanted Rayman in Smash, but if they did, i think that's enough reason for me to believe he has more chaces than other Ubisoft Chracters.
The only real downsize i see for Rayman is presence in Japan. Not his lack of popularity, but rather the fact that Rayman doesn't seem to have a lot of games that have been localized to that market. But in Rayman's defense, he is from France. A lot of characters from European countries, no matter the medium, tend to be less popular (or at least less talked about) than their american or japanese counterparts worldwide. Look at comics and draw strips for example, you see people talking a lot about America's Super Man or Japan's Goku, but how many people do you see talking about Belgium's TinTin, or Spain's Mortadelo and Filemon? Cartoons? Only Aardman comes to mind. I could go on and on. Besides if Sakurai really wants to turn this game into the best character game ever as he has stated, he will have to admit that Japan is not the center of the universe and will sooner or later add a character that a chunk of japanese Smash fans will feel the same way some american smash fans felt about Terry and Hero.
Come to think of it the only other european characters for Smash that i see people constantly talk are from the Biritsh Rare, which is expected, but that's only for their previous affiliation with Nintendo. I mean Assasins Creed, for as much as people talk about how iconic it is, is never mentioned in Smash context outside of knocking Rayman fans down a peg (do you see people campaining for an AC rep in Smash in these boards or in any other social media website as a whole? not really) I don't wanna turn this into a "AC sucks rant" but at least Steve has gathered a more legitmate fanbase over these last years as users like
TheCJBrine
have shown, but i have yet to see legitimate interest at large for an Assasin's Creed rep that's not "he is more popular nowdays among non-gaming people so Rayman's out"
Yes i know, a character doesn't need to be requested, popular or talked about in the "Smash Sphere" in order to get in (hi Joker) but still. I see more interest in Rayman than there was ever of any other Ubisoft character. I mean the one Grasshoper manifacture character that is actually requested (by deveoper and fans) is Travis Touchdown, and if suddenly Killer7 got a sequel and became super mainstream and popular, i still would see Travis as the more likely choice.
....okay im sorry i rambled up a bit. I played Rayman 2 and even though i never beat it, i still want to finish it. Nitro Rad's videos about Rayman only raise my interest further, so even though im a super fan of Rayman, you guys got my support.