Death Battle '26

Death Battle '26 is the set of Death Battle episodes set to be released in 2026.

Champions Island[]

Teased in Wile E. Coyote VS Tom Cat^[1] and confirmed during the 435th episode of DEATH BATTLE Cast,^[2] the successor to the Tournament of Champions is a Survivor/reality show-inspired tournament, where members of Death Battle's paid YouTube membership vote out individual characters rather than voting on matchups.

The roster is comprised of 16 characters chosen by members from a batch of 32 ballot submissions (with those 32 having been picked by the crew from a much larger ballot) in the official Death Battle Discord server and divided into two teams of eight: Team Wiz and Team Boomstick. From there, the teams will compete in weekly challenges during the tournament to win immunity from elimination. At the end of each week, members will vote out a character from the losing team to eliminate, and the winner of the whole tournament will recieve one last poll for members to vote on their eventual matchup.^[3]^[4]

The ballot to nominate characters opened on September 23rd, 2025 after the end of the 436th episode of DEATH BATTLE Cast and ran until September 25th, 2025. The tournament itself began on October 9th, 2025.

The initial 32 draft pick candidates were chosen on September 26th, with the preliminary voting round lasting until September 28th. The winning Top 16 were then revealed on September 30th in the 437th episode of DEATH BATTLE Cast,^[5] as well as on social media a few hours after it ended.^[6]^[7]

Eliminated Draft Picks[]

Rank	Contestant		Team	Week
Rank	Contestant		Team	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
TBA		Ash Williams		IN	WIN	WIN	LOW	LOW	WIN	TBA
TBA		Flowey		IN	IN	IN	WIN	WIN	LOW	TBA
TBA		Hatsune Miku		IN	WIN	WIN	IN	IN	WIN	TBA
TBA		Henry Stickmin		IN	WIN	WIN	IN	LOW	WIN	TBA
TBA		Kamen Rider Geats		SAFE^{[n 1]}		IN	WIN	WIN	LOW	TBA
TBA		Meta Knight		IN	LOW	LOW	WIN	WIN	LOW	TBA
TBA		Sakuya Izayoi		IN	IN	LOW	WIN	WIN	LOW	TBA
TBA		Slenderman		IN	WIN	WIN	IN	IN	WIN	TBA
9th		Pac-Man		IN	WIN	WIN	LOW	OUT
10th		Springtrap		SAFE^{[n 1]}	WIN	WIN	IN	OUT
11th		Shantae		IN	WIN	WIN	OUT
12th		Peter Parker		IN	WIN	WIN	OUT
13th		Frieren		IN	IN	OUT
14th		Samus Aran		IN	LOW	OUT
15th		John Constantine		IN	OUT
16th		Steve		IN	OUT

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Character won the Golden Heart immunity idol during the draft, and so was granted immunity during Week 1.

The draft to determine the Top 16 characters of Champions Island began on September 26th. On the official Death Battle Discord, both teams were given the ability to vote for 32 preliminary candidates. Members could vote for as many of the characters as they chose to.

According to the stated rules, upon the close of voting on September 28th, the votes from both teams would be combined, and the 16 characters with the fewest total votes would be immediately eliminated. The remaining 16 would then be drafted by order of total votes, and the team with more votes for each character would draft that character. This would continue, skipping characters with tied votes until one team had eight picks, at which point the remaining picks would go to the other team.

However, in the actual draft reveal, the characters were instead picked using a more traditional draft process, with each team selecting characters in order of that team's vote counts (beginning with Team Boomstick, as the result of a coin flip).

Broken Hearts[]

On September 27th, a downvote system was added, where members could select as many candidates as they chose to decrease their vote totals. Initially, downvotes counted for half of a vote. However, this was later changed to only one-fourth of a vote, and soon after, the mechanic was removed entirely.

Golden Heart[]

Near the end of the preliminary voting round for the final roster, the Golden Heart was introduced, where members anonymously voted for one character from both teams to be granted immunity from elimination for Week 1. The recipients were announced during the final roster reveal.

Notably, the Golden Heart would have also allowed a character who was not in the Top 16 to replace whoever was originally in the 16th spot and join the final roster in their place had they received it. However, since Springtrap and Geats were already part of the final roster, this aspect of the Golden Heart ended up going unused.

Results[]

The first challenge was held on October 9th, 2025 at 6PM CST. It was a Kahoot!-style trivia game composed of 200 questions, each one related to a standard episode of Death Battle up to Episode 200. Both teams competed to answer as many questions correctly in the 25-second timeframe per question as possible. Each member that participated in the game answered the questions individually, and their final scores were added up and averaged for their respective team; the team that had the higher average of correct answers won immunity. The losing team, on the other hand, had to nominate four of their characters for a double elimination.^[8]^[9]^[10]

Results[]

Team Boomstick won the trivia challenge with a combined average score of 67%, narrowly beating Team Wiz's score of 66%. Following the results announcement, Team Wiz was given a private poll of their team's characters (excluding Kamen Rider Geats, who had immunity) to select which characters would not be sent to the elimination vote. Flowey, Sakuya Izayoi, and Frieren won this vote, and were subsequently safe from elimination.

Elimination Vote[]

This vote started on October 10th and ended on October 13th. Approximately 1,700 votes were cast.

Week 2's challenge was held on October 14th, beginning immediately after the 439th episode of DEATH BATTLE Cast ended at 1PM CST. Each team was given five puzzle caches which, when solved, led to a question. The teams then had to answer the question correctly to solve that puzzle. The first team to solve all five puzzles (or the team that solved the most puzzles, if neither finished by the deadline) won immunity, while the other team had to nominate four of their characters for a double elimination. An archive of the five puzzles can be found here.

Results[]

Despite the challenge having an expected deadline of two days, both teams solved four of the five puzzles within an hour of the challenge's start. Around 4PM CST on October 14th, Team Boomstick narrowly solved the final puzzle ahead of Team Wiz, granting their team immunity for the second week in a row. Team Wiz was once again given a private poll to select which two characters would not be sent to the elimination vote. Kamen Rider Geats and Flowey won this poll and were safe from elimination.

Elimination Vote[]

This vote started on October 17th and ended on October 20th. A total of 1,735 votes were cast.

Week 3's challenge was held on October 22th at 7PM CST. The details of the challenge, other than it being some kind of race involving the teams' remaining characters, were a mystery until the challenge began.

Each team was given a list of their remaining characters, plus ten words relating to those characters. Using the Infinite Craft website, the teams had to build from scratch all the names and words on their respective lists. The first team to finish their list won immunity, while the other team had to nominate four of their characters for a double elimination.

Results[]

Team Wiz completed their list at 7:35 PM CST, just ahead of Team Boomstick's 7:37 PM CST completion, and secured their first victory. Team Boomstick was given a private poll to select which four characters from their team would not be sent to the elimination vote. Hatsune Miku, Henry Stickmin, Springtrap, and Slenderman won this poll and were safe from elimination.

Elimination Vote[]

This vote started on October 24th and ended on October 27th. A total of 1,733 votes were cast.

Week 4's challenge was held on October 30th at 6PM CST. The challenge was a computer-controlled M.U.G.E.N tournament, with each team using their full roster of characters (including those who have been eliminated). The only exception is Frieren, who did not have a proper M.U.G.E.N character at the time of the event; in her place, Team Wiz's roster included Phoenix Wright, who was 17th place during the draft. The tournament consisted of 3v3 five-match sets, alternating between Marvel vs. Capcom-style tag battles and The King of Fighters-style turn-based battles. Intra-team votes were held at the beginning of each set to determine which characters would fight and what order they would appear in during turn sets. Teams also had the ability to swap a character or change that order between matches, though they could only do this five times for the whole event. The first team to win three sets gained immunity, while the other team had to nominate four of their characters for a double elimination.

Results[]

As with previous weeks, this challenge was incredibly close, as both teams won two of the first four sets each. The fifth set’s matches were 1v1 rather than 3v3, and in the fourth match Flowey defeated Henry Stickmin to secure Team Wiz’s second victory in a row. The full results of the tournament can be found here. Team Boomstick was again given a private poll to select which two characters from their team would not be sent to the elimination vote; Slenderman and Hatsune Miku won this poll and were safe from elimination.

Elimination Vote[]

This vote started on October 31st and ended on November 3rd. A total of 1,682 votes were cast.

Week 5’s challenge will be held on November 5th at 6PM CST. The challenge will be a boss rush race against the Death Battle Discord’s moderators and staff. The first team to beat the four boss challenges will gain immunity, while the other team must send their remaining four characters to an elimination. The details of the boss rush will be revealed at the start of the challenge.

[draft-8] 1.0 ^1.1 Character won the Golden Heart immunity idol during the draft, and so was granted immunity during Week 1.

[1] ↑

[2] Disney Princess Battle Royale FT Brentalfloss | Death Battle Cast

[3] Asriel VS King Orange ( Undertale VS Animator vs. Animation ) | Death Battle Cast

[4] ttps://x.com/DEATHBATTLE/status/1970551626982195668

[5] Lelouch VS Char ( Code Geass VS Gundam ) | Death Battle Cast

[6] ttps://x.com/DEATHBATTLE/status/1973126210537586738

[7] ttps://bsky.app/profile/deathbattle.gg/post/3m23f4czt4s2v

[10] Lelouch VS Char ( Code Geass VS Gundam ) | Death Battle Cast

[11] ↑

[12] Nemesis VS Subject Delta ( Resident Evil VS BioShock ) | Death Battle Cast

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