In this week’s edition of Fantasy Brawls we’ve got two of the deadliest animals you’ll ever find in the water. The Hippo and the Great White Shark will be duking it out in the battle arena. While both animals are found in water, the shark is the only combatant that resides there exclusively. As such, a battle between the two will not take place on land, rather in a body of water, deep enough for the shark to swim and maneuver yet shallow enough for the hippo to grab a breath of air when needed.
Before we dive into the battle analysis, we’ll set a few more rules and guidelines for the fight.
With the ground rules set up. Let’s move into battle analysis. We’ll first start with a size comparison.
Great Whites are the biggest predatory fish you’ll find in our oceans. They routinely weigh around 1,500 to 2,400 pounds and measure between 4 and 5 meters from snout to tail. Hippos, however, are in a league of their own when it comes to size. These animals can weigh anywhere from 3,300 pounds up to 9,000 pounds and measure between 3.3 to 5 meters in length. They are the tanks of the river and eclipse sharks when it comes to overall bulk and size.
On paper, the Great White's bite force completely overshadows that of a bull Hippo. But paper specs, just like in tech, only tell half the story. While it is true that Great White Sharks have a massive bite force of 4,000 PSI and the Hippo comes in at around 1,800 PSI. The Hippo can open its mouth 150 degrees and clamp down with enough crushing force to snap a crocodile in half. The Sharks jaws are powerful but more of a shearing tool than a crushing one. Its mouth was designed to tear off chunks of flesh, quickly and effectively.
It's effectively a surgical tool. Whereas the hippo opens its mouth cartoonishly wide and delivers a sludgehammer strike that crushes things beyond recognition. So, yes, the Great White bites harder but the Hippo bites deadlier.
In our battle scenario, a large bull Hippo is cooling off with a swim in a 13 foot deep brackish lake, connected to a river system that empties into the ocean. As fate would have it, a large, Great White Shark has wandered into the body of water looking for dinner. The Hippo takes notice of this, and being the thick bodied rage monster that it is immediately starts charging towards the shark.
The shark, noticing the threat circles and dodges the hippos attack and attempts to counter with a massive bite. It lands and causes an immense amount of pain for the hippo. However, the hippo’s 2 inch thick hide prevents the wound from being fatal. With the shark in close range the hippo retaliates by opening its massive jaws and clamping down hard on the shark’s side. The force collapses the impacted cartilage and organs, stunning the shark. With the Great White wounded, the hippo finishes the job with another bite to the head, crushing the skull of the fish and abruptly ending the battle. Winner: Hippo.
The hippo was crowned champion at the end of this battle. A fully grown bull is just too much for most animals to take on and survive. They are tanks, hyper aggressive and durable enough to withstand massive blows from some of the hardest hitting creatures on Earth. If you’re a fan of hippos, you’ll love its other battles. Check out Hippo vs Polar Bear to see if the wide backed menace can take on the largest land predator on the planet. And when you're done there, head over to Hippo vs Rhino, to see how it fares against another armored tank, the White Rhino.
Finally, if you’d like to play out this battle yourself, sign up for a free account on Fantasy Brawls - The Online Game. There you can choose the terrain, apply stat boosts and more to see if you can turn the tide of battle in the shark’s favor. The hippo is an Earth type brawler that receives a stat boost in the Forest terrain. The Great White is a Deep Sea type brawler that gains a stat boost in the Under Water terrain.
Great Whites need a large space to build up enough momentum to propel their massive bodies out of the water. Breaching attacks like these aren’t possible in the shallow water this battle takes place in.
Not for very long. While they won’t instantly die if plunged into salt water their skin will dry out pretty fast. Their eyes will begin to get irritated and their entire body will start going into overdrive.
Unlike Bull Sharks, Great Whites don’t do well in freshwater at all. Their bodies need the salt content found in the ocean to keep their internal chemistry balanced. Without it, their organs will start to struggle, almost instantly. They will lose the ability to regulate salt and their cells will take on too much water. This will eventually become fatal for the animal.
No, a Hippo would likely drown. They can’t hold their breath for very long and aren’t very good swimmers, despite spending a lot of time in water. In deepwater they are fish food.
Hippos aren’t afraid of anything. They charge boats, people, lions, crocodiles, other hippos and anything else that is unfortunate enough to cross its path. It's a bold, beautiful (IMO), and fearless creature. It would treat a Great White like it would anything else.
Sharks don’t really experience fear in the way a mammal would. They instead do a risk-reward calculation, as many apex predators do. If they see a large, aggressive being in the water, they avoid it, if at all possible. This behavior can be seen when there are any Orcas in the area. Whenever a Great White, no matter how large, notices Killer Whales in the area they scatter.
While neither animal is a genius, the hippo has a greater degree of cognitive and social intelligence. They can problem solve, form groups, and social hierarchies. Sharks aren’t exactly mindless but they aren’t strategic either. They are highly adept at hunting and have exhibited some behavioral adaptivity but this is largely more instinct than anything. In short, Hippos are quite a bit smarter than Great Whites.
Hippos aren’t like Orcas and likely would not be able to deduce that flipping a shark over renders it immobile. They might accidentally flip it over while biting and thrashing at the shark’s fins, but it certainly won’t be intentional.
Posted by: Matt Irving on 11/23/2025