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Fan Index Reveals: The MOST Popular Gaming Character of ALL TIME

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The most popular gaming character is Mario, receiving a whopping 451 points from the fan index
In second place is Sonic the Hedgehog with 394 points, receiving a staggering 59,700,700 Google searches in the last year
Legend of Zelda’s Link lands third place with 377 points, holding the largest number of Reddit mentions
The least popular gaming character is Jack from BioShock with just 48 points!

We’ve spent a lot of time at home, getting to know our favourite video games more than ever before, falling even more in love with a whole range of gaming characters. However, there is plenty of debate about which characters are the nations’ favourite!

With this in mind, experts at Stashbird.com wanted to discover the most popular gaming characters of all time from the best-selling video game franchises*. To thoroughly investigate, Stashbird.com created a gaming fans’ index by analysing the following factors:

Sales of the franchise
Average worldwide searches over the past year
Number of hashtags on Instagram
Number of Reddit mentions
Gamers’ popularity score (survey)

The top 10 most popular characters

Stashbird.com can reveal that in first place, and crowned the most popular gaming character, is Mario with a massive 451 fan index points!

Mario ranked first for franchise sales with a staggering 653,000,000 worldwide copies of Mario games sold, bagging him an easy 100 points. The fun-loving character also ranked sixth for average worldwide searches with 4,606,547 (86 points) in the past year alone! Despite these results, Mario only ranked 10th for popularity, with 45% of gamers choosing him as their ultimate favourite.

Not far behind in second place is Sonic the Hedgehog with 394 points. The extraterrestrial hedgehog ranked second for worldwide searches (59,700,000), giving him 97 points! He was voted the favourite by only 21% of gamers surveyed, however bagged himself 91 points for his 94,300 Reddit mentions.

Link from The Legend of Zelda places third, accumulating 377 points! It is no surprise as the star of the Nintendo series to have ranked top for Reddit mentions (3,920,000) and popularity score (74%), receiving 100 points for both! Interestingly, he ranked lower down for search volumes, with 1,196,200 average searches over the past year.

At number four is Donkey Kong with 354 points, scoring high with 3,930,000 yearly average searches (83 points), 570,000 Instagram hashtags (77 points) and 26,400 Reddit mentions (80 points).

To complete the 10 most popular gaming characters, the results are as follows:
5. Master Chief (Halo) 323 points, Crash (Crash Bandicoot) 323 points, Sora (Kingdom Hearts) 323 points
6. Cloud Strife (Final Fantasy) 314 points
7. Pac-Man (Pac-Man) 308 points
8. Kirby (Kirby) 306 points
9. Geralt of Rivia (The Witcher) 294 points

Closing the top 10 is Ezio Auditore Da Firenze, star of four of the Assassin’s Creed games, with 291 points!

Just making the bottom 10 is Joel Miller, ranking 25th out of a possible 34 places, from the Last of Us. This is not surprising as the franchise only scored 14 points for its 24 million sales. He also scored low on Reddit searches, receiving just 29 points for his 1,670 mentions.

John Marston from Red Dead Redemption and Simon Belmont from Castlevania were both among the least popular with 94 and 74 points, respectively.

Bioshock’s Jack rounds off the bottom 10 list with measly 48 points – a staggering 403 points less than first place contender Mario.

Methodology
1. *Stashbird.com analysed the list of best-selling video game franchises that have sold at least 20 million copies and pulled the most popular/recognised character from each to compile the list of 36 most popular gaming characters of all time.
2. The team then created an index looking at several factors, including sales of the franchise, search volumes using SemRush, the number of Instagram hashtags per character and the number of mentions on Reddit.
3. Finally, to complete the index Stashbird.com surveyed 4,567 gamers worldwide to ask them to vote for their favourite from the list to give each character a popularity score.
4. Games where there is no playable main character were excluded from the list.
5. Stashbird normalised the data by using the PERCENTRANK.INC function in Excel. This function returns the rank of a value in a data set as a percentage of the data set between 0 and 1. These values were then multiplied by 100 to make the range between 0 and 100. The maximum score a character could receive was 500.This enabled the team to rank the 36 characters from most to least popular based on their total points. The data was collected on 29/02/2021 and is correct as of then.

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XSOLLA STRENGTHENS COMMITMENT TO ATLANTIC CANADA’S GROWING GAME INDUSTRY WITH EXPANDED EVENT PRESENCE

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Global Video Game Commerce Company To Support Industry Growth Through Panels, Workshops, And Community Engagement Across Atlantic Canada

Xsolla, a leading global video game commerce company, today announced its participation in two major gaming industry events taking place across Atlantic Canada from June 3-5, 2026, reinforcing the company’s commitment to supporting regional game development ecosystems and fostering industry collaboration.

Xsolla will participate in both Game Invest East and XP Game Connect Atlantic, joining developers, publishers, investors, and industry leaders for discussions centered on the future of game development, investment, and innovation in the local area.

At Game Invest East, held in partnership with Scaffold, Xsolla will contribute to conversations around funding, growth opportunities, and the evolving business landscape for game studios.

Featured on the panel titled “If You Can Make It Here,” Xsolla’s Manny Hachey, Senior Director of Developer Success, joins Kate Edwards, CEO and Principal Consultant of Geogrify, and Amir Satvat, Business Development Director at Tencent Games, founder of Always Supporting the Games Community (ASGC), and a 2026 GamesBeat Visionary Award honoree, to explore how new regions and new entrants can survive and thrive in disruptive times.

Hachey, a native of Atlantic Canada, was personally requested by Scaffold to represent Xsolla at the event — a homecoming that adds a personal dimension to the panel’s central thesis. Having built her career and made her mark in Germany’s games industry, she returns with a firsthand perspective on what it takes to leave, build something meaningful abroad, and come back with proof of concept.

Xsolla will continue its Atlantic Canada engagement at XP Game Connect Atlantic in Halifax on June 5. John Nguyen, Regional Vice President, Canada at Xsolla, and Ted DiNola, Developer Evangelist at Xsolla, will host a workshop titled ‘Full Picture to Fast Lane: Xsolla Ecosystem Overview & Live SDK 3 Integration’, providing practical insights and actionable strategies for developers navigating today’s rapidly evolving gaming market.

Nguyen will also host a panel titled, ‘What Does the Future of Game Development Look Like in Atlantic Canada?’ where he will be joined by industry experts, including Ryan Filsinger from Iron Fox; Shawn Woods, CEO at Alpha Dog and VP of Interactive Society of Nova Scotia; George Greer, Founder of Besszong; and Jade Yhap, President of Interactive NB. The panel will explore the region’s growing role in the global games industry and the opportunities ahead for studios, talent, and ecosystem partners.

John Nguyen, Regional Vice President, Canada, at Xsolla

“Atlantic Canada continues to emerge as an exciting hub for game development talent and innovation,” said John Nguyen, Regional Vice President, Canada, at Xsolla. “Xsolla is proud to support these events and contribute to conversations that help empower developers, build ecosystems, strengthen industry connections, and accelerate growth across the region.”

Berkley Egenes, Chief Marketing & Growth Officer at Xsolla

“Events like Game Invest East and XP Game Connect Atlantic are critical for building stronger connections across the games industry,” said Berkley Egenes, Chief Marketing & Growth Officer at Xsolla. “Atlantic Canada has a growing community of talented developers, creators, and industry leaders, and we’re excited to be part of conversations that help to shape the future of gaming in the region while supporting studios at every stage of growth.”

Through its participation in these events, Xsolla aims to deepen relationships within the Atlantic Canadian game development community while supporting knowledge-sharing, collaboration, and long-term ecosystem growth.

For more information about Xsolla’s participation in these events across Atlantic Canada, visit: xsolla.pro/Atlantic-Canada

 

The post XSOLLA STRENGTHENS COMMITMENT TO ATLANTIC CANADA’S GROWING GAME INDUSTRY WITH EXPANDED EVENT PRESENCE appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.

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SEON adds MCP server and new AI tools for fraud and AML teams Subheadline

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Updates include Network Detection, AI Chart Builder and an AI Playbook, with integrations for third-party AI tools via the MCP standard.

SEON has rolled out new AI capabilities for its fraud prevention and AML compliance platform, including a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server designed to connect SEON data to external AI tools. The company said the MCP server, Network Detection, AI Chart Builder and an AI Playbook for Risk and Compliance Teams are available now to SEON customers.

The MCP server is positioned as a way for analysts to use third-party AI tools while pulling investigation context from SEON. SEON said analysts can connect tools including Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and Microsoft Copilot to “900+ real-time risk signals spanning identity, device, behavioral, AML and IP data,” with signals accessible “in a single call” via the open MCP standard.

“The software world is moving toward a headless model, where teams don’t need to live inside a vendor’s dashboard to get full control over data and functionality,” said Tamas Kadar, CEO and Co-Founder, SEON. “Our job is to be the best command center for fraud, risk and compliance intelligence. We’re giving analysts the freedom to use whichever AI tools work best for them.”

SEON also introduced Network Detection and AI Chart Builder inside its platform. Network Detection builds on SEON’s network analysis features released last year, and “continuously scans the last two months of transactions across devices, emails, phone numbers and IP addresses” to surface suspicious clusters. AI Chart Builder generates data visualizations from natural-language questions using live SEON data, targeting reporting and dashboarding needs typically handled through BI teams or spreadsheet exports.

Customer TurboTenant said it is already using the MCP approach in production workflows. “The SEON MCP integration has fundamentally changed how our risk analysts operate,” said Eric Taylor, Manager of Trust and Safety, TurboTenant. “Before, they had to manually pull data across multiple systems to piece together what happened. Now, we pull a user’s entire platform journey and all of SEON’s risk signal context directly into Claude, and AI connects the dots on complex fraud patterns without us doing that assembly. It’s opened up OSINT capabilities that wouldn’t have been possible before.”

To support adoption, SEON said it is shipping an AI Playbook for Risk and Compliance Teams alongside the releases, including “pre-built agentic skills” such as a fraud analyst daily briefing and a decline spot-check, compatible with the MCP server. “SEON opening its data layer to any AI we want to use is exactly the kind of architectural decision that fits where the market is going,” said Mostafa Hassanin, CISO, SMG Marketplace.

The post SEON adds MCP server and new AI tools for fraud and AML teams Subheadline appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

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SEON Expands AI Capabilities Inside the Platform and Through Any External AI Tool

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New MCP server, Network Detection, AI Chart Builder and AI Playbook give fraud and AML teams more ways to put AI to work

SEON, the AI Command Center for Fraud Prevention and AML Compliance, has built a platform where flexibility is an accent of its architecture. With SEON, customers can ingest any custom field or data type, build any rule or alert they need, and investigate in system driven workflows that represent the way their team operates. Most importantly, they can choose a rules-based policy, one driven by AI or a hybrid decisioning model that leverages both. SEON has the capabilities to meet teams how and where they actually operate.

Today, the company extends that same flexibility to the use of AI in the fight against fraud and financial crimes. A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server opens SEON’s data layer to whichever AI tool a team prefers. Two additional capabilities, Network Detection and AI Chart Builder, connect SEON’s existing capabilities in automation and business intelligence. To support adoption, an AI Playbook for Risk and Compliance Teams ships alongside them, giving customers a practical starting point for putting their MCP connection to work quickly.

Access to AI Has Outpaced Access to Risk Data

For most fraud and AML teams, AI is accessible but still hard to put to real work. Analysts have ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini at their fingertips. What they don’t have is a clean way to get their investigation data into those environments. Instead, they manually paste in transaction records, customer profiles and risk signals, losing context at every step and creating security risks for their organization. According to the 2026 Fraud and AML Leaders Report, 98% of fraud and AML leaders are already using AI in their workflows. The tools are there. The data pipeline is not.

An Open Foundation for Any AI Tool

SEON’s MCP server addresses that gap. Analysts can link Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot or any custom agent to SEON’s 900+ real-time risk signals spanning identity, device, behavioral, AML and IP data. All signals are accessible in a single call, so the AI spends its token budget and processing time on analysis rather than pulling data from multiple systems. Because the integration uses the open MCP standard, customers are free to use whatever works best today and switch to a stronger option tomorrow without rebuilding anything.

“The software world is moving toward a headless model, where teams don’t need to live inside a vendor’s dashboard to get full control over data and functionality,” said Tamas Kadar, CEO and Co-Founder, SEON. “Our job is to be the best command center for fraud, risk and compliance intelligence. We’re giving analysts the freedom to use whichever AI tools work best for them.”

“The SEON MCP integration has fundamentally changed how our risk analysts operate,” said Eric Taylor, Manager of Trust and Safety, TurboTenant. “Before, they had to manually pull data across multiple systems to piece together what happened. Now, we pull a user’s entire platform journey and all of SEON’s risk signal context directly into Claude, and AI connects the dots on complex fraud patterns without us doing that assembly. It’s opened up OSINT capabilities that wouldn’t have been possible before.”

Meeting Teams Where They Are

Some customers are ready to run their entire risk operation through an agentic platform. Others want AI working inside the SEON interface they already use. Most are somewhere in between. SEON supports all team preferences, whether they work inside the platform or outside it.

Network Detection builds on the network analysis SEON released last year, including Similarity ranking and the Network graph. It continuously scans the last two months of transactions across devices, emails, phone numbers and IP addresses to identify clusters that are only suspicious when viewed together. Coordinated fraud rings and money laundering networks now surface before an analyst opens an alert.

AI Chart Builder turns natural-language questions about your business into instant data visualizations. Analysts no longer wait on business intelligence teams for dashboard projects or are forced to rebuild reports from spreadsheet exports. They ask a question and the chart appears, built on live SEON data.

These join an AI portfolio SEON has shipped over the past year. Existing capabilities include AI-assisted rule creation, scoring insights, AML screening analysis, automated case summaries and regulatory report generation.

“The next generation of fraud and KYC challenges won’t look like the last one. AI agents will interact with our marketplaces as customers, and AI agents will be used to impersonate and exploit our customers as well. Our team needs an intelligence foundation that’s ready for both,” said Mostafa Hassanin, CISO, SMG Marketplace. “SEON opening its data layer to any AI we want to use is exactly the kind of architectural decision that fits where the market is going.”

A Fast-Start Kit for Teams Ready to Build

To help teams get started quickly, SEON is also releasing an AI Playbook for Risk and Compliance Teams. The playbook is a practical guide to connecting AI tools to SEON and building investigation workflows that match how analyst teams actually operate. It ships with pre-built agentic skills, including a fraud analyst daily briefing and a decline spot-check, both compatible with SEON’s MCP server and ready to deploy on day one.

The MCP server, Network Detection, AI Chart Builder and AI Playbook are available now to SEON customers.

 

The post SEON Expands AI Capabilities Inside the Platform and Through Any External AI Tool appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.

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