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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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FB Success Story +155% FTD, 135% ROI

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Following Meta’s algorithm updates, many media buying teams found it much more difficult to scale Facebook traffic. Customer acquisition costs increased, advertising accounts became less stable, and even successful campaign combinations lost their effectiveness faster.

In the new Success Story, N1 Partners explains how they helped a media buying team specializing in Facebook traffic for the iGaming vertical adapt to changing market conditions and successfully scale traffic acquisition across Tier-1 GEOs.

The results after nine months of collaboration were impressive: a 155% increase in FTDs, 135% ROI, and a 22% reduction in average CPA.

About partner

The featured partner is a media buying team with four years of experience in affiliate marketing, specializing in Facebook traffic acquisition for iGaming products.

At the beginning of the partnership, the team was already working with Tier-1 GEOs, including Canada, Germany, New Zealand, and Australia. They consistently identified profitable campaign combinations but encountered the typical scaling limitations faced by many teams in the industry.

To continue growing, they needed a partner offering high-quality products with strong Reg2Dep and LTV performance, reliable payouts, and responsive support capable of handling increasing traffic volumes.

Why did they choose N1 Partners?

Several factors influenced their decision:

  • High Reg2Dep rates;
  • Strong player LTV performance;
  • Reliable and consistent payouts;
  • Fast and responsive affiliate manager support;
  • The ability to work with multiple brands within a single ecosystem.

For the initial testing phase, the team selected N1 Bet, RollXO, Lucky Hunter, and Retro Bet.

“Working with several brands at the same time gave the team much greater flexibility. Whenever one product started losing performance, we could quickly redirect traffic to another brand without interrupting our buying activity,” explained Polina Bogatko, Affiliate Manager N1 Partners.

Preparing for launch

Before launching the campaigns, N1 Partners specialists analyzed the partner’s previous performance and proposed a structured testing plan.

Instead of focusing on a single offer, they decided to test multiple brands simultaneously. This approach allowed them to identify much faster which products performed best with Facebook traffic in each GEO.

At the start, the partner also received several recommendations:

  • Start with the CPA payment model;
  • Separate advertising campaigns by audience type;
  • Build dedicated landing pages for each GEO instead of using one universal funnel;
  • Test broad audiences without narrow interest-based targeting;
  • Use multiple creative formats;
  • Evaluate not only registration costs but also the quality of acquired players.

This strategy helped identify promising campaign combinations early while preventing unnecessary spending on underperforming campaigns.

Choosing GEOs, offers and creatives

N1 Partners affiliate manager shared internal performance data highlighting products that consistently delivered strong results with Facebook traffic.

For the first stage, three high-potential GEOs with stable demand were selected:

  • Canada;
  • Germany;
  • New Zealand.

Australia was intentionally excluded from the initial testing phase to concentrate the available budget on fewer markets and collect meaningful data more quickly.

Offers were selected primarily based on two key metrics: deposit conversion rate and player quality. Among all available brands, the selected products consistently demonstrated the strongest overall performance.

For every GEO, the team created special creatives featuring localized visual elements and market-specific bonus offers.

Workflow organization

After launch, specialists from N1 Partners worked alongside the partner on a daily basis, analyzing campaign performance and deciding on the next optimization steps.

“Regular data sharing allowed us to detect changes almost immediately. We didn’t wait until the end of the week, we adjusted offers, budgets, and creatives as soon as we saw a consistent performance signal,” noted Polina Bogatko, Affiliate Manager N1 Partners.

Teams closely monitored:

  • Reg2Dep and LTV;
  • Player quality;
  • Budget allocation between products;
  • Individual GEO performance;
  • Results of newly launched creatives.

Most operational questions were resolved by the affiliate manager within a few hours. This allowed the partner to quickly switch offers and launch additional tests without interrupting traffic acquisition.

Initial hypotheses

During the preparation phase, N1 Partners suggested testing several working hypotheses:

  • Video creatives could outperform static banners;
  • Different advertising concepts might attract audiences of different quality;
  • Rapid budget increases could reduce campaign stability;
  • Evaluating traffic solely based on acquisition cost does not reflect its actual value.

The team tested lifestyle creatives, game-focused concepts, bonus offers, and social proof elements. Budgets were increased gradually, while campaign performance was evaluated not only by CPA but also by player behavior after making their first deposit.

“The ability to compare several brands simultaneously played a crucial role. Whenever statistics indicated a decline in traffic quality, we suggested another product or reallocated the budget. This helped maintain acquisition momentum without relying on a single offer,” commented Polina Bogatko, Affiliate Manager N1 Partners.

Strategy and optimization

After the initial testing phase, the team focused on increasing traffic volumes without compromising player quality.

To achieve this, the partner:

  • Duplicated the highest-performing campaigns;
  • Regularly launched new creatives;
  • Split campaigns by device type;
  • Applied successful approaches to markets with similar audience characteristics.

At the same time, budgets were increased gradually, helping maintain campaign stability while keeping CPA within the target range.

What delivered the best results?

Four optimization strategies produced the strongest performance improvements:

  • Creative localization;
  • Continuous production of fresh advertising materials;
  • Pausing underperforming campaign combinations within the first 48 hours;
  • Optimizing based on player quality rather than CPA alone.

At one stage of the campaign, the affiliate manager noticed that one of the brands was achieving a significantly higher Reg2Dep rate from Facebook traffic in Canada.

After jointly reviewing the data, part of the advertising budget was shifted toward that product.

“The decision was based on more than just the number of deposits. We also evaluated player LTV and repeated activity. After reallocating the budget, profitability increased, and further scaling became much more stable,” said Polina Bogatko, Affiliate Manager N1 Partners.

Results

After nine months of collaboration, every key performance indicator improved significantly.

  • Monthly FTDs increased from 450 to 1,150 (+155%);
  • ROI increased from 86% to 135%;
  • Average CPA decreased by 22%;
  • Revenue increased by approximately 2.5 times;
  • Player LTV increased by 25%.

The most important achievement was not a single successful campaign but the creation of a sustainable Facebook traffic acquisition model. The partner was able to continuously scale traffic across Tier-1 GEOs without experiencing a proportional increase in acquisition costs.

Key takeaways

  1. What was the biggest advantage of working with N1 Partners?

According to the media buying team, working with N1 Partners helped establish a clear and scalable traffic acquisition process.

The main contributing factors were high-quality products, strong Reg2Dep performance, and constant communication with the affiliate manager. The team also emphasized that N1 Partners specialists proactively suggested new testing hypotheses before market changes began noticeably affecting campaign performance. This allowed them to stay ahead of industry trends instead of reacting only after performance had already declined.

  1. What made the results possible?

Polina Bogatko, Affiliate Manager N1 Partners: “The biggest factor behind our success was the partner’s willingness to continuously test new approaches. We evaluated not only Facebook campaign metrics but also player quality for every brand and GEO. This enabled us to redistribute budgets quickly and focus on the most promising campaign combinations.

After launching localized creatives and testing new audiences, the number of FTDs in Canada nearly doubled within just a few weeks, while campaign ROI remained stable. This clearly demonstrated the importance of continuous testing, fast analytics, and close collaboration between both teams”.

Scale your Facebook traffic with N1 Partners!

N1 Partners gives affiliates access to:

  • 14+ casino and betting brands with high Reg2Dep 
  • 10+ Tier-1 GEOs
  • CPA up to €700 and RevShare up to 55% + NNCO for top partners

Be number one with N1!

The post FB Success Story +155% FTD, 135% ROI appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

Continue Reading

Facebook

FB Success Story +155% FTD, 135% ROI

Published

on

fb-success-story-+155%-ftd,-135%-roi

Following Meta’s algorithm updates, many media buying teams found it much more difficult to scale Facebook traffic. Customer acquisition costs increased, advertising accounts became less stable, and even successful campaign combinations lost their effectiveness faster.

In the new Success Story, N1 Partners explains how they helped a media buying team specializing in Facebook traffic for the iGaming vertical adapt to changing market conditions and successfully scale traffic acquisition across Tier-1 GEOs.

The results after nine months of collaboration were impressive: a 155% increase in FTDs, 135% ROI, and a 22% reduction in average CPA.

About partner

The featured partner is a media buying team with four years of experience in affiliate marketing, specializing in Facebook traffic acquisition for iGaming products.

At the beginning of the partnership, the team was already working with Tier-1 GEOs, including Canada, Germany, New Zealand, and Australia. They consistently identified profitable campaign combinations but encountered the typical scaling limitations faced by many teams in the industry.

To continue growing, they needed a partner offering high-quality products with strong Reg2Dep and LTV performance, reliable payouts, and responsive support capable of handling increasing traffic volumes.

Why did they choose N1 Partners?

Several factors influenced their decision:

  • High Reg2Dep rates;
  • Strong player LTV performance;
  • Reliable and consistent payouts;
  • Fast and responsive affiliate manager support;
  • The ability to work with multiple brands within a single ecosystem.

For the initial testing phase, the team selected N1 Bet, RollXO, Lucky Hunter, and Retro Bet.

“Working with several brands at the same time gave the team much greater flexibility. Whenever one product started losing performance, we could quickly redirect traffic to another brand without interrupting our buying activity,” explained Polina Bogatko, Affiliate Manager N1 Partners.

Preparing for launch

Before launching the campaigns, N1 Partners specialists analyzed the partner’s previous performance and proposed a structured testing plan.

Instead of focusing on a single offer, they decided to test multiple brands simultaneously. This approach allowed them to identify much faster which products performed best with Facebook traffic in each GEO.

At the start, the partner also received several recommendations:

  • Start with the CPA payment model;
  • Separate advertising campaigns by audience type;
  • Build dedicated landing pages for each GEO instead of using one universal funnel;
  • Test broad audiences without narrow interest-based targeting;
  • Use multiple creative formats;
  • Evaluate not only registration costs but also the quality of acquired players.

This strategy helped identify promising campaign combinations early while preventing unnecessary spending on underperforming campaigns.

Choosing GEOs, offers and creatives

N1 Partners affiliate manager shared internal performance data highlighting products that consistently delivered strong results with Facebook traffic.

For the first stage, three high-potential GEOs with stable demand were selected:

  • Canada;
  • Germany;
  • New Zealand.

Australia was intentionally excluded from the initial testing phase to concentrate the available budget on fewer markets and collect meaningful data more quickly.

Offers were selected primarily based on two key metrics: deposit conversion rate and player quality. Among all available brands, the selected products consistently demonstrated the strongest overall performance.

For every GEO, the team created special creatives featuring localized visual elements and market-specific bonus offers.

Workflow organization

After launch, specialists from N1 Partners worked alongside the partner on a daily basis, analyzing campaign performance and deciding on the next optimization steps.

“Regular data sharing allowed us to detect changes almost immediately. We didn’t wait until the end of the week, we adjusted offers, budgets, and creatives as soon as we saw a consistent performance signal,” noted Polina Bogatko, Affiliate Manager N1 Partners.

Teams closely monitored:

  • Reg2Dep and LTV;
  • Player quality;
  • Budget allocation between products;
  • Individual GEO performance;
  • Results of newly launched creatives.

Most operational questions were resolved by the affiliate manager within a few hours. This allowed the partner to quickly switch offers and launch additional tests without interrupting traffic acquisition.

Initial hypotheses

During the preparation phase, N1 Partners suggested testing several working hypotheses:

  • Video creatives could outperform static banners;
  • Different advertising concepts might attract audiences of different quality;
  • Rapid budget increases could reduce campaign stability;
  • Evaluating traffic solely based on acquisition cost does not reflect its actual value.

The team tested lifestyle creatives, game-focused concepts, bonus offers, and social proof elements. Budgets were increased gradually, while campaign performance was evaluated not only by CPA but also by player behavior after making their first deposit.

“The ability to compare several brands simultaneously played a crucial role. Whenever statistics indicated a decline in traffic quality, we suggested another product or reallocated the budget. This helped maintain acquisition momentum without relying on a single offer,” commented Polina Bogatko, Affiliate Manager N1 Partners.

Strategy and optimization

After the initial testing phase, the team focused on increasing traffic volumes without compromising player quality.

To achieve this, the partner:

  • Duplicated the highest-performing campaigns;
  • Regularly launched new creatives;
  • Split campaigns by device type;
  • Applied successful approaches to markets with similar audience characteristics.

At the same time, budgets were increased gradually, helping maintain campaign stability while keeping CPA within the target range.

What delivered the best results?

Four optimization strategies produced the strongest performance improvements:

  • Creative localization;
  • Continuous production of fresh advertising materials;
  • Pausing underperforming campaign combinations within the first 48 hours;
  • Optimizing based on player quality rather than CPA alone.

At one stage of the campaign, the affiliate manager noticed that one of the brands was achieving a significantly higher Reg2Dep rate from Facebook traffic in Canada.

After jointly reviewing the data, part of the advertising budget was shifted toward that product.

“The decision was based on more than just the number of deposits. We also evaluated player LTV and repeated activity. After reallocating the budget, profitability increased, and further scaling became much more stable,” said Polina Bogatko, Affiliate Manager N1 Partners.

Results

After nine months of collaboration, every key performance indicator improved significantly.

  • Monthly FTDs increased from 450 to 1,150 (+155%);
  • ROI increased from 86% to 135%;
  • Average CPA decreased by 22%;
  • Revenue increased by approximately 2.5 times;
  • Player LTV increased by 25%.

The most important achievement was not a single successful campaign but the creation of a sustainable Facebook traffic acquisition model. The partner was able to continuously scale traffic across Tier-1 GEOs without experiencing a proportional increase in acquisition costs.

Key takeaways

  1. What was the biggest advantage of working with N1 Partners?

According to the media buying team, working with N1 Partners helped establish a clear and scalable traffic acquisition process.

The main contributing factors were high-quality products, strong Reg2Dep performance, and constant communication with the affiliate manager. The team also emphasized that N1 Partners specialists proactively suggested new testing hypotheses before market changes began noticeably affecting campaign performance. This allowed them to stay ahead of industry trends instead of reacting only after performance had already declined.

  1. What made the results possible?

Polina Bogatko, Affiliate Manager N1 Partners: “The biggest factor behind our success was the partner’s willingness to continuously test new approaches. We evaluated not only Facebook campaign metrics but also player quality for every brand and GEO. This enabled us to redistribute budgets quickly and focus on the most promising campaign combinations.

After launching localized creatives and testing new audiences, the number of FTDs in Canada nearly doubled within just a few weeks, while campaign ROI remained stable. This clearly demonstrated the importance of continuous testing, fast analytics, and close collaboration between both teams”.

Scale your Facebook traffic with N1 Partners!

N1 Partners gives affiliates access to:

  • 14+ casino and betting brands with high Reg2Dep 
  • 10+ Tier-1 GEOs
  • CPA up to €700 and RevShare up to 55% + NNCO for top partners

Be number one with N1!

The post FB Success Story +155% FTD, 135% ROI appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.

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Blueprint Gaming upgrades Super Graphics Upside Down for Lottomart exclusive

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The updated slot launches on Lottomart for UK players on 23rd July with a new bonus wheel and higher max win.

Blueprint Gaming is releasing an upgraded version of Super Graphics Upside Down exclusively on Lottomart from 23rd July, giving Lottomart’s UK players early access to the title.

Originally launched in 2021, Super Graphics Upside Down is being re-released with a new bonus wheel feature and an increased max win potential, rising from 250X to 3000X, according to the companies.

Chris Ruddock, Commercial Director at Lottomart, said:

“Securing an early release exclusive on the new Super Graphics Upside Down is another exciting milestone for Lottomart. Blueprint Gaming has upgraded a fantastic game with engaging new features and bigger win potential, and we’re delighted to offer this game exclusively to our UK players.”

Elliott Kyne, Account Manager at Blueprint Gaming, said:

“We’re delighted to support Lottomart with the exclusive UK launch of Super Graphics Upside Down. It’s also pleasing to see our partnership continue to go from strength to strength, and Lottomart’s impressive growth and UK focus has made them a match made in heaven for Blueprint’s content. We’re SUPER excited to bring this latest release to their players.”

The companies said the launch is part of their ongoing partnership, with Blueprint Gaming providing exclusive content as Lottomart expands its UK presence.

The post Blueprint Gaming upgrades Super Graphics Upside Down for Lottomart exclusive appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

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