Latest News
Fan Index Reveals: The MOST Popular Gaming Character of ALL TIME
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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blackjack
ICONIC21 launches Private Edition Blackjack with a single-player 7-seat live table
ICONIC21 has launched Private Edition Blackjack, a live table game built around a single-player format. The company said the table is reserved entirely for one player and supports up to seven hands played simultaneously.
Private Edition Blackjack uses a seven-seat table model with a high minimum bet requirement, positioning it at VIP and high-value segments. ICONIC21 said players can request a dealer change, request a shoe change, or choose to keep their current dealer.
The product also adds ICONIC21’s integrated LED Studio technology. According to the company, a built-in LED screen enables operators to change background visuals to support campaigns, partnerships, events, or player segmentation.
Edvardas Sadovskis, Chief Product Officer at ICONIC21, said: “Private Edition Blackjack brings a much stronger sense of ownership to the live blackjack experience. Players are not simply joining a seat – they take full control of the table, playing up to seven hands and shaping the session through dealer and shoe preferences.
For VIP and high-value players, engagement is everything. This format ensures the dealer’s full attention is dedicated to a single player, creating a more personal and immersive experience. With extended decision time and no need to accommodate others at the table, players can control the pace of the game and play entirely on their own terms.”
The post ICONIC21 launches Private Edition Blackjack with a single-player 7-seat live table appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
Latest News
QTech Games adds ReelPlay slots via ARC iGaming distribution
Aggregator expands its supplier line-up for operators in emerging markets, with a focus on Africa and Latin America.
QTech Games has signed a supplier partnership with B2B iGaming content developer ReelPlay, giving QTech’s platform customers access to ReelPlay’s slots catalogue via distribution partner platform ARC iGaming.
The agreement adds ReelPlay titles including the 10K WAYS
series and Megaways
games such as Hypernova Megaways
, 10,000 Wonders 10K WAYS
and Atlantis Megaways
to QTech’s aggregation offering.
QTech Games said the collaboration is aimed at extending ReelPlay’s reach in emerging markets, with particular emphasis on Africa and Latin America.
QTech Games CEO, Philip Doftvik, said: “We’re dedicated to constantly launching more and more first-class content and product innovation that drives revenue for our partners. So, this deal with ReelPlay extends our portfolio. We look forward to sharing Reelplay’s games with both leading and challenger operator brands in emerging markets worldwide.”
Niki Longmuir, CCO at ReelPlay, added: “At ReelPlay, we pride ourselves on working with the sector’s biggest and most commercially recognised partners, and QTech Games fits the bill perfectly, as we continue to broaden our borders, expanding our brand. Together, we will strive to prioritise the player experience, ensuring that every game we create is designed with the player in mind first. QTech’s platform is a gateway to global audiences, so we can’t wait to see how our highly engaging games perform across a greenfield landscape of emerging markets.”
The post QTech Games adds ReelPlay slots via ARC iGaming distribution appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
Argentina
Win Systems deploys Wigos CMS at Casino City Center Rosario, linking 2,500+ slots
The Argentina rollout adds player tracking and QR-based cashless payments via Win Pay, the company says.
Win Systems has implemented its Wigos casino management system (CMS) at Casino City Center Rosario in Argentina, connecting more than 2,500 slot machines to operate and report in real time. The supplier announced the deployment on May 4, 2026.
According to Win Systems, the Wigos rollout centralizes operational management across gaming and customer-facing functions, with modular components spanning slots, tables, players, promotions, and payments. The company said the installation is designed to support operator oversight and decision-making through a single real-time view.
The project also introduces new functionality at the venue, including Player Tracking for player identification and management, and the activation of “Fun Plays.” Win Systems also said the site can enable a QR-based cashless option that allows players to load credit directly to a machine from a bank account or electronic wallet, via its Win Pay payment management platform.
Francisco de Moya, CEO of Halkkon Capital Partners, commented: “This launch represents an important step in the technological evolution of our operation, allowing us to optimize management, enhance the customer experience, and lay the groundwork for future developments.”
Eric Benchimol, CEO of Win Systems, added: “The deployment of Wigos at City Center Rosario is a clear example of how our technology adapts to large-scale operations, enabling operators to optimize processes, improve the player experience, and evolve toward increasingly digitalized models.” Darío Zutel, Executive Chairman of Win Systems, said: “This implementation is part of our growth strategy in the region and reflects our commitment to supporting operators with robust, scalable, and future-ready technology.”
The post Win Systems deploys Wigos CMS at Casino City Center Rosario, linking 2,500+ slots appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
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