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

Published

5 years ago

February 4, 2021

Reading Time: 3 minutes

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.

av advertising

BetVictor rolls out new brand campaign with biggest AV spend to date

Published

2 hours ago

April 24, 2026

Wladimir P.

BVGroup’s flagship brand BetVictor has launched a new brand campaign, “For All Your Favourite Things”, backed by what the company said is its largest AV investment to date.

The campaign, created by Barn Door Studios, uses a rewrite of “My Favourite Things” from The Sound of Music over visuals of sporting events. BetVictor said the creative focuses on “the uncomplicated thrill of sport and betting”.

BetVictor is timing the launch around this weekend’s Premier League schedule, with spots running alongside Arsenal vs Newcastle on Saturday evening and Chelsea vs Leeds on Sunday afternoon.

Media planning is led by Bountiful Cow. The plan includes a new partnership with Sky, spanning live sport integrations, on-demand, YouTube channels and targeted digital placements via Sky Advance. BetVictor also outlined a data-led SVOD and BVOD strategy across ITVX, Channel 4, Prime Video and Netflix, plus digital and social.

Richard Walters, Director of Brand and Creative at BetVictor, said:

“‘For All Your Favourite Things’ captures what BetVictor stands for today – a premium, straightforward experience that enhances the thrill of sport.

When done right, we believe that gambling is a simple pleasure; one that we love connecting our customers to. We wanted to celebrate the moments that matter most to sports fans.”

The post BetVictor rolls out new brand campaign with biggest AV spend to date appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

Africa

QTech Games wins Leader in Online Casino at SBEA+ Eventus Awards 2026

Published

3 hours ago

April 24, 2026

Wladimir P.

qtech-games-wins-leader-in-online-casino-at-sbea+-eventus-awards-2026

QTech Games has won the Leader in Online Casino award at the Annual Sports Betting East Africa (SBEA+) 2026 Summit in Nairobi, Kenya.

The company said it beat other shortlisted suppliers including SA Gaming, BetConstruct, and DST Gaming. The award is described by the event as recognising the “top all-round online casino platform for innovation, user engagement, and sustained growth” over the past year.

The SBEA+ Eventus Awards focus on the East African igaming and sports betting sector and were presented at a gala ceremony at the Argyle Grand Hotel. QTech Games said the judging period covered 2025/26 and that its aggregation platform performance was ranked highest by the panel.

QTech Games CEO Philip Doftvik said: “We’re thrilled to have walked off with another notable award for the best overall online-casino-platform provision in East Africa. Being shortlisted in such good company was already a result, but victory provides the real validation, particularly after running a great campaign at recent Eventus events in Africa. We’ve been promoting QTech Hybrid, our breakthrough retail solution, to great effect and it’s been fantastic to see that going live with a handful of top-tier clients on this continent has led to such overwhelmingly positive feedback and immediate success cases in the realm of genuine innovation.

“This win is testimony to our diligent team at QTech Games, and to the constantly growing group of innovative suppliers that our platform represents. It’s a truly collaborative effort. We remain committed to rolling out high-quality content that drives revenue for our worldwide partners across Africa and beyond. After all, in today’s marketplace, only premium games of the highest standard will separate you from the crowd, so we were delighted to see the panel acknowledge how our premier platform is delivering across Africa’s eclectic ecosystem. We’ve made our name as the pre-eminent aggregator in these evolving margin markets, delivering localised games that speak to a host of player proclivities. This award win will spur us on to new horizons.”

The post QTech Games wins Leader in Online Casino at SBEA+ Eventus Awards 2026 appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

Brazil

Evoplay adds 24 slot titles to Oleybet in Brazil deal

Published

3 hours ago

April 24, 2026

Wladimir P.

evoplay-adds-24-slot-titles-to-oleybet-in-brazil-deal

Evoplay has signed a content partnership with Brazilian operator Oleybet to distribute 24 slot titles on the brand’s online casino in Brazil’s regulated market.

Oleybet is operated by Lindau Gaming S.A. in Brazil and offers sportsbook, online casino and live casino products. The rollout focuses on Evoplay’s slot portfolio, with the supplier saying the content is intended to support Oleybet’s casino expansion.

The integration is delivered through Sportingtech’s platform, which the companies said is intended to support a streamlined rollout and operational efficiency as Oleybet scales its games catalogue.

Alex Malchenko, Head of Sales at Evoplay, said: “Brazil remains a key focus for Evoplay, and partnering with Oleybet is another key strategic move in strengthening our presence in this dynamic market.

“Our portfolio is designed to deliver strong engagement across diverse player demographics, and we’re confident our games will resonate well with Oleybet’s audience as they continue to grow their offering.”

Robson Salvador, Ombudsman Director at Lindau, added: “We are very pleased to partner with Evoplay, a provider known for innovation and high-quality gaming experiences.

“This collaboration reinforces Oleybet’s commitment to offering a diverse and engaging portfolio to Brazilian players, always aligned with the highest standards of compliance and responsible gaming. We see this partnership as an important step in strengthening our positioning in Brazil’s regulated market.”

The post Evoplay adds 24 slot titles to Oleybet in Brazil deal appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.