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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.

Latest News

ACR POKER’S BLAZING HIGH FIVE TOURNAMENT SERIES RETURNS WITH $4 MILLION GUARANTEED THIS APRIL

Published

5 hours ago

April 14, 2026

GamingAmericas.com

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New ‘Highest Five’ nosebleed events with buy-ins ranging from $5,200 to $25,500 mark the biggest stakes ever seen on ACR Poker

ACR Poker’s most lit week is back with the return of The High Five Tournament Series from April 19th to 23rd, bringing $4 Million GTD across 50 events. Each day brings a full slate of action, with 10 smoking tourneys firing daily including five high-stakes events featuring buy-ins of $44 and over and five low-stakes events with buy-ins of $33 and under.

And this year, the stakes are even higher with the new ‘Highest Five’ tourneys added on top. For the first time, ACR Poker is rolling out elite nosebleed tourneys designed for the game’s boldest players. Two nosebleed events will take place each day of the High Five Tournament Series with buy-ins from $5,200 to $25,500, marking the biggest stakes ever seen on ACR.

The High Five Tournament Series Main Event will take place on Monday, April 20th, featuring a $420 buy-in and a $200,000 GTD prize pool. The schedule also includes a special rebuy and add-on day on Monday, April 20th and a PLO day on Wednesday, April 22nd.

And the action doesn’t stop there. Players can blaze up the standings in the High Five Leaderboard Competition, where more than $25,000 in prizes are up for grabs, including $2,650 Venom seats, tourney tickets and The Golden Bong trophies. Simply by playing in High Five events, players will earn points towards either the High Leaderboard (buy-ins of $44 and over) or the Low Leaderboard (buy-ins of $33 or under).

The stakes are high and so are the names stepping in. ACR Pro Chris Moneymaker is locked in to play every Highest Five event, and so is CEO Phil Nagy. “The High Five Tournament Series has a fun vibe to it and I’m excited to be jumping into the new Highest Five tourneys,” said ACR Pro Chris Moneymaker. “But what’s great about this series is that players of all bankrolls can get in on the action from small-stakes grinders to high-rollers. We’ll see you at the tables.”

For more information, visit ACRPoker.eu.

The post ACR POKER’S BLAZING HIGH FIVE TOURNAMENT SERIES RETURNS WITH $4 MILLION GUARANTEED THIS APRIL appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.

ACR Poker

ACR Poker brings back High Five Series with $4m guaranteed in April Subheadline

Published

6 hours ago

April 14, 2026

Wladimir P.

acr-poker-brings-back-high-five-series-with-$4m-guaranteed-in-april-subheadline

ACR Poker will run The High Five Tournament Series from April 19 to 23, 2026, with $4 million guaranteed across 50 tournaments, according to the operator.

The schedule lists 10 events per day, split between five higher buy-in tournaments ($44 and over) and five lower buy-in tournaments ($33 and under).

The operator is also adding new ‘Highest Five’ events—two per day—positioned as “nosebleed” tournaments with buy-ins ranging from $5,200 to $25,500. ACR Poker said these are the biggest stakes it has offered on the platform.

The series Main Event runs Monday, April 20, with a $420 buy-in and a $200,000 guaranteed prize pool. ACR Poker also flagged a rebuy and add-on day on April 20 and a dedicated PLO day on Wednesday, April 22.

A leaderboard promotion will award more than $25,000 in prizes, including $2,650 Venom seats, tournament tickets and “The Golden Bong” trophies. Points accrue via High Five events and are split into a High Leaderboard ($44 and over) and Low Leaderboard ($33 or under).

ACR Poker said ACR Pro Chris Moneymaker and CEO Phil Nagy plan to play every Highest Five event. “The High Five Tournament Series has a fun vibe to it and I’m excited to be jumping into the new Highest Five tourneys,” said ACR Pro Chris Moneymaker. “But what’s great about this series is that players of all bankrolls can get in on the action from small-stakes grinders to high-rollers. We’ll see you at the tables.”

The post ACR Poker brings back High Five Series with $4m guaranteed in April Subheadline appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

Casino Content

Creedroomz launches Road to El Dorado live casino game show

Published

6 hours ago

April 14, 2026

Wladimir P.

creedroomz-launches-road-to-el-dorado-live-casino-game-show

Creedroomz has launched Road to El Dorado, a new live casino game show it calls its largest production to date. The title is built around a wheel-of-fortune mechanic and four bonus rounds, with a studio set designed around an Aztec theme.

The main wheel has 54 segments, with base numbers 1, 2, 5 and 10, plus four bonus spots. Creedroomz said each segment has its own payout multiplier, and that after bets close a random number or bonus segment may receive an added multiplier of up to x50.

Creedroomz said the game includes four bonus rounds: Marble Race, a physical marble race in-studio with payouts up to 6,250×; Boom Blast, a 3D bonus where players choose one of three cannons with multipliers up to x100 on low risk and up to x500 on high risk; Dice Fight, shown on an LED screen with random multipliers up to 10,000x and rerolls on ties; and Eldorado, a multi-level pick-and-reveal bonus where multipliers combine across four levels, with a fifth “Zenith” level unlocked by finding hidden diamonds.

“With Road to El Dorado, we didn’t just want to build a wheel; we wanted to build a world,” says Arturs Fjodorovs, CPO at Creedroomz. “By combining physical studio elements with RNG-driven 3D visuals, we’ve created a multi-layered experience that offers something for every type of player. It is a true spectacle for operators and a goldmine for engagement.”

Creedroomz: https://creedroomz.com/ Official company site for product and portfolio context.

Malta Gaming Authority (MGA): https://www.mga.org.mt/ Relevant regulator for verifying licensing and game supply credentials if applicable.

UK Gambling Commission (UKGC); https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/ Relevant regulator for checking market access and licensing where applicable.

The post Creedroomz launches Road to El Dorado live casino game show appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.