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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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Ygam achieve milestone of reaching 5 million young people

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Ygam has now surpassed the milestone of reaching an estimated five million children and young people across the UK through its portfolio of prevention programmes.

Founded in 2014, Ygam has now delivered its award-winning training and resources on gaming and gambling harms to over 32,000 delegates.

Ygam’s reach extends beyond the education sector, with training delivered to more than 5,500 professionals working across health and social care — including hospitals, health boards, GP surgeries, and community nursing settings. This work, aligned with a public health approach to preventing gambling harms, has directly contributed to the digital safeguarding of nearly half a million children and young people accessing health services.

With growing concerns from parents and carers about the role of gaming and gambling in the wider online safety conversation, Ygam has become a trusted and respected source of advice and guidance for families. The charity has delivered workshops to more than 4,500 parents and carers. 

Ygam is a national charity with a footprint across every region of England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, and a presence in 64 of the UK’s 76 cities. 

Ygam’s work has also seen a significant increase in the longevity of its reach, with nearly 100,000 resource downloads of its award-winning resources, and at least 50% of educators implementing these materials into their lessons. 

Helen Martin, Interim CEO of Ygam, said: “This milestone is more than just a number – it’s a reflection of the positive impact we’re making in every corner of the UK. We’re incredibly proud of the growing community that shares our passion for safeguarding children’s wellbeing in an increasingly complex digital world, where gaming and gambling are more accessible than ever. From schools to sports clubs, parents to practitioners, and colleges to community centres, we’re raising awareness through the powerful tool of education. As we mark this extraordinary achievement, the demand for our resources has never been greater. We remain committed to expanding our reach and deepening our impact, ensuring that every child has the knowledge and confidence to navigate the risks of gaming and gambling harms.”

But there’s so much more to do – help us reach the next 5 million…

The post Ygam achieve milestone of reaching 5 million young people appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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Boomerang Partners set to shine at SiGMA Europe 2025 with sports-themed booth activities and the Golden Boomerang League winners celebration

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From November 4th to 6th, 2025, Boomerang Partners will participate in SiGMA Europe 2025 in Rome, one of the most important events in the world for the affiliate marketing and iGaming industry. The company’s booth 5046 G will be a focal point, thanks to the signature ‘Boomerang Arena’ concept.

The ‘Boomerang Arena’ symbolizes the strong connection between sports and technological innovations, and reflects Boomerang Partners’ focus on the sports aspect of their business. The booth will be divided into several themed zones dedicated to football, golf, tennis, and boxing, as well as a location for sports-related interactive experiences.

Booth 5046 G will be the must-visit hub for SiGMA Europe 2025’s guests for many reasons. Boomerang Partners is preparing a variety of activities that are sure to generate heightened interest from booth visitors. They can look forward to various sports-related interactive experiences, mini-games, table tennis activity, and a unique gift auction. Details about the participation conditions will be announced later. Stay tuned for updates.

On November 5th, Boomerang Partners will ceremoniously announce and award the winners of its first sports traffic tournament, the Golden Boomerang League. It runs from September 1st to October 31st and is designed for both current and new affiliate partners of the company. The prizes include direct entry into the annual global tournament, the Golden Boomerang Awards 2026, and two all-expenses-paid AC Milan Experience packages, which include flights, accommodations, and tickets to a match at the San Siro Stadium. Boomerang Partners will provide this opportunity as the Official Regional Partner of AC Milan.

Book a meeting with Boomerang Partners’ managers now to learn about collaboration opportunities. There are only a few slots left.

About Boomerang

Boomerang Partners is a rapidly growing global marketing agency offering a wide range of services. Boomerang Partners is the Official Regional Partner of AC Milan. In 2024, it launched the inaugural Golden Boomerang Awards — a global tournament for affiliate teams. More than 400 affiliate teams participated in the second season of the tournament in 2025. The agency launched six new products in 2024-2025, contributing to a nearly 1.5-fold increase in product users.

The agency’s client portfolio contains 13+ brands offering affiliate and entertainment services across 40+ markets in compliance with local regulations. These products provide personalized bonuses and 24/7 multilingual support.

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Chris Loftus CEO at Northern Lights Gaming

Introducing Prize Ladder from Northern Lights Gaming

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Studio’s latest classic slot delivers exhilarating bonus action against a glamorous TV gameshow backdrop, with cascading reels adding to the excitement 

Have you got what it takes to take on the Prize Ladder and come out on top? That’s the question players must answer before taking on the latest classic slot title from in-demand content house, Northern Lights Gaming.

Bright lights and big wins are the order of the day in Prize Ladder, a game-show style blockbuster that promises twists and turns from the very first game round to the last. 

Set on a vibrant stage with dazzling neon lights and a booming announcer voice, this ANYWAYS Rolling Reels™ game pays both left-to-right and right-to-left. 

ANYWAYS Rolling Reels is triggered on any win and kick-starts a cascade where winning symbols are removed and new ones roll in, opening up chances for more consecutive wins.

The excitement builds with the Prize Ladder™ itself, which increases the value of winning symbols with every consecutive cascade in a single spin. And if a Padlock symbol lands on the final cascade, those juicy symbol values get locked in for the next spin.

This wouldn’t be a Northern Lights Gaming slot without a glitzy Free Spins bonus, which gets triggered when three or more Scatter symbols land. This gets the player eight Free Games with the Awards Cards held for the duration.

Then there’s the Super Spins, which are triggered when the player lands a full reel of the same symbol with Star overprints on reels one or five.

One whole reel of the same symbol also has a chance to trigger the Super Spins. The reels then spin in more of that symbol across the reels. Each position that is not held, spins, with either the triggering symbol, blank or Scatters.

Additional symbols and Scatters that land are held on the reels, and for each Super Spin, the Prize Ladder award rolls up one level.

Now for the Buy the Bonus options – players can Booster Buy, which increases the chance of triggering the Free Spins, Super Spins and the Padlock Bonus, or they can opt for the Bonus Buy to head straight to the Free Spins, Super Spins or Super Free Spins.

Chris Loftus CEO at Northern Lights Gaming, said: “Prize Ladder is a classic slot that plays more like a bonus-heavy video slot. It’s a game that’s all about the glitz and glamour, and climbing that ladder to unlock the game’s biggest bonuses and wins.

“The entire team has really pulled together for Prize Ladder, and the result is a visually striking slot with gameplay that gets pulses racing thanks to a smart combination of mechanics and bonuses, including some of our unique in-house features like Rolling Reels.

“Think your players are ready to take on the Prize Ladder? There’s only one way to find out.”

The post Introducing Prize Ladder from Northern Lights Gaming appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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