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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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Aristocrat Gaming and Metropolitan Gaming Partner to Open Aristocrat on the Square at Empire Casino

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Metropolitan Gaming, in partnership with Aristocrat Gaming, introduced Aristocrat on the Square, a premium new gaming experience for guests at Empire Casino in London and the first dedicated Aristocrat Gaming space in the UK.

Aristocrat on the Square showcases an impressive lineup of popular Aristocrat Gaming titles tailored specifically for the UK, including popular releases like NFL Triple Score, Lightning Link, Mo Mummy and Bao Zhu Zhao Fu Link. The space is designed to elevate the player experience, highlighted by an engaging LED ceiling and upscale décor that create an inviting lounge atmosphere.

“The debut of Aristocrat on the Square at Empire Casino marks a significant milestone for Aristocrat Gaming, reinforcing our commitment to customers across EMEA and expanding our presence in the UK as we continue delivering world‑class gaming experiences to players around the globe. Our partnership with Metropolitan Gaming reflects a multi-year investment in bringing cutting‑edge games, hardware, marketing, and entertainment experiences to players across Europe,” said Craig Toner, CEO of Aristocrat Gaming.

“The launch of Aristocrat on the Square at Empire Casino represents an exciting new chapter for Metropolitan Gaming. As the first dedicated Aristocrat Gaming space in the UK, it reflects our focus on creating distinctive, premium environments that elevate the player experience. Working closely with Aristocrat, we’ve brought together world-class gaming content and a carefully designed setting to deliver something truly special for our guests at Empire Casino,” said Alex Oswald, Managing Director of Metropolitan Gaming.

To celebrate the launch, Empire Casino hosts a month-long Home of the Hot Seats promotion throughout February, offering players the opportunity to win vouchers, free play and more.

The post Aristocrat Gaming and Metropolitan Gaming Partner to Open Aristocrat on the Square at Empire Casino appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

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Betfred

Betfred Expands its Partnership with Sportradar

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Betfred has extended and expanded its longstanding partnership with Sportradar. As part of the agreement, Sportradar will upgrade the retail platform technology underpinning the operations of Betfred’s 1300 retail outlets nationwide, ensuring a sustainable and engaging betting offering is available on the UK high street.

The additional multi-year scope of work further strengthens a partnership built over the past decade. Sportradar’s future ready retail platform enables faster operations and effective risk control. The technology allows Betfred to handle intense data loads around big sporting moments and scale in real-time as bets are placed, ensuring bettors can engage with their sports and place a wager regardless of an event’s popularity.

Under the terms of the agreement, Sportradar will oversee continuous improvements to the Betfred retail platform to ensure ongoing operational excellence and adherence to local regulation and compliance. Furthermore, the technical framework allows Betfred to integrate a multitude of Sportradar’s next generation products and services to deliver a contemporary in-shop experience.

Duncan McDonald, Head of Corporate and Retail Support, Betfred said: “This agreement re-affirms our joint commitment to one another, to develop new products and features that enhance our customer offerings. It future proofs our retail business and secures our partnership with Betfred’s in house technology team and Sportradar for years to come.”

Paolo Personeni, EVP, Managed Betting Services, Sportradar said: “In today’s hyper-competitive marketplace Sportradar is well positioned to help Betfred achieve its long-term growth objectives. With high street operations closely watched, the technological capabilities powering the Sportradar Retail Platform will allow Betfred to deliver a sustainable and long-term retail offering that engages today’s demanding sports bettors.”

The post Betfred Expands its Partnership with Sportradar appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

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Compliance Updates

Dutch Regulator Urges Online Gambling Providers to Stop Using “Share Your Bet” Feature

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The Dutch Gambling Regulator (KSA) has urged the online gambling providers to discontinue the “Share your bet” feature. This feature allows players to share their placed bets via social media or messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook and email. The KSA investigated the functionality of this feature after receiving several signals and questions from the market.

“Share your bet” function

The “Share your bet” feature allows players to easily share their bets with others. It works like this: a player places a bet and sends it via a link to, for example, friends or family. The recipient can then immediately see the bet and, if they have an account, participate as well. This makes gambling easily shared, often via social networks.

Protection of vulnerable groups

The KSA points out that the “Share your bet” feature is a form of advertising and recruitment. It’s a way for providers to promote gambling, but indirectly through players themselves. According to the Decree on Recruitment, Advertising and Addiction Prevention in Gambling, providers must ensure that advertising does not reach vulnerable groups, such as minors, young adults and people with gambling problems.

Because players with the “Share your bet” feature decide who to send their bet to, providers have no control over who receives the shared messages. This means that gambling providers cannot guarantee that vulnerable groups will not unintentionally encounter gambling advertising. Therefore, offering features like “Share your bet” is not permitted.

In addition, the ease of sharing bets helps normalize gambling. This lowers the barrier to entry, especially among younger demographics.

Discontinue “Share your bet” functionality

The KSA is therefore calling on all online gambling providers using the “Share your bet” feature to immediately stop doing so. The KSA will continue to monitor any new developments in this area and will take enforcement action where necessary to ensure the protection of vulnerable groups.

The post Dutch Regulator Urges Online Gambling Providers to Stop Using “Share Your Bet” Feature appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

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