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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:

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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.

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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.

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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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Esports Charts Becomes Official Viewership Analytics Partner of StarLadder Budapest Major 2025

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Esports Charts, the leading esports viewership analytics provider, has partnered with StarLadder, a pioneering tournament organiser. The Budapest Major 2025 marks a highly anticipated comeback for StarLadder, as it is their first Counter-Strike Major since 2019 and a significant return to the top-tier esports arena.

As the official analytics partner of the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025, Esports Charts will provide comprehensive, real-time audience data and insights throughout the event. This will empower organisers, teams, sponsors and fans with unparalleled transparency and a deeper understanding of the tournament’s global reach.

Artyom Odintsov, Co-founder and CEO of Esports Charts, said: “We are thrilled and proud to provide viewership analytics for StarLadder for the Budapest Major 2025. Since both Esports Charts and StarLadder are Ukraine-born companies, we share similar values and deal with similar challenges, which brings us even closer.

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“It’s genuinely exciting to follow how viewership will develop at this Major. But knowing the expertise, drive, and passion that the organizers are bringing, I have no doubt we’ll witness some incredible things happen in Budapest.

“Esports Charts has always been driven by a mission to provide the esports community with accurate, actionable data, and we look forward to showcasing the impact and audience engagement of this world-class event.”

StarLadder has been a driving force in global esports for almost 15 years now, since hosting its first tournaments in 2011. Renowned for its innovation and reliability, the company has organised some of the industry’s most iconic events. These include the StarLadder Berlin Major 2019, which accumulated over 44 million hours watched and remains in the top 10 CS events by this metric, and the legendary StarSeries tournaments which started back in 2012.

Viacheslav Shcherbakov, Sales and Partnerships at StarLadder, said: “We’ve been working with Esports Charts since their founding and have always valued their professionalism and integrity. In a market where reliable data is essential, Esports Charts provides honest, transparent numbers, exactly the kind of insights sponsors and stakeholders rely on when assessing the potential reach of a World Championship event.

“We’re confident that this partnership will result in a high-quality analysis of our tournament’s performance and the audience data we’ll report to our partners. It’s a collaboration built on trust, shared values, and a deep understanding of what it takes to elevate esports to the next level.”

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The Starladder Budapest Major 2025 will be held from November 24 to December 14 in Budapest, Hungary. The event will bring together the world’s top 32 Counter-Strike 2 teams to compete for a $1.25 million prize pool and one of the most prestigious titles in esports.

The post Esports Charts Becomes Official Viewership Analytics Partner of StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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Superbet Becomes New Main Sponsor of Jagiellonia Białystok

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Superbet has become the new main sponsor of Jagiellonia Białystok. The logo of one of Poland’s leading bookmakers will appear on the front of the Podlasie team’s match jerseys. This is the fourth Ekstraklasa club, alongside Lech Poznań, Górnik Zabrze and GKS Katowice, to join the bookmaker’s extensive sponsorship portfolio.

The new partnership is more than just a logo on a jersey – the collaboration between Jagiellonia and Superbet is intended to have a particularly fan-focused nature. The brand is announcing numerous dedicated campaigns, events and surprises aimed at fans of the yellow and reds. The first of these has already launched with the announcement of the partnership – and will undoubtedly delight anyone planning to purchase the new jersey.

Superbet will pay a 100 PLN bonus towards the purchase of an official Jagiellonia match jersey. A total of 1920 jerseys will be available as part of the promotion – a number symbolically related to the year the club was founded. The promotion is valid both in-store and online and is open to all Superbet app users.

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“When making a purchase in a stationary store, all you need to do is show the installed application, and for online customers, verification will take place via the email address: [email protected], to which you can simply send a short message, and in response, fans will receive a unique code entitling them to purchase a T-shirt at a discount,” explains Bartosz Malaka, Head of Marketing & Sponsoring at Superbet.

However, this is not the end of surprises for fans of the Białystok club, because if they register using the special code “JAGA,” they will also receive a welcome bonus.

“Jagiellonia fits perfectly into our sponsorship strategy – it’s a club with ambition, a strong identity, and enormous potential that combines modernity with local character. W’’re thrilled to be embarking on this journey together. Our logo will now appear on the fronts of the jerseys of four Ekstraklasa clubs, confirming our continued leadership in sports sponsorship,” said Łukasz Seweryniak, General Manager of Superbet Polska.

“Jaga is the perfect partner for us – with a great history and a huge, loyal community of fans who live and breathe this club every day. With them in mind, we’re preparing a whole package of activations, surprises, and events designed to build even stronger bonds. We want to show that just as Jaga is a super club, Superbet is a super sponsor,” Malaka said.

“I am extremely proud and happy to have entered into a partnership with such a renowned and recognizable brand as Superbet. I would like to emphasize that this is the highest-ever sponsorship agreement in the club’s history, which further underscores the importance of this partnership. I believe the word ‘partnership’ is key in the context of our agreement. I am most pleased that we are not just gaining a sponsor, but a true partner with whom we will achieve great things together,” said Ziemowit Deptuła, President of the Management Board of Jagiellonia Białystok SSA.

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The partnership with Superbet is another important step in Jagiellonia’s development – not only in terms of sporting activities, but also in terms of modern marketing and fan engagement. Both parties emphasize that this will be a collaboration based on genuine commitment and closeness to fans.

The post Superbet Becomes New Main Sponsor of Jagiellonia Białystok appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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VGCCC Fines Werribee RSL for Self-exclusion Failures

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The Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC) has fined the Werribee RSL $30,000 for failing to prevent 2 self-excluded customers from gambling.

VGCCC CEO Suzy Neilan said: “This is the first time the VGCCC has taken disciplinary action against a club or hotel for self-exclusion breaches.

“Self-exclusion programs empower people to manage their gambling by registering to be temporarily or permanently blocked from entering gambling areas of clubs, pubs and casinos.

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“By failing to respect a person’s decision to self-exclude, a venue may put customers who have decided to take a break from gambling, or quit altogether, at risk of experiencing gambling harm.”

In January 2024, the VGCCC received an anonymous tip-off that a self-excluded person entered the Werribee RSL gaming room and used the poker machines. The venue self-reported a second breach in May 2024, after realising a different customer had gambled at the venue on at least 4 occasions between February and May 2024.

Ms Neilan said: “Taking disciplinary action is the last resort. We would prefer venues take their harm minimisation responsibilities seriously by complying with their legal obligations, including through the effective implementation of tools like self-exclusion.

“Venues and their staff are the last line of defence for self-excluded customers, who should be able to trust that their decision to self-exclude will be respected. They must have the appropriate controls in place to prevent self-excluded people from entering gaming rooms.”

The VGCCC acknowledged that Werribee RSL cooperated with the investigations and has since taken steps to strengthen its procedures. These include improved and regular staff training, daily audits of the self-exclusion register and greater use of technology to identify self-excluded customers who attempt to enter the gaming room.

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This remedial action was taken into consideration in determining the amount of the fine.

The post VGCCC Fines Werribee RSL for Self-exclusion Failures appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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