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Fan Index Reveals: The MOST Popular Gaming Character of ALL TIME
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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Frank’s Diner
Relax Gaming serves up sizzling wins in post-apocalyptic release Frank’s Diner

Reading Time: 2 minutes
Relax Gaming, the iGaming aggregator and supplier of award-winning content, is opening the hatch to Frank’s Diner, an apocalyptic slot where Split Symbols, reel multipliers, and Gold Wild re-spins deliver the potential for sizzling wins.
Split Symbols take centre stage, with two or three identical single symbols landing on the same reel, forming double or triple stacks that immediately multiply the number of ways to win.
Re-Spin Wilds are triggered when a gold Wild symbol forms part of a win, causing a re-spin to occur. The re-spins continue as long as new symbols contribute to payouts.
Meanwhile, Multiplier Wilds add extra excitement, as both standard and gold Wilds apply a reel multiplier of 2x, 3x, 4x or 5x depending on their position, offering even greater rewards.
The Last Stand Spins feature activates when three Bonus symbols appear. During this round, each Wild re-spin increases the reel multipliers by one on their respective reels, with these values remaining for the rest of the feature. Landing another three Bonus symbols during the round awards an additional 10 free spins.
Players eager to go straight to the main course can do so using the Bonus Reels buy feature, which costs 10x the regular bet. This removes all paying symbols, leaving only Bonus symbols on the reels to boost the chances of triggering the feature.
Step into Frank’s Diner, block out the chaos outside, and prepare to enjoy bold flavours and even greater possibilities with every spin.
Tony O’Mahony, Chief Product Officer at Relax Gaming, said: “Frank’s Diner serves up a sizzling player experience packed with satisfying ingredients that work brilliantly together.
“Split Symbols and escalating reel multipliers create real momentum, while our brand-new Bonus Reels mode gives players an exciting new route into the feature. This release delivers an entertaining, high-impact experience that’s sure to leave a lasting impression for players who visit the diner.”
The post Relax Gaming serves up sizzling wins in post-apocalyptic release Frank’s Diner appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
Andrew Doublesin Chief Product Officer at Flows
Flows launches its most powerful evolution yet to power faster innovation across iGaming

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Flows, the no-code automation platform, announced a major enhancement to its platform delivering faster performance, a refined design, and a modern architecture built to respond fast to market demand and support long-term growth for customers.
The release marks a significant step forward for the platform, introducing a more intuitive interface and improved reliability for operators. It simplifies workflow creation with refined navigation and smoother processes, helping users move effortlessly from concept to live automation while reducing onboarding and support requirements.
The latest version also delivers faster feature development to help operations respond quickly to market demands, lowers operational costs through reduced maintenance, and keeps the platform current, reliable and ready to grow with customer needs.
Additional improvements include strengthened security and compliance measures, an adaptable framework built to scale with business needs, and a clean, professional interface designed for the expectations of today’s iGaming professionals.
Andrew Doublesin, Chief Product Officer at Flows, said: “ This is a major milestone for our product and for our customers. It reflects our continued focus on helping businesses move faster, reduce complexity and unlock their creativity. This release is about giving our partners lasting value with a platform that not only delivers immediate performance benefits but also the flexibility, reliability and confidence they need to continue to succeed.”
This latest enhancement strengthens Flows’ position as the industry’s leading no-code automation platform, empowering operators to work more efficiently and deliver new ideas to market faster.
The post Flows launches its most powerful evolution yet to power faster innovation across iGaming appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
Balkans
CT Interactive Launches Diamond Tree Jackpot on Palms Bet

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CT Interactive has strengthened its presence in the Bulgarian market with the exclusive launch of Diamond Tree Jackpot on Palms Bet. This multi-currency, multi-game jackpot offers dynamic mechanics and big win potential, and is now available exclusively on Palms Bet offering premium gaming experience.and enhancing the operator’s competitive advantage in Bulgaria’s rapidly growing iGaming sector.
The Diamond Tree Jackpot system brings together ten of CT Interactive’s top-performing titles, each proven to deliver strong KPIs in player engagement and retention across multiple markets — now tailored to meet the unique preferences of Bulgarian players. The featured games include fan favourites such as 20 Mega Slot, 20 Star Party, 40 Mega Slot, 40 Treasures, Chilli Fruits, Lord of Luck, Lucky Clover, Moon Lord, Mystic Moon and Win Storm.
“Diamond Tree Jackpot represents an important achievement for CT Interactive in Bulgaria. Diamond Tree upgrade the progressive jackpot mechanics with multi game and multi-currency support creating a new flexible and engaging jackpot system that is perfectly aligned with the demands of the Bulgarian customers. We are confident this product will empower Palms Bet to significantly increase player engagement, extend session durations, and foster sustainable growth within the Bulgarian market through its seamless integration and player-focused features, said Martin Ivanov, Chief Operating Officer at CT Interactive.
The post CT Interactive Launches Diamond Tree Jackpot on Palms Bet appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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