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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.
Soft2Bet will be showcasing its industry-leading iGaming turnkey solutions during meetings with partners, industry panels and new workshop sessions at ICE 2025 from 20-22 January in Barcelona at Stand 2C30.
Soft2Bet’s Senior Sales Manager Ben Scopbie-Trumper will present the group’s latest casino gamification features and mechanics during the workshop “Gamification: what’s next?”, on 21 January at 2PM at the Soft2Bet stand.
The workshop will provide an in-depth perspective into MEGA’s player engagement strategies and how they boost customer lifetime values, screentime and revenues, all the while providing sustainable business models and returns.
- Soft2Bet’s turnkey solutions provide comprehensive online gaming and betting product portfolios to its B2B partners. The services are implemented to deliver full differentiation that increases LTVs through enhanced personalisation.
- Available through off-the-shelf or bespoke packages that maintain operators’ flexibility, Soft2Bet’s data-driven insights optimise customer retention.
- MEGA’s unique gamification options are delivered through a simple API-led integration process.
- The ‘Gamification: what’s next?’ workshop is a unique opportunity to discover how the iGaming industry’s leading gamification solution raises performance levels at the same time as it drives sustainable profitability and major revenue increases for operators.
The past 12 months have seen Soft2Bet obtain licences in major markets such as Mexico, Ontario in Canada, Sweden, Greece and Romania. This regulatory and commercial expansion has been carried out in coordination with the launch of our brands in those countries and further extending our technology services to these territories to serve other partners. The group will be following all this up with swift expansions into new markets in 2025
The next 12 months will also see Soft2Bet focus on New Jersey, a key iGaming state in the US, and Spain, an important European market.
Martin Collins, Chief Business Development Officer at Soft2Bet, commented: “At the start of 2024 we wanted to focus on commercial growth and regulatory expansion and I’m delighted to say that we have achieved and in many cases surpassed those objectives. Our MEGA workshop will feature even more updates and insights into how gamification drives revenues for our partners. See you there!”
The post Soft2Bet to showcase turnkey and gamification solutions at ICE 2025 in Barcelona appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
Gambling in the USA
Gambling.com Group Completes Acquisition of Odds Holdings, Inc., Parent Company of OddsJam
Gambling.com Group Limited (Nasdaq: GAMB) (“Gambling.com Group” or the “Company”), a leading provider of digital marketing services for the global online gambling industry, announced today that it completed the previously announced acquisition of Odds Holdings, Inc., the parent company of OddsJam, on January 1, 2025, as planned and on schedule.
The completion of this acquisition underscores Gambling.com Group’s ability to execute strategic transactions efficiently and without delay. This acquisition expands Gambling.com Group’s footprint in the online gambling ecosystem by adding complementary recurring revenue streams from consumer subscription products and enterprise clients. The Odds Holdings platform, powered by state-of-the-art technology for real-time odds data, strengthens the Company’s position as a leader in the global online gambling ecosystem.
Stake, the global betting operator and sportsbook, can proudly announce the approval of its Casino and a Sportsbook licence application in Brazil, showcasing their expansion into the gaming industry and regulated markets.
Stake demonstrates its dominance after its successful and rapid incursion in new regulated markets in Colombia, Peru, and the acquisition of IdealBet in Italy. This development enhances Stake’s global footprint and positions the company to deliver its product offerings to a rapidly growing audience.
Stake considers Brazil one of its crucial markets, ranking it as their second-largest worldwide. To solidify their commitment and provide top-tier experience, the operator’s centre of operations is located in São Paulo. Stake is focusing on reinforcing local operations, bringing the cutting-edge innovation Stake is known for, and world-class entertainment for Brazilian players.
“For Stake the licence means a further step in its global expansion into regulated markets. In this case, the relevance of the market and the speed in which we have achieved it is a good example of how we work. Stake Brazil users can expect a similar experience to Stake.com; the best customer service, good product, good games and in general what we have always been known for which is to put the customer at the centre of all operations, marketing, and product decisions,”said Brais Pena, Chief Strategy Officer at Stake.
Along with the news of the licence, Stake is hitting this market with a local Country Manager with Thomas Carvalhaes joining the team alongside 10 employees, supported by Stake’s global team of 1000. As the foundational team, they are fully committed to deliver localised experiences that resonate with players while working within the regulatory framework.
“We are very excited about the regulated environment and everything that is happening in the Brazilian market, its growth and the way it is establishing itself. I am taking the lead of a brand that has the ability to innovate and find the right opportunities to speak with the right audience, that is something really powerful and definitely a winning combination,” expresses Thomas Carvalhaes, Brazil Country Manager.
“Looking ahead to next year, we will continue to expand our local team and operations. Stake is already a prominent name in Brazil, with partnerships like Juventude Football club, the UFC, and the Fittipaldi brothers Pietro and Enzo, and we’re optimistic about replicating our successful formula across Latin America.”
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Gambling.com Group Completes Acquisition of Odds Holdings, Inc., Parent Company of OddsJam
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