Latest News
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.
Compliance Updates
Finnplay receives new Swedish B2B licence

Nordic iGaming platform provider, Finnplay, has received the new B2B licence from the Swedish Gambling Authority (SGA) to supply its leading iGaming platform service in Sweden.
Since Sweden regulated online gambling in 2019, Finnplay has been providing its innovative platform software to operators in the market. As a proud Nordic provider, Finnplay has always considered Sweden a high-priority market and the company is eager to continue to offer its technology and services within the region.
Finnplay is currently working on two new innovative projects targeted to go live later this year. With the new B2B licence, the company is looking forward to helping even more operators expand their reach into the dynamic Nordic market.
Additional details regarding Finnplay’s Swedish licence approval can be found here.
Finnplay’s Managing Director, Jaakko Soininen commented: “As a Nordic-based B2B platform provider specialising in regulatory compliance, we are especially pleased to be among the first group of companies to receive the Swedish B2B supplier licence. Sweden is an important neighbouring market for us, and we currently have several exciting new projects in development with plans to launch this year. So, this was an important and necessary achievement for our company. Vi är glada över att kunna fortsätta vår framgång i Sverige – tack Spelinspektionen.”
eSports
BLAST partners with esports and video games betting platform unikrn

Esports entertainment company BLAST has announced a multi-year global partnership with unikrn, the most expansive video games and esports betting platform on the market.
As BLAST’s global partner, unikrn will be deeply embedded into the BLAST fan experience – including fan-led activations, social giveaways, broadcast integration, and physical / digital branding on the BLAST Premier tournament series and upcoming BLAST.tv Paris Major.
unikrn will also own the BLAST Picks segment, where the BLAST broadcast talent team predicts their winners from each day’s play, along with BLAST.tv PickEms whereby the Counter-Strike community have their say on predictions. More information on unikrn integration for the BLAST.tv Paris Major will be announced closer to the event kickoff.
unikrn has one of the most expansive video games and esports betting platforms on the market, with the online bookmaker being built for the new generation of gamers and esports fans. The unikrn esportsbook brings premier esports tournaments and the biggest sporting events into one convenient place, giving players more titles, more markets and more ways to level up the fun every day.
unikrn, available now in Brazil and Canada, with exception of Ontario, is built for the new generation of gamers and esports fans and aims to expand its global footprint throughout the BLAST partnership. The unikrn esportsbook brings premier esports tournaments and the biggest sporting events into one convenient place, giving players more titles, more markets and more ways to level up their fun every day. In addition to their traditional sportsbook and casino offering, the platform also offers players an opportunity to bet on their own skills with its UMode product, as well as Moneymatch, which gives players the opportunity to face off in public or private lobbies across a variety of different titles, with bragging rights and real money on the line.
Oliver Clarke, Commercial Director at BLAST, said: “We are delighted to welcome on board unikrn as our latest global partner. Their tailored esports and gaming offering means fans of the BLAST.tv Paris Major and BLAST Premier tournament series have a safe, secure and dedicated betting platform. 2023 is an exciting year for BLAST with more events happening than ever before and we are thrilled to have unikrn join us on this momentous journey.”
“BLAST is an epicenter of action for esports fans around the world and has produced some of the most memorable moments in the history of competitive Counter-Strike play,” said unikrn CEO Justin Dellario. “unikrn is built for these moments, when fans are looking for the deepest and best possible experience as they root on their favorite players and teams. We are thrilled to be BLAST’s partner, and to bring our world-class insights and betting opportunities to its millions of fans.”
BLAST Premier is a worldwide Counter-Strike tournament series where the best teams and biggest superstars fight it out for glory and a multi-million dollar prize pool. These tournaments attract tens-of-thousands of fans to live events in big arenas from London and Copenhagen to Miami and Sao Paulo, with millions more watching at home on broadcast in over 150 territories and in 25 different languages.
The BLAST.tv Paris Major is one of the most renowned and highly-regarded esports events in the calendar year, giving thousands of teams from all around the world an opportunity to compete for a £1.25 million prize pool, a chance to etch their names in Counter-Strike folklore and a shot at being named the best team in the world.
Gaming
Gamebox Global Launch by Froyo Games: Where Skill Meets Rewards

Froyo Games has officially launched its flagship Web3 gaming arcade, Gamebox, which allows players to participate in competitive mini-games and win exciting prizes, such as the Moca NFTs by Mocaverse.
Built on Froyo Games’ multichain GameFi platform, Gamebox is designed to provide an accessible ecosystem for both game developers and users. The platform is powered by the $FROYO token, based on the Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain networks and listed on several major exchanges, including PancakeSwap, ApeSwap, BKEX, BTSE, and CoinW.
Gamebox operates similarly to a funfair, where players use an in-game currency called Gems to pay for each game. Each game costs one Gem, and players can win Tickets based on their performance in each game. These Tickets can be used to win NFTs, cryptocurrencies, and other exciting rewards.
A key feature that sets Gamebox apart from other gaming platforms is its unique approach to prize winning. Rather than selecting a game, players choose the prize they want to win and compete against others across a rotation of different games. With each rotation, players can strive to achieve the highest scores to rank on the leaderboard. The top players on the leaderboard of each game will be awarded Tickets to enter a raffle for the prize.
The raffle will be triggered once Tickets are awarded up to a certain threshold. When the threshold has been reached, the prize draw will take place automatically, with players who have more Tickets in the contest having a greater chance of winning.
By combining skill-based gameplay with the excitement of prize draws, Gamebox offers a unique and engaging Web3 gaming experience for players of all levels. With a wide range of prizes available, there is something for everyone to compete for on the platform.
Froyo Games has secured major investments from top industry players, including Animoca Brands, Spartan, WeMade, and GBV Capital. With the launch of Gamebox, Froyo Games aims to provide a fun and rewarding Web3 gaming experience for players worldwide.
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