A new study claims to reveal the most popular video game character in America. The study was based on Google search data over the past five years across the United States, and some of the top ten picks may not be what the average gamer expects.
Over the years, fans have debated who is the best character ever. Sometimes people argue over which character could beat up another while others have more prolonged debates about writing and motivation. For example, Pokemon fans often debate who is the best of the Legendary Pokemon while others argue if Joel from The Last of Us is a better character than Kratos from God of War. Now one organization seems to think they know which character is the most popular.
Recently a study was conducted by casino experts CasinoBonusCA who ranked the most popular video game characters in the United States based on monthly average Google searches over the past five years. The most popular video game character was Sonic from the Sonic The Hedgehog franchise. According to the casino experts, the character had roughly 1.1 million Google searches every month. This was likely due in part to the release of the Sonic The Hedgehog film in 2020 starring Jim Carrey. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 would open at Number 1 at the box office and its success solidified Paramount's plans for a cinematic universe based around the games.
The second most popular character is Pac-Man with the character averaging 758,300 hits in the US, with the most coming from Florida. Pikachu from the Pokemon franchise comes in at number three with 635,000 hits per month. These numbers skyrocketed in 2019 thanks to the Ryan Reynolds film, Pokemon: Detective Pikachu. Oddly enough, another study showed that Pikachu was not one of the top ten Pokemon.
At number four is Kirby, averaging roughly 432,000 monthly search hits. Kirby and the Forgotten Land would go on to beat the franchise sales record, having moved over 5.27 million copies worldwide. Kratos from the God of War series ranked at five with 209,010 searches a month which was likely due to the release of God of War (2018) and its sequel, God of War: Ragnarok.
Super Mario characters Yoshi, Princess Peach, and Bowser took the sixth, seventh, and tenth spots. Yoshi had 190,880 monthly hits, Peach got around 174,990 searches, and Bowser with 136,439. All three characters have been a part of the Super Mario franchise for decades and their rankings likely had something to do with the upcoming film. The latest Super Mario Bros. Movie trailer was released in November and gave fans a better idea as to what to expect. Oddly enough, Mario himself didn't make the top ten but was placed at 11 with 136,200 monthly hits.
Chun Li from the Street Fighter franchise and Lara Croft from the Tomb Raider series came in at 8th and 9th. The former received 158,750 searches and the latter racked up 138,940 hits a month. Street Fighter 6 is currently expected to hit shelves in 2023 while Tomb Raider's next installment will be published by Amazon. It is worth noting, however, that these Google hits may not actively reflect how popular a character is. It is very possible that many of these hits, especially in the case of Pikachu and Sonic, came from someone looking up movie show times or where to buy a particular game. Whether such searches actively reflect the characters' popularity, however, remains for the individual to decide.
Source: CasinoBonusCA
