Who is America’s favorite video game character? Spoiler, it isn’t Mario.

• Sonic the Hedgehog is America’s favorite video game character, being Googled more than any other over the past five years at 1.1 million times a month on average.
• Pac-Man and Pikachu rank second and third respectively.
• Mario from the Super Mario franchise misses out on the top ten.

New research has revealed America’s favorite video game characters, with Sonic the Hedgehog taking the top spot.

The study conducted by 6Takarakuji analyzed Google search data from the past five years, across every state in the US to determine which video game characters were the most Googled.

The data found that Sonic from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise is the most popular video game character in America. The speedy, blue hedgehog has 1.1 million searches on Google every month in America. There has been a resurgence of interest in the character as well as the franchise as a result of the Sonic the Hedgehog movie, which was released in 2020 and starred Jim Carrey, with the third installment of the movie series being released next year.

Pac-Man is the second most popular video game character in America, receiving 758,300 average monthly searches in the U.S., including being the most Googled video game character in Florida. Originally released in 1980, Pac-Man is one of the most popular games across the globe.

Pikachu from the Pokémon franchise ranks third. Searches by Americans for Pikachu sit at an average of 635,000 per month. In 2019, Warner Bros released Pokémon: Detective Pikachu, starring Ryan Reynolds which saw searches for ‘pikachu’ skyrocket 708% above average in America.

Kirby, the protagonist from the Kirby series ranks fourth whilst Kratos from God of War ranks fifth. There are 432,000 average monthly searches for Kirby in America whilst Kratos is Googled 209,010 times each month.

Three characters from the Super Mario franchise make the top ten – Yoshi who ranks sixth with 190,880 monthly U.S. searches, Princess Peach who ranks seventh and is searched 174,990 per month and Bowser who takes the tenth spot with 136,430 monthly searches. Interestingly, the protagonist of the series, Mario, just misses out on a place in the top ten and ranks eleventh with 136,200 monthly searches.

Chun Li and Lara Croft complete the top ten, ranking eighth and ninth respectively. There are 158,750 searches for Chun Li from Street Fighter and 138,940 for Lara Croft.

Commenting on the findings, a spokesperson from 6Takarakuji commented: “Video games are an integral part of many people’s lives, bringing joy and entertainment to many. The characters of many series can easily end up becoming iconic staples of many franchises and are beloved by many. This can lead to movies about said characters being made causing their popularity to explode even more. This study offers a fascinating insight into which characters – as well as franchises – interest Americans the most.”

For more information about 6Takarakuji, visit here.