What are the most popular video game characters in the UK?

New research has revealed the United Kingdom’s favourite video game characters.

The study conducted by Casino Bonus analysed Google search data from the past five years, across every city in the United Kingdom to determine which video game characters were the most Googled.

Pac-Man is the most popular video game character in the UK, receiving 76,070 average monthly searches, including being the most Googled videogame character in Cardiff, London and Newcastle upon Tyne. Originally released in 1980, Pac-Man is one of the most popular games across the globe.

The data found that Sonic from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise is the second most popular video game character in the UK. The speedy, blue hedgehog has 60,390 searches on Google every month. 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 instalment of the film series being released next year.

Pikachu from the Pokémon franchise ranks third. Searches by Brits for Pikachu sit at an average of 43,960 per month. In 2019, Warner Bros released Pokémon: Detective Pikachu, starring Ryan Reynolds which saw searches for ‘pikachu’ skyrocket 557% above average in the UK.

The fourth most Googled video game character in the UK is Lara Croft. The tomb raider is searched 22,780 times each month on average in the UK.

Kirby, the protagonist from the Kirby series ranks fifth whilst Kratos from God of War ranks sixth. There are 19,800 average monthly searches for Kirby in the UK whilst Kratos is Googled 15,510 times each month.

Crash Bandicoot follows in seventh place. Introduced in 1996, the title character is Googled 12,580 times every month on average by Brits.

Two characters from the Super Mario franchise make the top ten – Mario who ranks eighth with 12,330 monthly UK searches and Yoshi who takes the ninth spot with 8,970 monthly searches.

Rayman from the Rayman franchise completes the top ten. There are 8,090 searches for Rayman every month in the UK.