BAFTA has revealed the results of its landmark players’ poll to establish the Most Iconic Video Games Character of All Time. Launched to celebrate the 20th BAFTA Games Awards on Thursday 11 April, the poll was engaged with by over 4,000 players from all over the world.

What an… interesting list. What are we thinking?

Personally I’m stunned Lara Croft made the top five and Agent 47 seems like an odd choice. Small sample size?

**The full list: **

  1. Lara Croft, Tomb Raider

  2. Mario, Super Mario

  3. Agent 47, Hitman

  4. Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog

  5. Sackboy, LittleBigPlanet

  6. Pac-Man, Pac-Man

  7. Link, The Legend of Zelda

  8. Master Chief, Halo

  9. Kratos, God of War

  10. Shadowheart, Baldur’s Gate 3

  11. Arthur Morgan, Red Dead Redemption 2

  12. Pikachu, Pokémon

  13. Steve, Minecraft

  14. Solid Snake, Metal Gear Solid

15.Crash Bandicoot, Crash Bandicoot

  1. Cloud Strife, Final Fantasy VII

  2. Astarion, Baldur’s Gate 3

  3. Kazuma Kiryu, Yakuza

  4. Ellie Williams, The Last of Us

  5. Nathan Drake, Uncharted

  • Broken_Monitor@lemmy.worldEnglish
    251·
    3 months ago

    They polled gamers, for sure. Non gamers are only gonna recognize part of this list, and thats what makes them truly iconic - being known by people who dont even care about video games.

    Thats gonna be mario, sonic, pikachu, pacman, and maybe Zelda (but probably not Link). The average person will know those but would have no clue who Lara Croft, Nathan Drake, or Solid Snake is. Kazuma Kiryu?? I’m an avid gamer and wouldn’t recognize that name.

    • MamboGator@lemmy.worldEnglish
      13·
      3 months ago

      I thought the same thing. The only thing I’ll disagree with is Lara Croft being unknown. She was huge in the '90s and '00s. She was even featured in Playboy and once the first Angelina Jolie movie came out she was a part of the general consciousness. Probably not more recognizable than Mario, though.

      • Broken_Monitor@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        3 months ago

        Fair enough, its not that she’s unknown, just not as popular as the others. I actually forgot about those movies! Man they were not great…

    • Cloudless ☼@lemmy.cafeEnglish
      131·
      3 months ago

      They polled game publishers. The list is more like “which game publisher is paying us the most.”

    • smeg@feddit.uk
      English
      4·
      3 months ago

      the poll was engaged with by over 4,000 players from all over the world

      So gamers, and a non-trivial but not even remotely representative group size

    • nieceandtows@programming.devEnglish
      3·
      3 months ago

      Wasn’t link only the official in-game name starting with botw? Not saying it wasn’t link before, but previously they asked for your name first and only used Link if you didn’t give one, so many casual players wouldn’t have known it’s Link.