BAFTA polls 4000 people, asks who is most iconic game characters of all time, Lara Croft wins.

(List copied, and edited from DiscussingFilm on Twitter)

15 - Crash Bandicoot

14 - Solid Snake

13 - Steve

12 - Pikachu

11 - Arthur Morgan

10 - Shadowheart

9 - Kratos

8 - Master Chief

7 - Link

6 - Pac-Man

5 - Sackboy

4 - Sonic

3 - Agent 47

2 - Mario

1 - Lara Croft

...

And the reaction from Twitter is hilarious to me. Like they are AWARE where BAFTA is from right? Of course Nintendo characters weren't going to be number one. Like expecting Master Chief to be on a similar list from Japan.

Anyone who thinks Lara Croft is more iconic than Mario is in some sort of alternate universe where people have brain damage on mass.

It’s hard to imagine anyone picking anyone else except Mario as the most iconic video game character regardless of where they live.

@Archangel3371: Knowing how Nintendo wasn't always popular in the UK (NES and SNES sold badly there), let alone learned the hard way how overblown them saving the industry from the (NA) gaming crash was, I'm not too surprised honestly.

Sackboy at #5? lol

well she bri'ish

I'm glad not to see Nintendo/Mario at the top of a list.

And I will say I don't find Mario to be iconic at all, generic and overrated yes, but iconic hell no.

All hope is not lost for the poms just yet.

This list is garbage.

Such a strange list.

- Arthur Morgan

- Shadowheart

- Sackboy

- Agent 47

Also seem oddly high on the list.

From right? What? And Mario is well known outside of japan, playing in the same league as MickeyMouse. You're calling yourself "nintendoboy16". More like Nintendontboy17.

Obviously, BAFTA applies the same criteria to polls as to their award ceremonies. inclusivity equality bull. At least 50% of the people were female. That is why this list is strange. Btw. who the bloody hell is Steve?

Solid snake in 14th place and Agent 47 in third place?

loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool

@last_lap: this is honestly the best take you have ever written across this board.

Absolutely true. Mario on NES fueled a revolution after the video game crash.

This list makes little sense, then how again do you define iconic? Take Sonic and Lara Croft for example. Two cool video game characters but also completely different in style.

Agent 47 at #3 lololol

That list is weird as hell.

Agent 47 is iconic.

Baftas have spoken,cry,shit and stamp in it all you want but the English lady with the big jugs won

You'd be wise to listen to more of them.

Which, again, was North American (US, Canada, Mexico) centric.

Of course you're a Nintendo hater

But then that begs the question. What of Sonic and Pac-Man? Weren't Sega consoles popular in Europe?

He is right, tho, and you already know that i am not a Nintendo hater.

All of those jumped out to me as well.

I'm from the UK and this is fucking stupid. And this is coming from someone fucking stupid.

lol... yeah right. There are a LOT of characters more iconic than that. What did they do ask 14 people?

@uninspiredcup: You don't even like Ninty, man.

@luxuryheart: Sonic is number four. In the Top 5.

Oh really, would a hater own just about every Nintendo device released?

I'm a realist when it comes to Nintendo, that's something sheep like yourself don't understand. Ever since the Wii Nintendo have been relying on gimmicky devices to sell, and Mario is the most whored out gaming character on the planet, that doesn't make him iconic.

There is nothing iconic about Mario, blue overalls, a red long sleeve shirt, big arse nose, white gloves and a red hat, the only thing that is even remotely iconic is his stashe and only because you could say it's a porn stashe lol.

I refuse to buy the Switch because its garbage at the price Nintendo wants for it. I will get one second hand when the Switch 2 comes out and only to play Bayo 2 & 3 and not for any of Nintendo's first party kids games, with one exception and that's Zelda.

But, but, i'm a hater lol.

How on earth did Shadowheart get on there? lol, she hasn’t even been around for a year yet.

Master Chief is more iconic than Kratos.😏

Clearly you're a hater if you dislike the thought of Mario being iconic. Stay salty that he's video games version of Mickey Mouse. Mario and Pikachu are.

No problem with this. Lara is a gaming icon for sure.

Oh, so I went from a Nintendo hater to a Mario hater who is salty. Geez listen to yourself, you sound so butthurt that someone doesn't think Mario is iconic.

You know there's a spray for that right?

Don't agree with Lara Croft. Probably wouldn't have her in the top 5 were it my own list.... Just don't see in any conceivable way how she tops Nintendo's iconic characters or leads from much more popular games and franchises.

I don't even know who that is....

Actually.... Looking through the entire list... It's really bad. Lol.

Someone gets it!

Lara is iconic. I would put her just below Luigi.

Seriously though Nintendo was robbed big time. I mean to me Bowser is a faaaar more iconic character than Arthur Morgan.

Donkey Kong?

BAFTA is from the UK, so the poll was probably conducted in the UK. Lara Croft is the most famous British game character of all time, so it makes sense UK gamers are going to be biased towards her, just as Japanese gamers would be towards Japanese characters or American gamers towards American characters. That's also why Hitman and LittleBigPlanet are in the top five, since they're also associated with the UK game industry.

What I've been saying, but when I'm even seeing Cup posting more weirder than normal about this...

I mean, he's not wrong. Even here in the UK, YouGov polls show Mario is the most famous video game character (recognized by 93% of Brits). But BAFTA voters are going to have a bias towards Lara because she's a local English lass whereas Mario is a foreign plumber. We'd see a similar bias towards local characters in the US and Japan.

These results are hitting folks hard.😔

The poll you linked me showed PlayStation at number one, at 60% more popularity.

Boomers and Millennials seem to agree too. Shocked with Gen X results though.

@nintendoboy16 said:

@Jag85 said:

@nintendoboy16 said:

@Jag85 said:

BAFTA is from the UK, so the poll was probably conducted in the UK. Lara Croft is the most famous British game character of all time, so it makes sense UK gamers are going to be biased towards her, just as Japanese gamers would be towards Japanese characters or American gamers towards American characters. That's also why Hitman and LittleBigPlanet are in the top five, since they're also associated with the UK game industry.

What I've been saying, but when I'm even seeing Cup posting more weirder than normal about this...

I mean, he's not wrong. Even here in the UK, YouGov polls show Mario is the most famous video game character (recognized by 93% of Brits). But BAFTA voters are going to have a bias towards Lara because she's a local English lass whereas Mario is a foreign plumber. We'd see a similar bias towards local characters in the US and Japan.

The poll you linked me showed PlayStation at number one, at 60% more popularity.

Boomers and Millennials seem to agree too. Shocked with Gen X results though.

Sony is a company though. Mario is a game franchise.

Mario is number one for Gen X because they were the OG Super Mario fans.

@Jag85 said:

@nintendoboy16 said:

The poll you linked me showed PlayStation at number one, at 60% more popularity.

Boomers and Millennials seem to agree too. Shocked with Gen X results though.

Sony is a company though. Mario is a game franchise.

Mario is number one for Gen X because they were the OG Super Mario fans.

Still tells me a lot on Nintendo's popularity in the UK though, compared to the States and Japan. Plus, that poll from YouGov is a clusterf***. All different sorts of brand names from different categories. Companies to franchises in one list.

I agree it make sense but it also shows that the demographics that voted is likely skewed towards 30+. Lara Croft is British and she was the first gaming icon that crossed over to wider cultural phenomenon. Even with limited access to world wide web back then people still know her and Angelina Jolie played her twice. Idk if there any other superstar that do video game movies back then.

Angelina Jolie wasn't that famous when she signed up for the first Tomb Raider. If anything, Tomb Raider helped shoot her to superstardom. She became an A-lister after Tomb Raider.

YouGov also conduct polls in America:

The Most Famous Video Games (Q1 2024)

To no one's surprise, Super Mario is number-one.