Who's the most popular character now?

[DC111]

Sonic's definitely still the most popular. I'm curious what his popularity would be if he WASN'T the main character in this franchise, though. I'd like to hope he'd still be as popular.

Shadow and Tails are probably in the next positions, then Knuckles. Sucks that only ONE of these three characters ever gets any attention anymore. (Aside from Sonic, obviously.)

[Dash Speed]

Bump 

I'd argue that after Sonic himself, Tails himself has been more popular to males than Shadow has in his entire gaming history, Shadow's boost to 2nd place really comes from his fangirls, many male fans dispise him for taking the rival spotlight from Knuckles and second main character role from Tails once during his generation. Females love Shadow more than Males do most of the Men that have heavy fanbases have always put Sonic, Tails and Knuckles as their absolute faves with Shadow usually 4th place, while female fans put Shadow on top of a male sonic fan list along with Silver, Sonic or Tails. And now thanks to the mania trends, the original boys are most likely back at being the top of the heap above Shadow in being more liked overall.

[MetalSkulkBane]

Sweet Demiurge, that's some high-level necromancy topic resurrection.

Honestly, not much changed in those 7 years. classic+ Shadow are still on top and probably will stay that way for eternity. Unless Sega releases game/movie with bigger focus on secondary character (say "Chao Garden Game, starring Cream" or upcoming movie having Big as main (and successful) comic relief), It probably won't happen, but hey, 5 years ago no one knew who Guardians of the Galaxy are.

And the rest? Blaze might be slightly more popular than Espio, Espio slightly more popular than Cream, but you need magnifying glass to notice.

[DabigRG]

1 hour ago, Dash Speed said:

Bump 

I'd argue that after Sonic himself, Tails himself has been more popular to males than Shadow has in his entire gaming history, Shadow's boost to 2nd place really comes from his fangirls, many male fans dispise him for taking the rival spotlight from Knuckles and second main character role from Tails once during his generation. Females love Shadow more than Males do most of the Men that have heavy fanbases have always put Sonic, Tails and Knuckles as their absolute faves with Shadow usually 4th place, while female fans put Shadow on top of a male sonic fan list along with Silver, Sonic or Tails. And now thanks to the mania trends, the original boys are most likely back at being the top of the heap above Shadow in being more liked overall.

I had to wipe my eyes like three times when I accidentally clicked this.

I'll definitely take your word for it though, given what little I know.

[Your Vest Friend]

I dunno, I think Shadow still has an edge over Knuckles over both gender groups, even with Mania. 

[Ashwalking Bat]

Dashing Speed isn't entirely wrong with Shadow. Shadow only got slowly more popular with males. A good part of Shadow's fanbase in the early days of popularity, mostly were females. And it's been memed and joked about before, at least among Sonic fans. It's kind of a in joke thing really. Though I wouldn't be surprised if things have balanced out more in recent years, in terms of his popularity.

Edited May 11, 2018 by Ashwalking Bat

[Dash Speed]

5 hours ago, Ashwalking Bat said:

Dashing Speed isn't entirely wrong with Shadow. Shadow only got slowly more popular with males. A good part of Shadow's fanbase in the early days of popularity, mostly were females. And it's been memed and joked about before, at least among Sonic fans. It's kind of a in joke thing really. Though I wouldn't be surprised if things have balanced out more in recent years, in terms of his popularity.

It depends on what side of the Sonic gender spectrum Shadow is on with fans of all generations. In the minds of classic era fanboys, he's the most controversial and less likely to be an fan fav over Tails and Knuckles, even Eggman has bigger influence who accuse him of being a copy, a out of place concept or bot, in the minds of Modern era, I'd argue he's top of the chain with Sonic and Tails but theirs a big factor on gender influence when regarding Shadow as a heavy fanbase, mostly the lore he surrounds himself with which attracts females more than males, I still think Tails(alongside Sonic) somehow is more popular than he is because he's somewhat a self inserting avatar of the player which most boys can relate to, as well as the second main hero known through out the series after Sonic, Sonic seems to be bigger because unlike Shadow, he's simple to get and relate to or want to imagine being even though he's has less character depth, he's a wish fufillment for little kids mostly boys who love his daring bold cockiness and cool nature, very little men want to imagine themselves as a troubled and immensely powerful bad boy who gets various females to help him without a second thought in the games and comics and still doesn't give a damn about making friends or being cold to those women. Knuckles is the only character like Shadow in basic anti heroic cues who I see being as equal to being liked to both sides but even Knux has more a balanced normal traits men can relate to, but the cool but simple mindedness urges of Sonic and the socially awkward, everyman nature of Tails is always gonna be a hit with boy demographics while Shadow's mysterious and dark nature is always gonna attract girls more.

[BaronGrackle]

20 hours ago, Dash Speed said:

Bump 

I'd argue that after Sonic himself, Tails himself has been more popular to males than Shadow has in his entire gaming history, Shadow's boost to 2nd place really comes from his fangirls, many male fans dispise him for taking the rival spotlight from Knuckles and second main character role from Tails once during his generation. Females love Shadow more than Males do most of the Men that have heavy fanbases have always put Sonic, Tails and Knuckles as their absolute faves with Shadow usually 4th place, while female fans put Shadow on top of a male sonic fan list along with Silver, Sonic or Tails. And now thanks to the mania trends, the original boys are most likely back at being the top of the heap above Shadow in being more liked overall.

Here's what I'm not getting: are there REALLY more girls than boys among Sonic the Hedgehog gamer fans?

For Shadow to be only popular with girls, we'd expect to see a huge amount of girl fans in the franchise to raise him so high on polls and such.

[Skull Leader]

Given how Amy started on a very, very minor role, with an uncertain future during most of the Classic era and yet managed to remain after so many years as a popular character without ever having enjoyed the same amount of push and support that Sonic Team never escatimates to give when it comes to Tails, Knuckles and Shadow, I can't help but to wonder where would Amy be today if she had been given an equal treatment and oportunities.

[A person, that exists]

Classic Sonic. I mean, most fans draw Classic, everybody praises the Classic games and their characters and so on. 

I mean, heck, even Sega forces the light-blue bastard onto all of their recent games.

[MetalSkulkBane]

44 minutes ago, A person, that exists said:

Classic Sonic.

Funny, to me Classic Sonic is what Shadow become to Classic fans.

Yes, Sonic Mania was fun. But that's gameplay, not story. (I suppose there is Mania Adventures, but I'll hold my opinion until full things comes out).

13 hours ago, Skull Leader said:

Given how Amy started on a very, very minor role, with an uncertain future during most of the Classic era and yet managed to remain after so many years as a popular character without ever having enjoyed the same amount of push and support that Sonic Team never escatimates to give when it comes to Tails, Knuckles and Shadow, I can't help but to wonder where would Amy be today if she had been given an equal treatment and oportunities.

Considering she was a random extra and now is considered a 4th (sometimes 3rd) core member, I would say she's doing pretty good.

If something holds her back, I would blame it on her characterization in few games, boring gameplay in SA1, and maybe being a girl in boys-aimed-franchise (maaaybe).

[Red Hot Jack]

2 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

Funny, to me Classic Sonic is what Shadow become to Classic fans.

Depends, it's not Shadow levels of fangirling, but yeah, the appeal is restricted to a certain group of fans. Meanwhile I'm a Modern Sonic fan... but I also like Shadow and Classic Sonic.

[Skull Leader]

8 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

If something holds her back, I would blame it on her characterization in few games, boring gameplay in SA1, and maybe being a girl in boys-aimed-franchise (maaaybe).

I think that currently it has more to do with Sonic Team's fixation on the classic "trio", particularly how they try to keep Knuckles around by all and any means to continue exploiting the association people make when seeing him, Sonic and Tails together with the Genesis trilogy, as if it were some kind of assuring of the game's quality.

Sadly, that comes at the expense of characters like Amy not getting enough exposure, which is only made worse when they miss opportunities that could help boost their perception (SA2 had Amy involved from the start, and she was fundamental to solve Shadow's conflict yet the spotlight went to Knuckles, who hardly had any involvement whatsoever nor impact in the story as he was pretty much inconsequential to the plot, or more recently, Forces where Knuckles is given a role of commander that by any stretch is hardly fitting for his character, feeling like a very obvious shoehorning for something that other characters like Amy, Rouge or Vector could better fill as they all had actual leadership qualities). Even now with Mania Plus, there is a #RoomForOneMore thing going on after a fanmade animation of Amy being left behind catched the attention of the official Sonic the Hedgehog account ran by Aaron Webber, which I thing was a very much needed call to be aware that Amy is a character that can't just be pretended to not exist like in the early 90's.

[DabigRG]

1 hour ago, Skull Leader said:

Even now with Mania Plus, there is a #RoomForOneMore thing going on after a fanmade animation of Amy being left behind catched the attention of the official Sonic the Hedgehog account ran by Aaron Webber, which I thing was a very much needed call to be aware that Amy is a character that can't just be pretended to not exist like in the early 90's.

 I saw the thumbnail for that animation the other day and almost thought it was real.

But yeah, I do feel like Mania is a chance to also utilize Rosy, as she'd make a better, more distinct entry than Metal. 

[Dash Speed]

On YouTube, top ten coolest sonic characters, sonic and knuckles are first and second respectively, shadow is 3rd. Amy is eighth etc.

[Red Hot Jack]

23 minutes ago, Dash Speed said:

On YouTube, top ten coolest sonic characters, sonic and knuckles are first and second respectively, shadow is 3rd. Amy is eighth etc.

How many votes? We need to make a new top ten here. But I'm afraid it would be influenced by modern hate.

[Gumbit]

On 5/11/2018 at 1:54 PM, Dash Speed said:

Bump 

I'd argue that after Sonic himself, Tails himself has been more popular to males than Shadow has in his entire gaming history, Shadow's boost to 2nd place really comes from his fangirls, many male fans dispise him for taking the rival spotlight from Knuckles and second main character role from Tails once during his generation. Females love Shadow more than Males do most of the Men that have heavy fanbases have always put Sonic, Tails and Knuckles as their absolute faves with Shadow usually 4th place, while female fans put Shadow on top of a male sonic fan list along with Silver, Sonic or Tails. And now thanks to the mania trends, the original boys are most likely back at being the top of the heap above Shadow in being more liked overall.

I'm girl myself , Shadow and Silver are least favorite characters .

[Marco9966]

I think the most popular ones besides Sonic are Shadow, Silver, Knuckles, Tails.

Also Mighty and Ray for their Mania reveal.

[Your Vest Friend]

I don't think Mighty and Ray have really gone that much higher in the popularity stakes, even with Mania Plus on the horizon. I'm not seeing much more activity for them than before the reveal. 

[Skull Leader]

1 hour ago, VEDJ-F said:

I don't think Mighty and Ray have really gone that much higher in the popularity stakes, even with Mania Plus on the horizon. I'm not seeing much more activity for them than before the reveal. 

Even before they were announced, I don't think that Mighty and Ray ever had enough popularity to warrant them skipping over Amy (the most obvious choice by far) and the Chaotix when it came to who should be the next character to be included in a clasic styled game.

[Shadowlax]

3 hours ago, Gumbit said:

I'm girl myself , Shadow and Silver are least favorite characters .

Not quoting you exactly but your quote. 

Shadow is definitely popular among dudes, and probably more popular than tails. I know some people are looking at it from a " fanfiction " angle, but...its a franchise for children. And shadow is a cool guy with powers, male kids often like the cool guy character, kids in general. So trying to divide up shadow's popularity and tails's for that matter who is certainly popular with girls, is really weird to me. 

Again not towards you in anyway, I just thought the post you quoted was really weird

9 hours ago, Dash Speed said:

On YouTube, top ten coolest sonic characters, sonic and knuckles are first and second respectively, shadow is 3rd. Amy is eighth etc.

What is the metric for this, what votes?

Who voted? 

How many people voted?

Ect ect ect, and its a youtube so like, whos fanbase voted? 

Because this, and your previous gendered statement about who likes who feels like a hell of an asspull. Along with being sexist. And just forgetting that children and teeens make up the bulk of the sonic fanbase. And a bunch of other things

[DabigRG]

On 6/20/2018 at 5:44 PM, Marco9966 said:

I think the most popular ones besides Sonic are Shadow, Silver, Knuckles, Tails.

Is Silver really a contender?

On 6/20/2018 at 8:02 PM, Skull Leader said:

Even before they were announced, I don't think that Mighty and Ray ever had enough popularity to warrant them skipping over Amy (the most obvious choice by far) and the Chaotix when it came to who should be the next character to be included in a clasic styled game.

They're essentially classic era characters, ones that have apparently been requested for years, so it sorta makes sense.

Honestly, I would've thought they'd use both of them with Classic Amy.

[Skull Leader]

4 hours ago, DabigRG said:

They're essentially classic era characters, ones that have apparently been requested for years, so it sorta makes sense.

Honestly, I would've thought they'd use both of them with Classic Amy.

True that they're from the Classic era, but they never had the exposure Amy and the Chaotix had, especially when these characters actually made the jump to the modern era, with the Chaotix apparently being included in Heroes because of Iizuka himself.

In contrast, the only thing Mighty and Ray ever had before Mania were those posters in Generations, supossedly by suggestion of someone outside the Japanese developer staff (could be wrong on this last bit), which isn't exactly something that reflects a high degree of popularity outside of a niche group that requested them for years.

 

[Your Vest Friend]

Last I checked, AAUK wasn't Japanese, so unless he's been fooling us this entire time it was indeed someone outside the Japanese staff who put forward the reference suggestion. 

I mean, at least it's one of the obscure reference suggestions that Sonic Team gave the okay to as opposed to most of them. 

[Cuz]

Hearing Mighty referenced separately from the rest of the Chaotix will never stop sounding so alien to me.  He'll always be the missing fifth member in my book. xD