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Mario or Pikachu. Who is the bigger icon?
- Thread starter Homura
- Start date
BRUH. BRUUUUH.
Anyway, it's Pikachu. Mario is my dude, but c'mon, it's Pikachu.
I dunno, Era constantly overestimates Pokemon and posts a link to the wiki highest grossing page as evidence for everything. From saying Let's Go would easily outsell Smash (because look at this wiki page) to saying Detective Pikachu would outgross Toy Story (cause look at this wiki page). The Era bubble is real, but it doesn't really apply when underestimating Pokemon.
Yep. This place assumes everyone's a millennial that can recognize and name the top 50 Pokemon characters. It's weird.
My 70 year old grandma in Morocco knows who Pikachu is, but she's probably never seen Mario in her life. "Pokemania" isn't something that was just made up.
Also, this isn't about Pokemon anyway, this is specifically about Pikachu. Pikachu is a character that has transcended its own franchise in fame, but nobody thinks of Mario outside of the context of Nintendo.
These threads always end up with people acting all condescending to one another over which fictional character is more well known. Its like a console war thread but even more pointless.
My grandparents know who Mario is and have no idea what Pokemon is. I didn't say it was made up, Pikachu is one of the biggest characters in the world, but so is Mario. To pretend that Pikachu is so far above him that only someone in a bubble would believe otherwise is pretty silly.
All I said was people here constantly overestimate Pokemon's performance, and they do. The Detective Pikachu threads and polls show that much. So this isn't some kind of anti-Pokemon bubble like some are suggesting.
Okay I won't lie I thought it was Mario a few minutes ago because of how older adults would know Mario but likely not pickachu but then I texted my father (who for sure knows Mario but doesn't play any games but madden) a picture of pikachu and he named it correct instantly.
Maybe it is Pikachu and we're underestimating its reach to older audiences.
Maybe it is Pikachu and we're underestimating its reach to older audiences.
Pokémon is huge. Pikachu is huge.
But the right answer is Mario.
Here is the PRIME MINISTER OF JAPAN, emerging from a pipe dressed as Mario at the Rio Olympics.
Take a moment and think about that. Tokyo had a few minutes of one of the most-watched events in history to showcase their culture to the world. And the character they chose for the signature moment was Mario.
It's Mario.
But the right answer is Mario.
Here is the PRIME MINISTER OF JAPAN, emerging from a pipe dressed as Mario at the Rio Olympics.
Take a moment and think about that. Tokyo had a few minutes of one of the most-watched events in history to showcase their culture to the world. And the character they chose for the signature moment was Mario.
It's Mario.
this right hereThis should answer your question:
List of highest-grossing media franchises - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
For a time Mario was more recognisable then even Mickey mouse but that was in the 90s
It's pikachu now
Though I'd suspect there's some overlap
Not even close, people just misinterpreted the source.
Mario (and Sonic) at times in the 90s had a higher percentage of children in a certain age group that had them as a favorite character -out of those that recognized them- compared to Mickey ("Q Score") - Mickey was way more recognized.
Companies pay for this data like NPD so it's hard to find a complete picture for various years, but this article grouped together a bunch of them https://www.theringer.com/2020/9/9/21428984/mario-spinoffs-franchises-kart-tennis-dr
Percentage of people in the US that recognized various famous video game characters in 2020:
Sonic 75%
Mario 72%
Pac-Man 72%
Donkey Kong 65%
Batman (video games) 61%
Luigi 60%
Pikachu 58%
Yoshi 52%
Link 36%
Toad 34%
Talking Tom 34%
Crash Bandicoot 25%
Master Chief 16%
Compared to Mickey at 88%.
Yes, Sonic was number 1. Maybe things outside games were a bigger part of that.
Edit: Other non gaming characters for 2020:
Donald Duck 84%
Spider-Man (movies) 80%
Geico Gecko 79%
Charlie Brown 78%
M&M's Candy Characters 77%
Scooby-Doo (cartoons) 76%
Miss Piggy 76%
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I lean towards Pikachu, simply because he's famous for more than video games.
This however, is also a strong argument.
Pokémon is huge. Pikachu is huge.
But the right answer is Mario.
Here is the PRIME MINISTER OF JAPAN, emerging from a pipe dressed as Mario at the Rio Olympics.
Take a moment and think about that. Tokyo had a few minutes of one of the most-watched events in history to showcase their culture to the world. And the character they chose for the signature moment was Mario.
It's Mario.
This however, is also a strong argument.
I back this 151%
Edit: on topic, though... it's the 'chu. it's gotta be that 'chu... mario's a big wig, but the 'chu transcends
Well he can't dress like PikachuPokémon is huge. Pikachu is huge.
But the right answer is Mario.
Here is the PRIME MINISTER OF JAPAN, emerging from a pipe dressed as Mario at the Rio Olympics.
Take a moment and think about that. Tokyo had a few minutes of one of the most-watched events in history to showcase their culture to the world. And the character they chose for the signature moment was Mario.
It's Mario.
It's that app with the cat where it can record your voice and it comes out high pitched.
Yeah, I said Pikachu but I'll never forget about this. I was like "wow, he's that friggin' big huh?"Pokémon is huge. Pikachu is huge.
But the right answer is Mario.
Here is the PRIME MINISTER OF JAPAN, emerging from a pipe dressed as Mario at the Rio Olympics.
Take a moment and think about that. Tokyo had a few minutes of one of the most-watched events in history to showcase their culture to the world. And the character they chose for the signature moment was Mario.
It's Mario.
Makes me giggle now when his popularity is downplayed.
Dunno, but this youtube vid of it has 400 million views, lol.
ALL Talking Tom Shorts - Hyper Marathon
Watch NEW video of Talking Tom Shorts: https://youtu.be/wLnv7JJTEbcLights! Camera! MARATHON! It’s time to watch the first 30 hilarious, epic, and awesome Tal...
www.youtube.com
Imagine you asked people here if Master Chief would be more recognizable than that.
Umm if you said super mario I'm pretty sure they're know what and who your talking about which is what he's known by.
It's Pikachu. I want to add, though Pokemon covers multiple forms of media, it was conceived as a video game first and foremost, then adapted to other forms. So they still have the claim to biggest video game character of all time. And this is coming from someone who enjoys Mario overall more than Pokemon. I'd say Mario is the second biggest video game icon, and honestly, that's not a bad ranking at all.
Worldwide it's Pikachu, and it's not even a close contest. Just visit regions where Nintendo has a weak presence and most people will still know who Pikachu is, including people who have never used the internet nor smartphone before. Pikachu is a in-your-face mascot chosen by TPC that goes far beyond video games.
Yeah, it's ancedotal, but my Grandma would recognize Mario whereas she would have absolutely no idea who Pikachu was. The only game she's played is Wii Sports bowling with us once or twice.
Although I imagine in certain regions of the world that would be the complete opposite.
Pikachu due to merchandise. Mario is more popular in gaming circles but for everyone else it's more likely that they've seen pikachu merchandise than mario merchandise.
Basically this.
Basically this.
Are you telling me that Sonic would win in a poll here vs Mario or Pikachu
I wouldn't trust this as a source.This should answer your question:
List of highest-grossing media franchises - Wikipedia
The tracking material it references are fragmented and inconsistent, making comparisons functionally unworkable. For instance, the most recent "rest of world" metrics for Pokemon merchandise has it clocking in at 2.98B, the 23rd ranked franchise, whereas the number one merchandizer is 18.4 times as large...but it's all under a generic "Disney" banner.
Meanwhile, trying to check the numbers associated with Winnie The Pooh, the highest singularly identifiable Disney property to see where *those* are being sourced from...gets an error, but it's not the same source as where the Pokemon numbers are from. We can't tell how any of these are calculated, and when there is most certainly hard-to-place Disney merchandizing going on, this matters.
Even beyond that, it could well be argued that several of these different entries are in fact single entities (Spider-Man, MCU, Captain America, Avengers, and Thor are all separate; Frozen and Disney Princesses are separate; DCEU and Superman are separate), are extremely out of date, inexact, or incomplete (Princesses is from 2007 and for some reason doesn't include box office; Mario's game numbers are from an IGN article without a source and just mentioned as a franchise vs only being a video game) and so on.
This just doesn't work, and as someone who works [sometimes] in media finance, I really, really wish people would stop using it.
Furthermore, in the case of Mario v Pikachu for which of the two is more popular, two more issues arise:
-Pikachu is not the same as "Pokemon"
-Franchise gross is not the same as popularity
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