Pikachu Is The Most Recognizable Video Game Character

November 23, 2021

2021 has been a big year for gaming anniversaries — Sonic the Hedgehog turned 30, Donkey Kong turned 40 and The Legend of Zelda turned 35, making our favorite video game characters top of mind for many Americans.

In honor of Pokemon’s 25th anniversary this year, the team at GetCenturyLink wanted to find out how Pikachu stacks up against the most recognizable video game characters among young adults.

We surveyed 1,800 Americans ages 16-24 and found that 85% of Gen Z can identify Pikachu, making him the most recognizable video game character for the age group. In comparison, only 72% of Gen Z could identify Rosa Parks.

Their report reveals which video game characters are most recognizable for Gen Z, and how memorable the youngest generation finds them compared to famous people of past and present.

Recent data shows that 8 in 10 Gen Z individuals play video games, with the average Gen Z gamer playing for over 7 hours per week. This made the GetCenturyLink team wonder which video game characters have had the biggest impact on this generation.

GetCenturyLink used Pollfish to ask 1,800 Americans ages 16-24 to match video game characters and famous people with the correct portraits, out of five possible options per question.

To see which characters have made the biggest impression on Gen Z, We surveyed 1,800 Americans ages 16-24 and found that while 83% of Gen Z can identify Sonic the Hedgehog, only 67% recognize Bill Gates.

Interesting Findings:

85% of Gen Z can identify Pikachu, making him the most recognizable video game character. By comparison, only 72% of respondents were able to identify Rosa Parks.
Gen Z correctly identified video game characters at an average rate of 80%, but only identified public figures with 56% accuracy.
Lara Croft trailed the whole group of most recognizable video game characters at 66%—perhaps because the player point of view shows the back of her head.
Just 40% of Gen Z recognize Zoe Saldana, despite her Marvel Universe credits and status as one of the top-grossing actors of all time.

See what else we found in the full report.