Dragon Ball Worldwide Character Popularity Poll Results Revealed

Ahead of tonight's Dragon Ball Zenkidamatsuri! At the event, where multiple announcements including video game-related revelations are expected, Dragon Ball has released the results of its first-ever global character popularity survey.

Despite Vegeta's massive popularity, it was none other than Goku himself, the savior of Earth, who topped the results. In fact, from a list of 212 characters, the face of the franchise was selected as No. 1, which probably shouldn't come as a surprise, but, hey, stranger things have happened.

The top 21 are as follows:

goku
vegetables
Gohan
Piccolo
Vegito
trunks (teen)
Bardock
Android 18
Cell
Frieza
Krillin
Yamcha
Bulma
Tn
Bulma's family cat
Goten
chichi
Android 17
Launch
Vidal
Raditz

Some highlights off the top of my head: For all the memes about him, Yamcha beats some seriously integral characters. The launch was definitely well received given how popular the original Dragon Ball is. Teen Trunks is the best version of Trunks out there.

Naruto, Goku, and Sailor Moon on a red background.

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Courtesy of the survey's exclusive data, Japanese voters gave a higher priority to OG Dragon Ball and PUAR's Mermaid King Chappa compared to other regions. Similarly, North American voters also preferred Shin aka Supreme Kai, Great Simon and Dolphin from OG Dragon Ball.

As the biggest Gotenks fan in the world, it hurts me to see him stuck at number 22 outside of that group of finalists. At least, Goten (solo) made the final list.

Elsewhere, voters in every age group (U10, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50s) all had Goku as their number 1, but where things got really interesting was their number 2. For example, U10 voters and those in their 10s had Vegeta as their number 2, while those in their 30s and 40s had Vegeta.

The full results, which can be found here, are worth checking out, including who ranked No. 212, as well as some fun Goku facts, like his official win-loss record.

This isn't the first time the face of a franchise has been voted No. 1 in its own poll.

Over the winter holidays, the results of a separate Sonic the Hedgehog fan vote were revealed, and lo and behold, Sonic himself was No. 1 on the list. As expected, where things got interesting is the fact that Silver was actually number 3 on the list, ahead of Tails and Knuckles.

That said, it's not always the franchise face or hero number 1 most popular character, as the Hunter x Hunter poll had Killua at number 1 and Gon at number 2. Attack on Titan is also famous for Levi number 1 before the end of Eren's arc.

Goku and Sonic are the best.