| RenCutypoison said: Pacman is not recognizable by children. I would go with Pikachu, even if most people know him from the anime. Mario is mostly recognize by gamers, many non gamers can't recognize it as well as pikachu. |
How do you figure Mario is mostly recognized by gamers?
The following is my conjecture, but I respectfully disagree. Even if people don't play his games, his image is engrained in popular culture. He's synonymous with video gaming, but outsiders know his theme song, sound effects and image (used in everything from movies to songs to ring tones and just about any form of popular media). A lot of non-gamers think of his face when they think of video games in general so even if they don't play games, they are quite aware of him. It's like claiming just because you don't watch the NBA, you don't know who Michael Jordan is. Grandmothers, busnessman, children...all demographics know Mario just like they do Michael Jordan.
Pikachu is arguably second though for the reasons you said. In my honest opinion of course, but painmaster212 posted links to google trends and Mario not only beats Pac-Man and Pikachu handily, he beats out Pokemon altogether. And Google has like 90% of websearch traffic so these numbers reflect worldwide trends, not just America's or gamers.
