# Top 16 Video Game Mascots of All Time

> Recognition is not the same as quality, and this list keeps proving it. A few of these carried entire companies on their backs; others mostly sold plush toys.

*By YPB Team · Published August 5, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/top-16-video-game-mascots-of-all-time*

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## Current results (0 votes)

1. **Mario**
   Nintendo's plumber, first seen as Jumpman in Donkey Kong in 1981 and the face of gaming ever since.
2. **Master Chief**
   The silent Spartan of Halo, and the closest thing Xbox has to a face.
3. **Kratos**
   God of War's Spartan, rebuilt from a rage-driven brawler into PlayStation's leading man.
4. **Sonic the Hedgehog**
   Sega's blue blur, created to give Nintendo a rival with attitude in 1991.
5. **Pikachu**
   The Pokémon franchise's electric mouse and one of the most recognised characters on earth.
6. **Link**
   The silent hero of The Legend of Zelda, wordless across four decades of games.
7. **Pac-Man**
   Namco's 1980 maze-eater, the first video game character to become a household shape.
8. **Lara Croft**
   Tomb Raider's archaeologist, voted the most iconic game character in a BAFTA poll.
9. **Crash Bandicoot**
   Naughty Dog's marsupial, the unofficial PlayStation mascot of the 1990s.
10. **Donkey Kong**
   The 1981 arcade antagonist who became a Nintendo headliner in his own right.
11. **Astro Bot**
   The little robot from Team Asobi's games, now PlayStation's most-used modern mascot.
12. **Kirby**
   Nintendo's pink sphere who solves problems by inhaling them.
13. **Solid Snake**
   Metal Gear's infiltrator, the face of PlayStation's most cinematic series.
14. **Spyro the Dragon**
   Insomniac's purple dragon, the other mascot platformer of the original PlayStation.
15. **Samus Aran**
   Metroid's bounty hunter, and the reveal that reframed a whole genre in 1986.
16. **Sackboy**
   LittleBigPlanet's knitted hero, PlayStation's family-facing mascot of the PS3 years.

Tags: games, nintendo, characters, retro