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BAFTA Reveals Its Game Awards Winners, Poll Results of Top 20 Iconic Video Game Characters

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) revealed the winners of its 20th BAFTA Game Awards on Thursday. It also released a list of "the top 20 iconic video game characters of all time" based on a poll of over 4,000 people from around the world last Thursday to commemorate the awards season.

Larian Studios' Baldur's Gate 3 took home the top honor of Best Game at the awards ceremony. The other nominees were The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Alan Wake 2, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, and Dave the Diver.

Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. Wonder received awards in Family and Multiplayer categories. Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom won the award for Technical Achievement. Tango Gameworks and Bethesda Softworks' Hi-Fi Rush won in the Animation category. CD PROJEKT RED's Cyberpunk 2077 received an award in the Evolving Game category.

The other winners are listed on BAFTA's website.

BAFTA's top 20 iconic video game characters list is rather interesting. Tomb Raider's Lara Croft took the top spot, beating the likes of Mario, who won second place. Lara Croft has her fans, so although it's not a typical choice, it's well deserved. Even stranger, Agent 47 from the Hitman series earned the #3 spot, over the likes of Sonic the Hedgehog, Link, and Pikachu. Again, Agent 47 has his fans, but it's arguably a bold choice to list him as more iconic than the ubiquitous mascot of Pokémon. Some popular newcomers such as the two representatives from Baldur's Gate 3 may have affected the results with recency bias. On Japan's side, other winners include Pac-Man, Metal Gear Solid's Snake, Final Fantasy VII's Cloud Strife, and the Dragon of Dojima himself Kazuma Kiryu from the Yakuza series. Regardless, the poll's results speak for themselves, which include:

1. Lara Croft — Tomb Raider
2. Mario — Super Mario
3. Agent 47 — Hitman
4. Sonic — Sonic the Hedgehog
5. Sackboy — LittleBigPlanet
6. Pac-Man — Pac-Man
7. Link — The Legend of Zelda
8. Master Chief — Halo
9. Kratos — God of War
10. Shadowheart — Baldur's Gate 3
11. Arthur Morgan — Red Dead Redemption 2
12. Pikachu — Pokémon
13. Steve — Minecraft
14. Solid Snake — Metal Gear Solid
15. Crash Bandicoot — Crash Bandicoot
16. Cloud Strife — Final Fantasy VII
17. Astarion — Baldur's Gate 3
18. Kazuma Kiryu — Yakuza
19. Ellie Williams — The Last of Us
20. Nathan Drake — Uncharted

Which game characters would you put on this list?

Sources: BAFTA (link 2)