In what could be considered a bit of a surprise, Sega has announced that the results of a survey took by over 500,000 UK gamers decided that Sonic the Hedgehog is the most popular video game character. Not Mario, not Lara Croft… hell, not even Ivy from Soulcalibur 4! And that, I must admit, is quite strange.

Here are the full standings and the percentage of votes the characters got:

1. Sonic the Hedgehog (24 per cent)
2. Super Mario (21 per cent)
3. Lara Croft (16 per cent)
4. Donkey Kong (11 per cent)
5. Pac Man (10 per cent)
6. Link (5 per cent)
7. Max Payne (4 per cent)
8. Pikachu (3 per cent)
9. Niko Belic (2 per cent)
10. Blanka (1 per cent)

Another 3 percent opted for other character and, after looking once again over the charts I can’t help but wonder: where are MegaMan or Duke Nukem? And what is Blanka doing there? (I’m not questioning Niko since we can say that the GTA IV hype ain’t over yet)

So… what’s your opinion? Who’s the most popular game character?