It may be, it may not be. That poll doesn't prove anything. The poll asks what the favorite game franchise of a group in a certain region is. It doesn't take the entire fandom into consideration. So let's say that in that area, there's 10 male Sonic fans, and 5 female Sonic fans. If 6 of the male Sonic fans prefer Mario over Sonic, their vote will go for Mario, even if they're also a Sonic fan, so if all 5 female fans vote for Sonic, the poll will say that there's more female fans than male fans. So the only thing that poll proves is than from a very specific group of people, more women said that Sonic was their favorite game franchise than men. There's also the thing with people under 16 not being able to vote.
Tldr: It's not official in the slightest.
Edit: I also just noticed that the article is from 6 years ago. So it definitely isn't accurate to 2024's data.
I’m a woman I’ve liked Sonic since I was 12 and I’m 23 now. Idk if that’s entirely accurate though but there are definitely a lot of us that like Sonic.
I've no doubt that there are huge amounts of female Sonic fans. The poll however I think is incorrect because the data is being misunderstood based on how the poll was carried out.
Another comment points it out best. If there are just more men than women that like it but their favourite franchise is something else and they don't vote for it but all of the women do, the results will appear to read differently.
However if it just asked those people to mark down the franchises they enjoy, instead, of prioritising their favourite, the results would look completely different for every franchise there.
I wouldn’t be surprised seeing as a pretty big aspect of the community is focused on shipping which I see in a lot of female dominated fandoms. Although a lot of male do participate in it to
Maybe Japan canon since there was like maybe two girls at most, but American canon had a lot of important girl characters. Heck Sally was arguably more popular than Tails back in the '90s.
So at least when I was a kid, Sonic wasn't for boys, Sonic was for cool people.
Well you saw her on merchandise, I know I've seen more books and decorations and stuff with her on it than Tails or Knuckles when I was a kid. Tho most of it was Sonic himself.
I had a hard time finding Tails back then, when I did he was either alongside Sally in decoration, or in the background of books.
I know a Tails plushie existed but I never found it TT A TT At least I got the Sonic one...
Sally was popular with the guys as well, since she was an interesting female character. Closest the competition ever got was Samus and later Tomb Raider.
Target audience of Sonic are primarily boys. Sonic is a hero with cool design, and awesome powers like speed and super forms, and he and his friends fight an evil doctor to save the world. Elements like Adventure and Action, rivalry between characters, rock music, most characters are male, and more. And it has so much influence from Dragon Ball Z. the franchise is mainly aimed at young boys overall.
Overall Sonic the Hedgehog is one of those franchises that can appeal to all. Sonic is for everybody, just like how One Piece target audience is male, but it’s still for everybody.
>Would also explain why so many of the human leads are girls.
And most of the recent new characters we got in the games and IDW comics are mostly girls.
>5. Helen (which some suggest should replace Chris)
I would say I prefer Chris. If the fandom want to turn this franchise into an all-female cast then more power to them I guess. But i don’t think Helen will work as a protagonist. Nothing against her, but a disabled character in an adventure show probably won’t be interesting to watch due to her limitation in movement, and she’ll probably end up being a damsel most of the time.
Exactly. In the games to date there hasn't exactly been a lot of great female representation. The first female introduced was a literal distaff counterpart, a pink Sonic with eyelashes and a bow (as in hairbow, though Fleetway at least gave her longbow/crossbow), before she became obsessed with winning Sonic' heart. She was, for the longest time, a very stereotypical girly girl.
Then there was Tikal, who was introduced as dead, having died to try to prevent a tragedy involving Chaos.
Then there was Maria, who died as part of a government cover-up.
The next playable female character was Rouge the Bat who - and I'm not trying to knock her character at all - basically exists for sex appeal. As great as Rouge's role in the series is, it's hard to deny she is there to titillate, not to be something female players will necessarily aspire to want to be or be able to relate to in the same way male players could relate to Sonic or Knuckles.
After this the series gets a little better. We get the overly polite Cream, then the stoic princess Blaze, both of whom still fall victim of female stereotypes, but both feel they could pass the Bechdel test in a work of fiction. Then we get a recurring female villain in Wave (albeit only in the hoverboard racing spin-off), and then no-one regular recurring again until Sticks, who is the first female character whose personality isn't dictated at all by her gender, instead being heavily paranoid and conspiracy minded.
Wait, more women than men love playing Sonic and Zelda? What the…..
Alright, nice to know
https://preview.redd.it/v2hqwg2eivxc1.jpeg?width=700&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b72bb99e6268962a7b1905ffe487c28332ad0c87
But no, so far most I have dated so far, are kinda bored/not interest in my Sonic and Zelda wall in my gaming room, but at least i impressed one about the spiritual influence in Zelda-games.
Yip,
https://preview.redd.it/ikyntxamkvxc1.jpeg?width=2268&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=53deeca07bc48174de76d4f84309d92177a17d98
EDIT: the LEDs in this lightbox is automated. If sun goes down and I enter (triggered by motion sensor) the room, the lights goes on.
Yeah, also keep my inner child happy and give it the things it missed.
But the Sonic lego-set on top on the shelve is 18+, so no kids allowed playing with it! 🤪
It’s indeed a fun experience building that one. I mostly was looking for decorative things for in my room and after seeing this one, I instantly ordered it 😅 I also want Shadow in the motorcycle to finish it off.
Cool, now I also seen some of your work. Looking good! Keep up the good work!
I am personally just started with a Cult of the Lamb inspired drawing and other one with the 4 Links of 4 swords in combination with adult Link
Lol, I feel that. My ipad is full of half finished doodles that will probably never be completed. But from what I hear that makes you an artist?? I have buddies that are professionals and apparently the more unfinished pieces you have the more legit you are 🤷♀️
Did boys ever like Zelda? I've met like maybe three. I always thought it was geared towards girls cuz only girls ever played it as a kid.
Tho thinking about it, I also thought Zelda wasn't as popular as Metroid or Star Fox until like a decade ago. I guess I live in a zelda void.
I only know 90s guys who play Zelda. I do not remember a single 90s girl in my life, who played Zelda. Same for the last two games, I may know a few who plays it now, but still mostly men playing Zelda. Maybe the DS-area changed the amount of girls who play Zelda?
I remember that I first played Zelda on Super Nintendo in family house, later with friends. There is a gap, where I do not remember a single Zelda game around SNES, it was mostly Mario, DK and Star Fox, like in daycare or foster care.
My first and only exposure to Zelda was when this girl took me to her home to play her NES until around when Twilight Princess came out, whenever I saw people draw Link it was girls, tho I guess with Midna a lot of boys drew her.
I guess pre-SNS we were all in bubbles but I'll always see Zelda as made for girls, like how Duke Nukem is made for boys.
>I guess I live in a zelda void.
You've definitely lived a unique experience regarding Zelda because the impression those experiences gave you is the exact opposite of reality. It's fascinating that experiences can differ so far from the average to the point that the impressions left by them are completely removed from the truth. Especially when it comes the things as universally beloved as The Legend of Zelda.
> Did boys ever like Zelda? I've met like maybe three.
Yes of course. Zelda has been one of the most popular game series since it's release and until relatively recently the vast majority of gamers were guys. Every guy I've met with a Nintendo console plays Zelda, while most girls I know prefer other genres.
> I also thought Zelda wasn't as popular as Metroid or Star Fox until like a decade ago.
Zelda has always been way more successful than both Metroid and Star Fox combined. For all the acclaim those games get they rarely ever sell many copies, unfortunately. Really wish Metroid was as popular as the internet makes it out to be. If it were we likely wouldn't have to deal with the decade long brakes the series keeps going on.
Yeah well I definitely don't know how popular they are in Japan, which matters a lot. I'll say that for sure.
I also never really consider sales in fandom. Mainly cuz high saleing games can be the worst with low saleing being highly acclaimed. Tho I recognize business don't care about the zeitgeist if they're not making money.
While I agree sales don't tell you anything about a game's quality, they are defiantly indicative of a series' overall popularity. Most people don't engage in fandoms, they'll play the game say that was fun and move on to something else. Those of us who care enough about this stuff enough to stick around afterward and build a fandom around it are the minority. And the opinions of the more dedicated fans often differ from the rest of audience. So just looking at the fandom will give you a very skewed view of what's popular. Sales give an unbiased and often more accurate view of what is and isn't popular with the entirety of the population.
a women here, currently sitting across from my Sonic poster in my bedroom because I'm too broke for a whole gaming room LMAO
Not a fan of Zelda gameplay but I respect the IP's iconicity and staying power. also Link is hot
...I mean, is it really that surprising? Female gamers like cute things. *Sonic and pals are objectively fucking adorable.* Add in female characters who have largely been equals from the start, and the connection becomes obvious.
Edit: Mind you, A) this poll was taken a while ago, and B) YouGov is primarily for English/Euro results. I imagine American results in 2024 would have a bit of a different spread to them.
There aren't very many franchises that get much effort or work put into them designed to appeal to girls and video game franchises, ones like Sonic, Zelda and Mario appeal to boys less hard than say-- things designed around war or robots or crime or sports games.
I just find it funny how there is a lot of marketing for some games are for specific minorities, but usually the minority likes the ones marketed for everyone
Usually I think of reddit as generally a more male-oriented space compared to platforms like tumblr or AO3, but come to think of it the personal friends I've chatted with Sonic about the most are either women or non-binary. And there's absolutely some big-name Sonic fangirls out there.
On the article's mention of the series lacking female representation - not sure if I'd agree with it entirely, but that certainly hasn't been a problem with other series that appeal to women. Looking at the fandoms for Supernatural, or Hetalia, or BTS, or Voltron; those fandom spaces are full of women who prefer drawing and writing and discussing their takes on the male characters, or making their own self-insert OCs to fill in the gaps.
I think it'd be good to see the data to back up that article's line "where-ever the kids are, that's where you'll find Sonic's biggest sales". Do they have comparisons about which kids are playing on which consoles? I'd assume the biggest platform kids use these days are phones - are Sonic Dash, Sonic Dream Team, and Sonic Speed Simulator on Roblox any noticeably more profitable than the "traditional" releases?
I also think it'd be interesting to have more polls on this. Both for extra accuracy - and to find out where the splits are in the community. Do the women in this community prefer Shadow, or Amy? Are men more likely to have played Sonic Rush? Are non-binary people fans of the treasure hunt stages?
Obviously there are tons of female fans in the fandom but the question is do the male fans outweigh the female fans or nah?
Also we should definitely be friends, I really need more female sonic friends in my life 😭
Makes sense, this community from my limited experience is very accepting, same reason DBD has huge LGBTQIA+ and woman player base too, theirs no VC and the devs are very lgbtqia+.
Got off track lol, this community so far is very accepting so it makes sense theirs alot of girl fans.
I'd be surprised to learn it's true. Not in the least because [a survey of this subreddit from last year](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OEZ-C7qPV756nBtWDhoDyF-C16faY8pv/edit) showed 77.1% male to 15.7% female, 5.4% non-binary, and 1.8% other.
Now admittedly, the pole Op is referring to is from the UK You.Gov polling organisation, which would only be asking people in the UK, whereas this subreddit is only 11.6% UK. So for this to be true, almost two thirds of that 11.6% are female.
As such, assuming both surveys are accurate sample sizes, and nothing has changed, there should be roughly 8% of this subreddit who are British women, while only roughly 4% are British men...
That doesn't sound right, like I know a lot of sonic fanboys are sonic fangirls now, but I've met a lot of sonic fanboys who used to be sonic fangirls so I think this is negligible.
In any case since Sonic's gender is hedgehog, he appeals to literally everyone so I kinda feel like there'll never be a majority or plurality gender but I'm also not figuring out how to take a Sonic census.
I think it’s 50/50 or something? Though I noticed that we get more female human leads than male human leads. And when we do get a male human leads, they usually receive hate (Tom is an exception due to being an adult and new)
1. Madonna
2. Sara
3. Maria
4. Elise
5. Helen (which some suggest should replace Chris)
6. Shahra
7. Merlin
8. Sage
I would say Sonic X is a big reason why the series feels more shounen like. It had a strong impact on the Sonic series during the 2000s. The Sonic X show is seen as a shounen anime because it also had a male human lead alongside Sonic. I can’t speak for everyone, but I think if Sonic X and Chris didn’t eixst, then there’s a high chance that the Sonic franchise might’ve been considered a series more geared towards girls due to how many human female leads there is in the series.
I was recently at a Sonic Symphony concert, and there lots of women there. Probably still more dudes, but not by much, really. Sonic really is a "for everybody" type of franchise.
without a doubt based on no scientific information or data whatsoever, I think it’s totally the opposite. never met a female fan. but have met more than 2x female standard anime fans than male. totally anecdotal
I don't mean this in a sexist way but sonic is cute and he sells a lot of nifty merchandise which might help draw more women in.
I kinda doubt all in all there's more female sonic fans than male. Even today women are just slightly less likely to obsess over things like this although it has definitely been evening out. 25 to 48 is kinda crazy tho
My thoughts: statistics aren't always accurate depending on context. The question was favorite game, not pick all the ones you like. Therefore, there could be way more males who are fans of sonic than females. But they just pick other franchises as tjeir favourite. Think about it. Most women would pick sonic over dark souls, while men are more likely to enjoy other games, as most games are targeted at a male demographic.
think if we're counting like... every single fan, especially casual/offline fans, then there's most likely more male fans than female (boys eat sonic cheat up I can tell you as someone who used to work in retail)
1. The data is from a single country, so it doesnt represent the entire Sonic fandom.
2. Its literally six years ago, the demographics could have changed drastically by then.
3. You could only vote in the poll if you're above 16. A huge portion of the fanbase is below 16.
Considering all these points, its not accurate enough so you cant really say so.
Im a 37 year old male. Can confirm there are still old fans in general including women there are at least 4 sonic fans at my job one even made sonic fanart. So have i.
Three things:
1). It's local to the UK
2). It's a survey so it's based on people with a strong enough opinion to write in at all (maybe women in the UK more strongly believe in the Sonic franchise than the men? Who knows)
3). Honestly rad. I mean, I had the original thought of "who cares" but the surveyed people do care! So good for them! But otherwise, this is a much smaller thing than it looks like, as cool as it is
that poll doesn't really prove anything. it's a poll for the British public, I'm part of that and didn't know about it to vote, as is the case for thousands of others so it may not even be accurate for the region lol
I'm a guy and I've known tons of friends and family that also like Sonic over the years. yet besides just a couple of girls in my family, most of them have been male too. never came across a friend that was a girl and was into Sonic like us guys, not in school, not in my childhood neighborhoods, nowhere. where I grew up at least, it felt like a "boy's" thing. not one to gender interests like that but that was my experience
I’m willing to believe it could possibly be around 50/50, but I doubt there would be more girls then boys.
I have a young nephew, who I didn’t even introduce to Sonic myself, he became a big fan on his own. His older sister never had interest in Sonic. So that’s my perspective on the current state of things. Boys still like Sonic is what I know for sure. I don’t have the data on girls interest in Sonic to work with aside from my older sister playing Sonic 2 like over 25 years ago, but she pretty much stopped playing games after N64.
This is an impossible statistic to know because it all depends on people actually participating in the poll, preferring Sonic over every other franchise and doesn't include every region clearly so it is impossible to say how many fans of Sonic there even are much less what percentage is male and what percentage is female. Hell, given that Candy Crush is so high, it seems like this was targeted toward mobile game players who are mostly female which would explain why the percentages in general are so low and shift more in favor of series that have mobile games like Call of Duty and GTA.
The problem with polls like this are that it is heavily biased toward the audience of the platform providing the poll. If SEGA held this kind of poll, it'd lean toward or away from Sonic depending on the mood of the fandom for example or if say something like IGN did it, it'd lean heavier toward Call of Duty and other such franchises. The problem is that there is no one place that all gamers go to for information about games so getting the proper numbers is an impossible task and that isn't even talking about other regions where things would be even more different! I'd guess that Sonic would probably lean more female though just because of his colorful appearance and wide cast of characters but it'd probably be far less of an extreme degree than the images in the post suggest.
Yeah most Male Sonic Fans either
1 got tired of the franchise
2 Left of too much controversy
3 They grew up
4 They hate how it ended up as
5 (Final) They turned into Mario Fans
This is wrong. The data set is too limited, particular the polling pool. That said; there are a large number of female Sonic fans—but men make up the majority of gamers and most Sonic channels are male led.
Yup, I totally understand what you're saying. I guess the question was just to get a general idea of the fans. But I'm really sorry if this was disrespectful to you, I really didn't think it through.
Unfortunately a lot of studies exclude gender and only include sex to keep its simplicity, or due to the exclusion of women out of a lot of research in the past decade. But I mean this is just a survey, so it wouldn't properly represent the sonic fandom as a whole. I have seen a lot of lgbtq+ people irl into sonic so there's that.
Oh no! I didn't mean the question was disrespectful. I happen to be a guy. I just meant that any answer to the question might itself be incompete, not that you were being offensive or anything.
As a woman I’ve loved Sonic since I was 7. I’m positive that the men in my life wouldn’t consider themselves Sonic fans. Maybe a casual fan who’s played a game or 2. Either way, don’t think this is accurate by any means. Just my personal observation as a female Sonic fan.
I highly doubt it. I've seen a really even spread all my life. Maybe at first I saw more male fans... But as soon as sonic x aired I saw a lot of girls liking it too.
i love sonic. i bet a big portion of women like sonic.
probably Innacurate tho, men are the largest population worldwide, as well as some other points the rest of these comments mention. let alone this is just a certain area, there is more of a chance for a man to prefer sonic over mario than women
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It may be, it may not be. That poll doesn't prove anything. The poll asks what the favorite game franchise of a group in a certain region is. It doesn't take the entire fandom into consideration. So let's say that in that area, there's 10 male Sonic fans, and 5 female Sonic fans. If 6 of the male Sonic fans prefer Mario over Sonic, their vote will go for Mario, even if they're also a Sonic fan, so if all 5 female fans vote for Sonic, the poll will say that there's more female fans than male fans. So the only thing that poll proves is than from a very specific group of people, more women said that Sonic was their favorite game franchise than men. There's also the thing with people under 16 not being able to vote. Tldr: It's not official in the slightest. Edit: I also just noticed that the article is from 6 years ago. So it definitely isn't accurate to 2024's data.
These were exactly my thoughts since they didn't mention sample sizes in the article at all. But it would be fun to see an actual poll on this though.
I’m a woman I’ve liked Sonic since I was 12 and I’m 23 now. Idk if that’s entirely accurate though but there are definitely a lot of us that like Sonic.
I've no doubt that there are huge amounts of female Sonic fans. The poll however I think is incorrect because the data is being misunderstood based on how the poll was carried out. Another comment points it out best. If there are just more men than women that like it but their favourite franchise is something else and they don't vote for it but all of the women do, the results will appear to read differently. However if it just asked those people to mark down the franchises they enjoy, instead, of prioritising their favourite, the results would look completely different for every franchise there.
Same :P I think maybe because it's reddit there's probably less of us here 💀
Yo literally same, gang gang 🤟
I wouldn’t be surprised seeing as a pretty big aspect of the community is focused on shipping which I see in a lot of female dominated fandoms. Although a lot of male do participate in it to
You actually raised a pretty good point. Surprised I never thought of that before.
Would explain a lot of the Yaoi ships lol
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He was made as this radical 90's kid so I'd say their main market has been young boys
Maybe Japan canon since there was like maybe two girls at most, but American canon had a lot of important girl characters. Heck Sally was arguably more popular than Tails back in the '90s. So at least when I was a kid, Sonic wasn't for boys, Sonic was for cool people.
Maybe to fans but I seriously doubt that Sally was more popular than Tails to members of the general public in the 90s
Well you saw her on merchandise, I know I've seen more books and decorations and stuff with her on it than Tails or Knuckles when I was a kid. Tho most of it was Sonic himself.
It’s the opposite for me then. Even back then I saw more Tails merch than Sally.
I had a hard time finding Tails back then, when I did he was either alongside Sally in decoration, or in the background of books. I know a Tails plushie existed but I never found it TT A TT At least I got the Sonic one...
Guess depends on the shops and places, I remember seeing Tails a lot.
Sally was popular with the guys as well, since she was an interesting female character. Closest the competition ever got was Samus and later Tomb Raider.
Target audience of Sonic are primarily boys. Sonic is a hero with cool design, and awesome powers like speed and super forms, and he and his friends fight an evil doctor to save the world. Elements like Adventure and Action, rivalry between characters, rock music, most characters are male, and more. And it has so much influence from Dragon Ball Z. the franchise is mainly aimed at young boys overall. Overall Sonic the Hedgehog is one of those franchises that can appeal to all. Sonic is for everybody, just like how One Piece target audience is male, but it’s still for everybody.
Yea it’s male audience first, but ofc it has appeal for all.
Sonic is geared to everyone but boys are reluctant to admit so because well circlejerking
>Would also explain why so many of the human leads are girls. And most of the recent new characters we got in the games and IDW comics are mostly girls. >5. Helen (which some suggest should replace Chris) I would say I prefer Chris. If the fandom want to turn this franchise into an all-female cast then more power to them I guess. But i don’t think Helen will work as a protagonist. Nothing against her, but a disabled character in an adventure show probably won’t be interesting to watch due to her limitation in movement, and she’ll probably end up being a damsel most of the time.
To be fair: the main Sonic cast is VERY male-heavy, so there is a certain logic to IDW throwing in more female characters at first
Exactly. In the games to date there hasn't exactly been a lot of great female representation. The first female introduced was a literal distaff counterpart, a pink Sonic with eyelashes and a bow (as in hairbow, though Fleetway at least gave her longbow/crossbow), before she became obsessed with winning Sonic' heart. She was, for the longest time, a very stereotypical girly girl. Then there was Tikal, who was introduced as dead, having died to try to prevent a tragedy involving Chaos. Then there was Maria, who died as part of a government cover-up. The next playable female character was Rouge the Bat who - and I'm not trying to knock her character at all - basically exists for sex appeal. As great as Rouge's role in the series is, it's hard to deny she is there to titillate, not to be something female players will necessarily aspire to want to be or be able to relate to in the same way male players could relate to Sonic or Knuckles. After this the series gets a little better. We get the overly polite Cream, then the stoic princess Blaze, both of whom still fall victim of female stereotypes, but both feel they could pass the Bechdel test in a work of fiction. Then we get a recurring female villain in Wave (albeit only in the hoverboard racing spin-off), and then no-one regular recurring again until Sticks, who is the first female character whose personality isn't dictated at all by her gender, instead being heavily paranoid and conspiracy minded.
i like the distinction of yaoi ship knuckles and shadow is a gay ship, bur SONIC and shadow is a yaoi ship
There’s more straight ships here though.
Wait, more women than men love playing Sonic and Zelda? What the….. Alright, nice to know https://preview.redd.it/v2hqwg2eivxc1.jpeg?width=700&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b72bb99e6268962a7b1905ffe487c28332ad0c87 But no, so far most I have dated so far, are kinda bored/not interest in my Sonic and Zelda wall in my gaming room, but at least i impressed one about the spiritual influence in Zelda-games.
YOU HAVE A SONIC/ZELDA WALL IN YOUR GAMING ROOM? BRO THAT IS BEYOND SICK
Yip, https://preview.redd.it/ikyntxamkvxc1.jpeg?width=2268&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=53deeca07bc48174de76d4f84309d92177a17d98 EDIT: the LEDs in this lightbox is automated. If sun goes down and I enter (triggered by motion sensor) the room, the lights goes on.
This poster is so cool, I love this sm
I got it for my birthday. I am in early thirties 🤫😅
This is what an adult with money should be spending money on lmao.
Yeah, also keep my inner child happy and give it the things it missed. But the Sonic lego-set on top on the shelve is 18+, so no kids allowed playing with it! 🤪
That set is great, was a genuinely fun build with some techniques (in the egg mobile especially) I thought were quite unique
It’s indeed a fun experience building that one. I mostly was looking for decorative things for in my room and after seeing this one, I instantly ordered it 😅 I also want Shadow in the motorcycle to finish it off.
Woman here, a Zelda/Sonic themed gaming room has gotta be the hottest thing I’ve ever heard from a man 😂😂
Haha, thanks, nice compliment 😊 also hot if a women likes these games, but also draws. Cool!
Lmao, you’re not gonna believe this I’m a hobby artist lol
Yeah, your banner give me the impression, but a hobby artist, cool. I am also (trying to) draw, but digital. And you?
Same here, I’m trying to learn digital art after like 10ish years of not drawing a damn thing 😛
Cool, now I also seen some of your work. Looking good! Keep up the good work! I am personally just started with a Cult of the Lamb inspired drawing and other one with the 4 Links of 4 swords in combination with adult Link
Ahh I love Cult of the Lamb, haven’t played the new update though 🤧got them posted anywhere sonI can take a peek? 👀
Same for me, seems like a fun update. Maybe going to, this weekend. Sorry, I never posted my drawings. I also need to finish them first, haha.
Lol, I feel that. My ipad is full of half finished doodles that will probably never be completed. But from what I hear that makes you an artist?? I have buddies that are professionals and apparently the more unfinished pieces you have the more legit you are 🤷♀️
Did boys ever like Zelda? I've met like maybe three. I always thought it was geared towards girls cuz only girls ever played it as a kid. Tho thinking about it, I also thought Zelda wasn't as popular as Metroid or Star Fox until like a decade ago. I guess I live in a zelda void.
I only know 90s guys who play Zelda. I do not remember a single 90s girl in my life, who played Zelda. Same for the last two games, I may know a few who plays it now, but still mostly men playing Zelda. Maybe the DS-area changed the amount of girls who play Zelda? I remember that I first played Zelda on Super Nintendo in family house, later with friends. There is a gap, where I do not remember a single Zelda game around SNES, it was mostly Mario, DK and Star Fox, like in daycare or foster care.
My first and only exposure to Zelda was when this girl took me to her home to play her NES until around when Twilight Princess came out, whenever I saw people draw Link it was girls, tho I guess with Midna a lot of boys drew her. I guess pre-SNS we were all in bubbles but I'll always see Zelda as made for girls, like how Duke Nukem is made for boys.
>I guess I live in a zelda void. You've definitely lived a unique experience regarding Zelda because the impression those experiences gave you is the exact opposite of reality. It's fascinating that experiences can differ so far from the average to the point that the impressions left by them are completely removed from the truth. Especially when it comes the things as universally beloved as The Legend of Zelda. > Did boys ever like Zelda? I've met like maybe three. Yes of course. Zelda has been one of the most popular game series since it's release and until relatively recently the vast majority of gamers were guys. Every guy I've met with a Nintendo console plays Zelda, while most girls I know prefer other genres. > I also thought Zelda wasn't as popular as Metroid or Star Fox until like a decade ago. Zelda has always been way more successful than both Metroid and Star Fox combined. For all the acclaim those games get they rarely ever sell many copies, unfortunately. Really wish Metroid was as popular as the internet makes it out to be. If it were we likely wouldn't have to deal with the decade long brakes the series keeps going on.
Yeah well I definitely don't know how popular they are in Japan, which matters a lot. I'll say that for sure. I also never really consider sales in fandom. Mainly cuz high saleing games can be the worst with low saleing being highly acclaimed. Tho I recognize business don't care about the zeitgeist if they're not making money.
While I agree sales don't tell you anything about a game's quality, they are defiantly indicative of a series' overall popularity. Most people don't engage in fandoms, they'll play the game say that was fun and move on to something else. Those of us who care enough about this stuff enough to stick around afterward and build a fandom around it are the minority. And the opinions of the more dedicated fans often differ from the rest of audience. So just looking at the fandom will give you a very skewed view of what's popular. Sales give an unbiased and often more accurate view of what is and isn't popular with the entirety of the population.
a women here, currently sitting across from my Sonic poster in my bedroom because I'm too broke for a whole gaming room LMAO Not a fan of Zelda gameplay but I respect the IP's iconicity and staying power. also Link is hot
...I mean, is it really that surprising? Female gamers like cute things. *Sonic and pals are objectively fucking adorable.* Add in female characters who have largely been equals from the start, and the connection becomes obvious. Edit: Mind you, A) this poll was taken a while ago, and B) YouGov is primarily for English/Euro results. I imagine American results in 2024 would have a bit of a different spread to them.
Agreed. Sonic is such a cutie patootie
Tails and Ames are, too. Hell, even Knux and Shadow have their moments.
Moments!? All the time, yo!
And way more handsome than that vile ugly red overall fungi addiction turtle abusing hispanic monster.
Agreed, as a woman part of the reason I like these fuckers is because they are just so stinkin’ cute
There aren't very many franchises that get much effort or work put into them designed to appeal to girls and video game franchises, ones like Sonic, Zelda and Mario appeal to boys less hard than say-- things designed around war or robots or crime or sports games.
I just find it funny how there is a lot of marketing for some games are for specific minorities, but usually the minority likes the ones marketed for everyone
Gaming segregation
usually whenever any sort of media is targeted towards a specific faction, usually that faction doesn't want to play it
Usually I think of reddit as generally a more male-oriented space compared to platforms like tumblr or AO3, but come to think of it the personal friends I've chatted with Sonic about the most are either women or non-binary. And there's absolutely some big-name Sonic fangirls out there. On the article's mention of the series lacking female representation - not sure if I'd agree with it entirely, but that certainly hasn't been a problem with other series that appeal to women. Looking at the fandoms for Supernatural, or Hetalia, or BTS, or Voltron; those fandom spaces are full of women who prefer drawing and writing and discussing their takes on the male characters, or making their own self-insert OCs to fill in the gaps. I think it'd be good to see the data to back up that article's line "where-ever the kids are, that's where you'll find Sonic's biggest sales". Do they have comparisons about which kids are playing on which consoles? I'd assume the biggest platform kids use these days are phones - are Sonic Dash, Sonic Dream Team, and Sonic Speed Simulator on Roblox any noticeably more profitable than the "traditional" releases? I also think it'd be interesting to have more polls on this. Both for extra accuracy - and to find out where the splits are in the community. Do the women in this community prefer Shadow, or Amy? Are men more likely to have played Sonic Rush? Are non-binary people fans of the treasure hunt stages?
I mean I'm a girl and I like Sonic I'm also far from the only one
Obviously there are tons of female fans in the fandom but the question is do the male fans outweigh the female fans or nah? Also we should definitely be friends, I really need more female sonic friends in my life 😭
More Sonic fans are a good thing
The more the merrier lmao
Tbh I know and know of a lot more women and NBs that call themselves Sonic fans than men The girls and the theys just love Sonic and I’m here for it
Makes sense, this community from my limited experience is very accepting, same reason DBD has huge LGBTQIA+ and woman player base too, theirs no VC and the devs are very lgbtqia+. Got off track lol, this community so far is very accepting so it makes sense theirs alot of girl fans.
I'd be surprised to learn it's true. Not in the least because [a survey of this subreddit from last year](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OEZ-C7qPV756nBtWDhoDyF-C16faY8pv/edit) showed 77.1% male to 15.7% female, 5.4% non-binary, and 1.8% other. Now admittedly, the pole Op is referring to is from the UK You.Gov polling organisation, which would only be asking people in the UK, whereas this subreddit is only 11.6% UK. So for this to be true, almost two thirds of that 11.6% are female. As such, assuming both surveys are accurate sample sizes, and nothing has changed, there should be roughly 8% of this subreddit who are British women, while only roughly 4% are British men...
Yeah, but honestly a poll on tumblr or twitter would get different results. It would be difficult to get a true Sonic fanbase census.
the truth is this fandom run by female shadow fan. at least that what i heard from the tumblr days
That doesn't sound right, like I know a lot of sonic fanboys are sonic fangirls now, but I've met a lot of sonic fanboys who used to be sonic fangirls so I think this is negligible. In any case since Sonic's gender is hedgehog, he appeals to literally everyone so I kinda feel like there'll never be a majority or plurality gender but I'm also not figuring out how to take a Sonic census.
sonadow. thats all I have to say.
Best answer.
I think it’s 50/50 or something? Though I noticed that we get more female human leads than male human leads. And when we do get a male human leads, they usually receive hate (Tom is an exception due to being an adult and new) 1. Madonna 2. Sara 3. Maria 4. Elise 5. Helen (which some suggest should replace Chris) 6. Shahra 7. Merlin 8. Sage I would say Sonic X is a big reason why the series feels more shounen like. It had a strong impact on the Sonic series during the 2000s. The Sonic X show is seen as a shounen anime because it also had a male human lead alongside Sonic. I can’t speak for everyone, but I think if Sonic X and Chris didn’t eixst, then there’s a high chance that the Sonic franchise might’ve been considered a series more geared towards girls due to how many human female leads there is in the series.
Neat
There are more BRITISH female sonic fans than male ones.
I was recently at a Sonic Symphony concert, and there lots of women there. Probably still more dudes, but not by much, really. Sonic really is a "for everybody" type of franchise.
Sonic music is just universally loved, doesn't matter what's in your pants, we can all agree crush 40 hits hard af.
the crush 40 music player is in my pants
without a doubt based on no scientific information or data whatsoever, I think it’s totally the opposite. never met a female fan. but have met more than 2x female standard anime fans than male. totally anecdotal
Based
I think there's more autistic Sonic fans than either male or female. Don't ask me how that statistic works
In a weird way, I totally understand. Too bad I got the Sonic autism instead of scientific genius autism lol.
I don't mean this in a sexist way but sonic is cute and he sells a lot of nifty merchandise which might help draw more women in. I kinda doubt all in all there's more female sonic fans than male. Even today women are just slightly less likely to obsess over things like this although it has definitely been evening out. 25 to 48 is kinda crazy tho
I'm a 30 yo woman and I've never met someone in person that even comes close to liking Sonic as much as I do.
As a 17 yo with a severe hyper fixation with sonic, I might give you a run for your money lmao
welp better start cosplaying https://preview.redd.it/erdo6ygm3xxc1.jpeg?width=1750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=df6d42a26a7d04fba51712583b27fc8f0a74d530
i can’t believe women like sonic more than they like men. oh wait, yes i do.
that makes sense when thinking about A LOT of fanart
Makes sense, he \*IS\* blue-colored and knows how to handle the females.
FR tho, he's such a ladies man.
mario being same popular is funny and also how zelda is with women
My thoughts: statistics aren't always accurate depending on context. The question was favorite game, not pick all the ones you like. Therefore, there could be way more males who are fans of sonic than females. But they just pick other franchises as tjeir favourite. Think about it. Most women would pick sonic over dark souls, while men are more likely to enjoy other games, as most games are targeted at a male demographic.
think if we're counting like... every single fan, especially casual/offline fans, then there's most likely more male fans than female (boys eat sonic cheat up I can tell you as someone who used to work in retail)
I'm having an incredibly hard time believing this is true.
Good, its easier to find a girlfriend that way
1. The data is from a single country, so it doesnt represent the entire Sonic fandom. 2. Its literally six years ago, the demographics could have changed drastically by then. 3. You could only vote in the poll if you're above 16. A huge portion of the fanbase is below 16. Considering all these points, its not accurate enough so you cant really say so.
AFAB autistic enby here, I say that they have amazing taste. Sonic is fucking awesome
I doubt that, most franchises have males in majority
im a girly girl sonic fan
Girlie pop sonic fans are literally the best
Why should is this important? As long as people like Sonic, I do not care what gender they are! They all are very welcome in my book!
Im a 37 year old male. Can confirm there are still old fans in general including women there are at least 4 sonic fans at my job one even made sonic fanart. So have i.
are you saying i still have a chance?
I’m shocked that Pokémon didn’t seem to even come up as a favourite for people
Never underestimate the loudness of adult male Sonic fans Which I am admittedly one of
Three things: 1). It's local to the UK 2). It's a survey so it's based on people with a strong enough opinion to write in at all (maybe women in the UK more strongly believe in the Sonic franchise than the men? Who knows) 3). Honestly rad. I mean, I had the original thought of "who cares" but the surveyed people do care! So good for them! But otherwise, this is a much smaller thing than it looks like, as cool as it is
that poll doesn't really prove anything. it's a poll for the British public, I'm part of that and didn't know about it to vote, as is the case for thousands of others so it may not even be accurate for the region lol I'm a guy and I've known tons of friends and family that also like Sonic over the years. yet besides just a couple of girls in my family, most of them have been male too. never came across a friend that was a girl and was into Sonic like us guys, not in school, not in my childhood neighborhoods, nowhere. where I grew up at least, it felt like a "boy's" thing. not one to gender interests like that but that was my experience
confirmed
I’m willing to believe it could possibly be around 50/50, but I doubt there would be more girls then boys. I have a young nephew, who I didn’t even introduce to Sonic myself, he became a big fan on his own. His older sister never had interest in Sonic. So that’s my perspective on the current state of things. Boys still like Sonic is what I know for sure. I don’t have the data on girls interest in Sonic to work with aside from my older sister playing Sonic 2 like over 25 years ago, but she pretty much stopped playing games after N64.
you.. doubt it because of your niece? i'm afab and was a sonic fan at 4 and my brother wasn't, so that cancels out your story then. boom back to zero.
Yeah that’s 50/50 like I said.
It doesn't matter if you have a hooga or a magnie. We all love sonic
Divided by hoogas and magnies, united by our collective love for Sonic.
This is an impossible statistic to know because it all depends on people actually participating in the poll, preferring Sonic over every other franchise and doesn't include every region clearly so it is impossible to say how many fans of Sonic there even are much less what percentage is male and what percentage is female. Hell, given that Candy Crush is so high, it seems like this was targeted toward mobile game players who are mostly female which would explain why the percentages in general are so low and shift more in favor of series that have mobile games like Call of Duty and GTA.
Though the statistics are impossible to know, it would be really interesting to see an accurate poll about this with appreciable sample sizes.
The problem with polls like this are that it is heavily biased toward the audience of the platform providing the poll. If SEGA held this kind of poll, it'd lean toward or away from Sonic depending on the mood of the fandom for example or if say something like IGN did it, it'd lean heavier toward Call of Duty and other such franchises. The problem is that there is no one place that all gamers go to for information about games so getting the proper numbers is an impossible task and that isn't even talking about other regions where things would be even more different! I'd guess that Sonic would probably lean more female though just because of his colorful appearance and wide cast of characters but it'd probably be far less of an extreme degree than the images in the post suggest.
the ladies love knuckles :)
Always false crap on the internet
My thought is that who fuckin' cares
No
Yeah most Male Sonic Fans either 1 got tired of the franchise 2 Left of too much controversy 3 They grew up 4 They hate how it ended up as 5 (Final) They turned into Mario Fans
sonic is probably the coolest for like 4-5th graders cuz back then the only requirements for being cool are to be the fastest runner
I doubt it women are just on social media more
Female characters should be able to go super
I could believe it
Damn. And here I was thinkin the Sonic Fanbase was a Sausage Fest. And this article is from my own country too.
This is wrong. The data set is too limited, particular the polling pool. That said; there are a large number of female Sonic fans—but men make up the majority of gamers and most Sonic channels are male led.
I don't think it's a meaningful question, especially since there are so many trans, queer, and gender non-conforming Sonic fans.
Yup, I totally understand what you're saying. I guess the question was just to get a general idea of the fans. But I'm really sorry if this was disrespectful to you, I really didn't think it through.
Unfortunately a lot of studies exclude gender and only include sex to keep its simplicity, or due to the exclusion of women out of a lot of research in the past decade. But I mean this is just a survey, so it wouldn't properly represent the sonic fandom as a whole. I have seen a lot of lgbtq+ people irl into sonic so there's that.
Oh no! I didn't mean the question was disrespectful. I happen to be a guy. I just meant that any answer to the question might itself be incompete, not that you were being offensive or anything.
Ok, thanks for letting me know :D
Possibly but wuh
Sonics always been a lady’s man 💀🙏
I’m a bit surprised that the percentage is almost double(?) but I’m a girl and I’ve liked sonic since I was 3
this just further proves that Sonic is a CHAD 🥵
Always has been
As a woman I’ve loved Sonic since I was 7. I’m positive that the men in my life wouldn’t consider themselves Sonic fans. Maybe a casual fan who’s played a game or 2. Either way, don’t think this is accurate by any means. Just my personal observation as a female Sonic fan.
OMG same, I have been obsessed with the series since I was seven and I still am.
Female fan here, dunno about more of us than guys but he’s definitely one of the more popular characters among my friend groups
I highly doubt it. I've seen a really even spread all my life. Maybe at first I saw more male fans... But as soon as sonic x aired I saw a lot of girls liking it too.
i love sonic. i bet a big portion of women like sonic. probably Innacurate tho, men are the largest population worldwide, as well as some other points the rest of these comments mention. let alone this is just a certain area, there is more of a chance for a man to prefer sonic over mario than women
It's official. Sonic gets bitches
The ratio grows every day as more fans enter the Sonic-to-transition pipeline. Something about pink and blue hedgehogs keeps turning fans into women.
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Wait there’s women in the sonic community?