By Casey Baseel
Surprise comeback also puts one retro star back into the top 10 for the first time since the ‘90s.
World politics are at a particularly divisive stage right now, but there’s one annual election in which you can always count on all of the candidates to not only be civil and cordial, but also adorable. We speak, of course, of the Sanrio Character Ranking, in which fans of the pantheon of cute characters from the creators of Hello Kitty cast their votes to choose the absolute cutest of them all.
To give you an idea of what a big deal the Sanrio Character Ranking is, this year over 63 million votes were cast — 63,160,696 to be precise. Sanrio has now tallied them all up and announced the results, so let’s take a look at the top 10.
Coming in at 10th place is Ahirunopeckle, who’s both a character we haven’t seen much of recently and also a walking Japanese vocabulary lesson (ahiru means “duck”). This is Peckle’s first time to finish in the top 10 since the 1994 Sanrio Character Ranking, so it’s safe to say he’s in the middle of a comeback. In 9th place is penguin Tuxedo Sam (who wears two articles of clothing, but neither one is a tuxedo jacket or pants), and in 8th place is another character who’s been having a revival in popularity following an extended time out of the spotlight, fish-man Hangyodon, who debuted in 1985.
In both the 7 and 6 spots are characters currently celebrating their 50th anniversaries, the Little Twin Stars Kiki and Lala and My Melody. In 5th place is the one and only Hello Kitty, who despite remaining the most famous of all Sanrio’s characters, hasn’t won the Sanrio Character Ranking poll since 2019, though she also had back-to-back victories in 2012 and 2013 and a dominant streak of first-place finishes that stretched from 1998 to 2009. Edging ahead of Kitty-chan, in 4th place is Kuromi, My Melody’s self-appointed rival (since My Melody is too sweet to think of anyone as an adversary).
And now we reach the characters who reached the podium, beginning with, in third place, Pochacco.
Voting was pretty tight between 3rd, 4th, and 5th place, as Pochacco’s 3,935,101 votes are only around 10 percent more than Kuromi’s or Hello Kitty’s. There’s a huge gap between Pochacco and the 2nd place finisher, though, as Cinnamaroll finished with 5,427,983 votes.
A strong showing by Cinnamaroll was to be expected, as the cinnamon roll-esque pooch was coming off five consecutive first-place finishes between 2020 and 2024. But in the end, with 5,613,659 votes, 2025’s top dog, literally, is Pompompurin.
This marks Pompompurin’s fourth time to top the rankings, and his first since 2016. It also means that canine characters swept the top three spots in this year’s rankings.
▼ You go, dogs!
Collectively, Pompompurin, Cinnamaroll, and Hello Kitty have accounted for all but three of the first-place finishes since 1998, with My Melody taking the crown in 2010, 2011, and 2014. If you throw Pochacco and his streak of wins from 1991 to 1995 into the mix, that power quintet has won 34 of the last 35 Sanrio Character Rankings, with the only outlier being the 1996 win by Bad Badtz-Maru (who finished 11th in the 2025 poll).
▼ 2025 Sanrio Character Ranking results
Voting for the Sanrio Character Ranking is conducted worldwide, and Pompompurin had strong support around the globe, finishing in first place in all 14 countries outside of Japan, with a first-place finish in nine of them: the U.S., the U.K., Australia, China, Taiwan, Italy, Germany, France, and Spain.
Though Sanrio hasn’t released individual vote counts by country, it would appear that the majority of the votes were gathered from Japan and elsewhere in Asia, as despite Chococat finishing second in the U.S. and U.K., second in Spain, fourth in Germany and France, and first in Brazil, the character finished out of the top five in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Korea, and Thailand, and finished 24th overall. Similarly, Usahana was the third-favorite character in the U.K., and fourth in the U.S., Australia, and Spain, but out of the top five among all other countries and finished 17th overall, behind 16th-place Gudetama (who wasn’t in any country’s top five). Sifting through the by-country results, we can also see that Thailand’s infatuation with Yoshikitty, the combined persona of Hello Kitty and Japanese rock star Yoshiki, continues, as Yoshikitty was Thai voters’ number-one pick.
▼ Top five rankings by country (from left to right)
Top row: China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Korea
Middle row: U.S., Brazil, U.K., Italy, Germany
Bottom row: France, Australia, Thailand, Spain
Following the announcement of this year’s results, Sanrio also released statements from the top three finishers.
Pompompurin: “Yippee! Thanks so much for all your support! I’m gonna celebrate with a giant pudding!”
Cinnamaroll: “I’m super grateful for all your support. I’ll continue to be right by your side from now on!”
Pochacco: “Hey, everyone! I got third place! Thanks for everything. Let’s continue to get along forever!”
Congratulations, Pompompurin, and enjoy your victory dessert.
Source: PR Times, Sanrio
Top image: PR Times
Insert images: Sanrio, PR Times
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