Sanrio’slineup boasts hundreds of unique characters, and each year,the company hosts a character ranking conteston its official website where fans can vote for their absolute favoriteof them all.Hello Kittyherself won every year between 1998 and 2009, but other characters began to surge in popularity afterward and subsequently knocked her off the top of the chart.
2024’s winner was Cinnamoroll, marking his fifth consecutive year of victory in the poll. The winner of this year’s contest has been a hot topic among Sanrio fans, and mixed opinions swirl regarding whether Cinnamoroll will take home his sixth win or be defeated by Pompompurin when the results are released in June.
Sanrio’s Popularity Poll Winner Will Be Announced on June 29th, 2025
Cinnamoroll and Pompompurin Were Ranked Closely When the Poll Closed in May
This year’s 2025 Sanrio popularity pollis a special occasion for the franchise, because it is the 40th year the contest has run. The Sanrio universe includes hundreds of characters created since the company was founded in 1973, but 90 in particular were chosen to compete in 2025’s contest. Of the competitors,Cinnamoroll and Pompompurin were in the lead atthe time of the Sanrio popularity poll’sclosing on May 25.The two characters were nearly tied, so it is anybody’s guess who will come out on top.
The winner of Sanrio’s 2025 official character ranking can be found on Sanrio’s official website,sanrio.co.jp, on June 13, 2025 at 2:00 PM.
If Pompompurin is #1, it will end Cinnamoroll’s five-year streak of wins. In 2024, Pompompurin received fourth place, making it even more astounding that he managed to jump ahead three places to #1 in less than a year. On June 29th, 2025 at 2:00 PM, the winner will be announced on Sanrio’s official website and determine with certainty who is Sanrio’s top character of 2025. In another unexpected twist, Hello Kitty, one of Sanrio’s most recognizable faces, has not been #1 in Sanrio’s poll since 2019.
Hello Kitty Has Not Received First Place in the Contest Since 2019
In Recent Years, She Has Not Even Ranked Among the Top Three, Coming in at #5 or #6
In the early 2000s,Hello Kitty’s popularity was unmatchedin Sanrio’s annual character rankings, with a twelve-year unbroken winning streak. For so long, no other character had a chance of beating her, but in 2020, Cinnamoroll was #1 and Hello Kitty fell down to fifth place. In 2021 and 2022, she was #6, ranking beneath other characters like Pochacco and My Melody. By 2023, she had climbed back to the #5 position, where she would hold steady into 2024. Kitty has not managed to regain a spot in the top three, an unprecedented fate for someone who was once Sanrio’s icon.
Hello Kitty has not been #1 in Sanrio’s character ranking contest since 2019.
The results of Sanrio’s popularity contests reflect a positive shift in fans’opinions about Sanrio’s characters, to the point that Cinnamoroll, Pompompurin, and other friends of Hello Kitty are actually beginning to overshadow her. Hello Kitty will always be the face of Sanrio, but the poll makes it abundantly clear that fans long for the brand to highlight the cat-like character’s friends more often, through merchandise, official artwork, and other avenues.
Sanrio’s official character ranking is an event fans eagerly anticipate yearly, allowing them to voice their opinions to the company on which characters they enjoy the most and wish to see more of.Every Sanrio characterhas an avid, dedicated fandom, from the famous like My Melody to the more niche like PataPataPeppy, and the poll offers everyone an opportunity to show off their adoration for their character of choice. Regardless of who wins 2025’s contest, it will shake upHello Kitty’sfandom no doubt, andhave major implications on the futures of both Cinnamoroll and Pompompurin.
