Sakura beats Naruto and Sasuke for the first time, but in ways nobody imagined

With Narutop99 Worldwide Popularity Poll currently ongoing, the official Twitter account of Naruto has released the Midterm results, announcing the top 50 characters. While Minato Namikaze and Itachi Uchiha managed to retain their first and second-place spots, Sakura Haruno beat both her Team 7 teammates, Naruto and Sasuke, to climb up to the third spot.

The Twitter account also released the characters' rankings per specific parts of the world. Through these, fans can identify which characters are much more popular in which parts of the world. With the popularity poll set to end on January 31, fans have just more than two weeks of voting time left.

Minato Namikaze retains his top spot on Narutop99 Worldwide Popularity Poll

With the popularity poll's midterm report out, the series has finally revealed the top 50 characters, with Minato Namikaze taking the top spot. Itachi Uchiha and Sakura Haruno follow him, taking up the second and third spots, respectively.

The remaining spots in the top 10 are taken up by Shisui Uchiha, Kakashi Hatake, Naruto Uzumaki, Madara Uchiha, Sakumo Hatake, Sasuke Uchiha, and Jiraiya.

While there have been several changes from the previously revealed results, one that stands out the most is the fact that Sakumo Hatake managed to climb up the ranks to the eighth spot.

This could be because several fans were voicing their opinions on social media, pleading with other fans not to vote for already popular characters because the winner of the popularity poll would receive a short manga on them created by Mangaka Masashi Kishimoto himself.

Thus, one character that fans wanted to know more about was the "White Fang" Sakumo Hatake, which is being reflected in the Narutop99 midterm results as well.

Meanwhile, the rankings also revealed the most popular characters for Japan, Asia, Oceania, the Middle East, North America, Latin America, Europe, and Africa as well.

Fans react to the popularity poll's midterm results

Sakura fans were delighted to see their hard work reaping results as their favorite character managed to outrank the series protagonist and deuteragonist in the midterm results.

Meanwhile, Hinata Hyuga fans, who had also rallied to vote for their favorite character, have seemingly failed after she did not appear in the top ten rankings in the poll.

That being said, only about two weeks are left before the vote ends. Fans may have to rally if their favorite character is far from making the top 10.

About the author

Gokul has been an anime writer in Pop Culture division at Sportskeeda since 2022. His love for watching anime and his interest in the ever-growing anime industry inspire Gokul to produce insightful content about the genre on a daily basis. He holds a Master's degree in Communication & Journalism, and has worked for close to 3.5 years in the field.

Gokul likes to thoroughly research about the anime he is writing about and only credits a source after verifying its credibility. He loves the popular Shonen anime, Black Clover, for its memorable characters and their development throughout the story.

When not racking his brain behind his next anime story, Gokul likes to play video games, read manga, and play football.

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