{"id":250431,"date":"2026-01-25T01:56:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T01:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/250431\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T01:56:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T01:56:14","slug":"dragon-ball-finally-confirms-its-most-popular-fighter-after-40-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/250431\/","title":{"rendered":"Dragon Ball Finally Confirms Its Most Popular Fighter After 40 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dragon Ball<\/a> is now kicking off a major celebration of the 40th anniversary of late Akira Toriyama\u2019s original manga making its debut with Shueisha\u2019s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, and with it has confirmed who fans have chosen as their favorite fighter after all this time. Dragon Ball is kicking off 2026 in a huge way as the franchise is gearing up for a big event with plans to reveal what\u2019s coming in the future<\/a> of it all. But it\u2019s also a perfect opportunity to look back on just how far it\u2019s come over the decades too. <\/p>\n

Part of the lead in to this event is a special popularity poll that took votes from fans all over. \u201cDragon Ball: The One\u201d took every character in the franchise and pitted them against one another to really figure out who was truly the most popular. It\u2019s revealed to be Goku, which ultimately isn\u2019t that much of a surprise. You can\u2019t really think or talk about Dragon Ball without bringing up Goku<\/a>, so it makes a ton of sense to find out that he\u2019s taken the win here. <\/p>\n

Dragon Ball Fans Choose Goku as Their Best Character<\/p>\n

\"\"Courtesy of Shueisha<\/p>\n

According to the popularity poll details revealed through social media<\/a>, the top ten Dragon Ball characters as chosen by fans are: <\/p>\n

Son Goku<\/p>\n

Vegeta<\/p>\n

Son Gohan<\/p>\n

Piccolo<\/p>\n

Vegito<\/p>\n

Trunks (Teen)<\/p>\n

Bardock<\/p>\n

Android 18<\/p>\n

Cell<\/p>\n

Frieza<\/p>\n

While this top ten selection of characters comes as a bit of a surprise with additions like Vegito and Bardock cutting way more into the top ten than fans might expect, rounding out the top 20 are other favorites closely following like Krillin, Yamcha, Bulma, and more. But the funniest addition making the top 20 is undoubtedly Bulma\u2019s Family Cat at 15, beating out others like Chichi, Android 17, and Videl. <\/p>\n

But there\u2019s really no beating out Goku when it comes down to it. There might be other characters within the Dragon Ball world that are stronger at any given time, Goku\u2019s always come to the top of pretty much every conversation when it comes to Dragon Ball fans. Part of that fun is figuring out who Goku can beat in a fight from other worlds<\/a>, after all. You\u2019re not exactly having that same conversation about Vegeta or Piccolo until long after the Goku matter is resolved. <\/p>\n

What\u2019s Next for Dragon Ball? <\/p>\n

\"SuperCourtesy of Toei Animation<\/p>\n

Dragon Ball has just started its celebration of the franchise\u2019s 40th anniversary. It\u2019s holding a special event in Japan this weekend with teases that it will reveal new information about what\u2019s coming in the future, but has yet to reveal exactly what fans can hope to see. This could range anywhere from a potential return from Dragon Ball Super\u2018s manga (which has been on hiatus since Akira Toriyama\u2019s death in 2024<\/a>), or even a potential return of the Dragon Ball Super anime. <\/p>\n

Dragon Ball could even reveal potential other anime projects that fans might not have even been expecting. There\u2019s a lot that the franchise could have in the works, but it\u2019s just a matter of seeing how Shueisha and other rights holders move forward following the loss of Akira Toriyama. <\/p>\n

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the\u00a0ComicBook Forum<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dragon Ball is now kicking off a major celebration of the 40th anniversary of late Akira Toriyama\u2019s original…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[106457,145587,106458,156,111,139,69,63636,437],"class_list":{"0":"post-250431","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-dragon-ball","9":"tag-dragon-ball-super","10":"tag-dragon-ball-z","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz","15":"tag-regular-news","16":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}