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The 41st Annual Sanrio Character Ranking Contest, which lets people cast votes in a popularity poll once every day is now live as of April 8, 2026, and it’s so busy that there’s a wait to visit the site. If you go to the official page to cast a ballot as of time of writing, you will need to wait in a virtual line for your turn due to the amount of traffic coming in to visit. However, it only takes about a minute to wait, and voting is open online and in certain stores until May 24, 2026. Pompompurin, who won in 2025, features prominently in this year’s marketing of the event.
If you choose to vote online, the process is quite simple. Chrome, Edge, and Safari browsers are supported. After clicking the button to vote and, if it is a high traffic period waiting about a minute, you are taken to the character entry page. You can sort by entry, name, or voting history. After you select a character, you will be asked your age, gender, country of residence, and if you ever voted in one of these Sanrio character popularity polls before. That’s it.
It is also possible to vote in-person. Sanrio’s official social media account listed three places in North America folks can go to cast a ballot. These are official Sanrio stores and Hello Kitty Cafes or Hot Topic. Those who do will get a special “I Voted” sticker based on this poll. However, the company did note that is only “while supplies last.”
As a reminder, last year Pompompurin won the 2025 Annual Sanrio Character Ranking Contest following Cinnamoroll winning every year between 2020 and 2024. His entry appears as the first character when you first click the voting button, and he, Cinnamoroll, and Hello Kitty appear on the “waiting” screen when the polling site is experiencing a lot of traffic.
People can vote once per day in the 41st Annual Sanrio Character Ranking Contest popularity poll until May 24, 2026. Results will be shared on June 28, 2026.
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