New study finds Frogger is Florida’s top retro game before National Video Game Day

Pac-Man still leads overall searches in Florida, but Frogger over-indexes compared with the rest of the country

Favorite retro games USA A state-by-state analysis of Google searches shows which retro gaming franchises over-index in different parts of the country. Frogger was Florida’s strongest regional favorite, while Pac-Man remained the state’s most-searched retro franchise overall. (Courtesy: ACE.com)

By Brody Wooddell

ORLAND, Fla. — Florida gamers apparently still have a soft spot for dodging traffic, hopping logs and trying to get a little green frog safely across the screen.

A new analysis of Google search data from social gaming platform ACE.com found Frogger is Florida’s strongest regional retro gaming favorite, according to the study’s state-by-state index.

There is an important distinction: Pac-Man remains the most-searched retro gaming franchise in Florida by raw search volume. The Frogger designation measures which franchise Floridians search for disproportionately more often than people nationwide.

The analysis comes ahead of National Video Game Day on Sept. 12.

Pac-Man still dominates nationally

ACE.com analyzed Google search demand from June 1, 2022, through May 31, 2026, looking at classic gaming franchises and common search variations.

Nationally, Pac-Man easily led the rankings with an average of nearly 12.5 million U.S. searches per year.

Tetris finished second with about 8.4 million annual searches, followed by Sonic the Hedgehog with roughly 7.5 million. Resident Evil and Mortal Kombat rounded out the top five.

Pac-Man ranked first in raw search volume in 46 states, including Florida, while Tetris led Georgia, Hawaii, North Dakota and Vermont.

How Florida ended up with Frogger

For its regional-favorite map, the study used a different calculation.

Researchers compared each franchise’s share of searches within a state with its share nationally. That allowed games with especially strong local interest to stand out even if they did not generate the most searches overall.

The map identifies Frogger as Florida’s strongest regional favorite under that measurement.

Other states produced similarly distinctive results. California over-indexed most strongly for Metal Slug, Washington for The Oregon Trail, Nevada for Street Fighter and Virginia for Wizardry.

America’s most-searched retro games

According to the analysis, the five most-searched retro gaming franchises nationwide were:

  1. Pac-Man: 12.49 million average annual searches
  2. Tetris: 8.4 million
  3. Sonic the Hedgehog: 7.49 million
  4. Resident Evil: 4.1 million
  5. Mortal Kombat: 3.71 million

The rankings were based on average U.S. Google search demand over a four-year period. Researchers said they used games’ primary names and common aliases and adjusted searches for titles with ambiguous names.

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