Granblue Fantasy has a lot of these in virtue of the large cast the game has.
- Despite having little to no presence in the main story, optional party members tend to be a lot more popular than the characters in the main story party. This is usually due to being much more powerful and/or having more attractive character designs. Some of these characters such as Danua and Narmaya are very popular outside of the game's small community, and get pages of fanart on sites like Pixiv and Tumblr even from people who haven't played the game.
- Forte is already popular in the Rage of Bahamut fandom, and later on to Shadowverse. But in Granblue? Unfortunately, she doesn't have any plot relevance in the grand scheme of things, just a Fate Episode and some minor cameo roles. Despite that, her fans from the previous games still flocked the GBF fandom, eventually waiting for more Forte-related here.
- Cagliostro and Vania also gets tons of fanart, unsurprising since they're both quite cute, powerful and also for the former because Evil Is Cool and being a self-made Gender Bender, while the latter because vampires are popular in general.
- Special mention to Alicia (Aliza's mom), who has a downright amazing amount of popularity and fanart for a very minor NPC.
- Lunalu and Lowain are the most popular among the R-rarity characters in terms of characterization, the former due to being a shy Yaoi Fangirl and the latter because he's voiced by a popular voice actor and players find his antics amusing.
- To a lesser extent, Camieux is - and always has been, winning her category in the popularity poll all 18 times - making her the most popular R character in the game via fan votes.
- Aster is no slouch either. As the most consistent winner of SR character polls, fans have been begging her to gain an SSR for ages. Her earnest cuteness, little sister characterization to Sutera, and her inventive, tactical thinking have endeared her to many.
- Walder became a lot more popular when the "Ranger Sign Bravo" event came out, due to his character development, the expansion on his relationship with Jade, and several heartwarming, funny, and/or awesome moments he gets in the event story like taking on Fenrir all by himself just for Jade's sake.
- Grimnir's popularity soared as soon as the new Omega II raids were released. In part of his popularity from Rage Of Bahamut and Shadowverse, players also love him for being Adorkable and also thanks to his funny moments in the quest to open up the Grimnir Raid. Granblue Twitter exploded when his playable version was finally released, with him trending highest on Twitter for a while after it happened. His popularity is so strong that he became the first male playable character to receive a limited Valentines unit.
- The Gun Sisters, with Cucouroux constantly topping the fan popularity polls, enough to warrant her getting an SSR and still topping the popularity polls even after that. Following her is Silva (who is currently more popular than her sister and even won the 5th anniversary outfit poll) and Camieux, as mentioned above.
- The What Makes The Sky Blue trilogy gave rise to plenty of Darkhorses, some of whom became Breakout Characters:
- Sandalphon, who started off as a one-off villain for the the original WMTSB event but became so popular he became the main focus of the second and third event, ascending to playable character status as an SSR and topped the male anniversary skin poll even over similarly popular characters like Percival who came in second place. In just 2 years since his first playable version, he’s already received two new versions (one being a Grand unit of his highly requested What Makes The Sky Blue self), several skins, dozens of merch and an animated music video for his Character Song Ain Soph Aur.
- Belial. Initially conceived to be a villain more despicable than Sandalphon, he inadvertantly became one of the most popular villains as well as one of the most popular characters in the game due to his hilariously over-the-top dialogue with everyone he interacts with, his attractive design, his relationship with Lucilius and his voice actor, Yoshimasa Hosoya. Since his reveal, there has been demand for him to get a playable version despite his for now uncompromising villain status and even cries for a summer Belial despite him not even having a playable version. He’s even managed to unseat Sandalphon quite a few times as the most popular male character.
- Of the Primarchs revealed in 000, Sariel became popular the fastest due to his design, personality and seemingly pure friendship with Belial. Along with Belial, and the usually requested Primarchs like Lucifer and the Tetra-element Primarchs, he’s one of the most requested Primarch grouped characters wanted to have a playable version on Granblue twitter.
- Lucifer, the summon and NPC character that’s based on the summon. Originally planned as a collaboration summon between Rage of Bahamut and Granblue Fantasy, he was reworked to fit the lore of the game, all the lore reworking coming into play in his interactions in the "What Makes The Sky Blue" trilogy, which boosted interest in his character for native Granblue players. It helps that he’s one of the most useful/powerful summons in the game, especially after his 5★ uncap and people are constantly crying for him to have an official playable version after its confirmed that he and Lucio are not the same person. It also helps that he was already a cash cow and an iconic character for Cygames, appearing in nearly all of their works, gaining popularity in all of them. His popularity is exemplified in Granblue when his summon was made sparkable in March 19th’s Flash Gala to celebrate the end of the trilogy and which resulted in the server crashing so hard that it had to go into maintenance, with the character/summon trending the highest on Twitter, even higher than the new summer character introduced in the same pool.
- Lucilius has officially reached Break Out Villain status in the fanbase due to his contrasting personality from the previous two Luciface’s, his resemblance to Voiding Lucifer, him being the only evil “Lucifer clone” and him having one of the hardest raids in the entire game, if not the hardest, with some of the best weapons to come out of it. His Pet the Dog moments with Lucifer have also made him more palatable in the shipping side of the fanbase as well as Belial’s attachment to him.
- Raid primal beasts, such as Athena, Zooey, Medusa and Baal tend to be super popular to the point where the four of them were listed to becoming playable with more playable raid primals being planned in the future.
- The Dragon Knights are the most popular male character group in the game, with Percival being the most of the 4 of them, to the point where the group as a whole receives Wolverine Publicity from Cygames due to how much money they pull in.
- Among the Sky Philharmonic Orchestra group, Augusta is the most-picked free unit in a related story event, at least in the English fandom. The reason? Because she's a Draph.
- Despite (or rather, thanks to) long development time, the Arcarum Evokers managed to achieve this status after finally being released and became the core components to the many meta comps that define modern Granblue Fantasy, with their Seinen tone stories making a great contrast to other stories in the game:
- Among the Arcarum Evokers, Nier is often considered the most popular. She already has the most fan art even before actually being released. In the span of three months from the time her character uncap art got revealed up to the 5th Anniversary, Death (the summon required to recruit her) went from one of the least popular summons into the 2nd most made behind The Sun (which people made en masse for gameplay purposes)note . Even the reveal of her dark backstory and Yandere tendency does naught to put a hold to her popularity, if not boosting it even further. Her popularity just grows larger as time passes, as evident when Cygames showed a data ranking
◊ of characters who recieved paid Valentine chocolate from the fanbase in 2020, in which Nier placed 7th, above even Siegfried, Grimnir and Djeeta, beaten only by the WMTSB cast, Percival and Vikala. - Maria Theresa of the Arcarum Evokers slowly gain popularity after the fate episodes have come out due to her story and it helps to these players that she is the Token Good Teammatenote among the Evokers in general.
- Despite lacking in the gameplay department, Fraux still see high ingame recruitment rate and fan art within the fanbase thanks to her Ms. Fanservice status and being one of the three Evokers who appeared in the original version of the Arcarum game mode.
- On the male side, while his recruitment number is low, Lobelia is quite popular within the fanbase and artists despite him being the most evil and irredeemable psychopath in the game, making even the likes like Belial look like a Saturday Morning Cartoon villain. The reason? Precisely because he is the most evil and irredeemable psychopath in the game. Being handsome, playable, powerful, and having a stellar voice work from Kenji Nojima certainly help.
- Among the Arcarum Evokers, Nier is often considered the most popular. She already has the most fan art even before actually being released. In the span of three months from the time her character uncap art got revealed up to the 5th Anniversary, Death (the summon required to recruit her) went from one of the least popular summons into the 2nd most made behind The Sun (which people made en masse for gameplay purposes)note . Even the reveal of her dark backstory and Yandere tendency does naught to put a hold to her popularity, if not boosting it even further. Her popularity just grows larger as time passes, as evident when Cygames showed a data ranking
- The Primal Pals, consisting of Medusa, Baal, Nezha and Satyr from the "Primal Resonance" event are slowly gaining a following, thanks to expanded personalities, characterization and interaction for the Primal raids bosses the players have grown attached to over the years. All of them started as imports from Rage of Bahamut, even! Special mention to Satyr who, unlike the other three who have their raid boss version, is only an old summon from 2015 but was something of a cult favorite due to her cute design. Her popularity resulted in her finally getting a four star uncap in June 2019 and a Summer limited summon in the month after, which cumulate into a regular playable SSR version in May 2020.
- Ladiva is quite popular among fans, with her very kind and friendly personality, and with having the large figure of a male Draph, is often seen as a very positive portrayal of a Transgender character, stating how she loves her body the way it is. Her inclusion in Versus made her even more popular.
- Among the Divine Generals, Vikala is a breakout example ever since her release, having a huge amount of presence in social media and fanart sites like Twitter and Pixiv. Even her mere concept art got 27K retweets and 57K likes!
- Martin, a minor NPC introduced in the "Maydays" events. His plot relevance as a shark hunter and the events' overall hijinks factor made him memorable among Granblue fans, to the point where he spawned a lot of online fanarts during the events' duration. Even after the "Maydays" series ended, fans still mention Martin in any upcoming summer-themed events of Auguste, hoping for more scenes involving him.
- Strangely, he is mentioned in Auguste of the Dead, but does not appear, despite his wife Ellen showing up and having a supporting role.
- Meg, the free SR character of the story event My Beloved Auguste, exploded in popularity thanks to her Unlucky Extra shenanigans, her interactions with the crew both before and after she joins, her Character Development throughout the event, her transformation through sheer rage and trauma and her sweet Earn Your Happy Ending. To give an indication on how popular she is, new art for her appeared in the 2020 December Granblue Fantasy Festival, where she is not only the only SR character in the bunch, but she is surrounded by four of the Eternals, Vikala, Sandalphon, Belial and the main characters.
- Meg is back as the main character for Auguste of the Dead, in an action packed role that spotlights her romance with Mari and gives her a swimsuit version.
- Starting out as nothing more than an NPC and a sidekick to the titular heroine, Nicholas from the Robomi series slowly started to get more relevance in the later events, becoming co-protagonists with Robomi herself, the fans quickly grew to love him thanks to his charismatic, goofy and lovable personality, his clear inspirations and references to Kamen Rider and the motivations he brought to the events (doing his best to honor the legacy of his hero, facing the fact that his body may not be strong enough to be on the front lines all the time even if he wants to help, choosing between protecting the skies and taking care of his newfound family) that served to contrast Robomi's, and later Zooey's, grander world saving goals and ground the Robomi series (For as much as the Robomi series can be grounded anyway). It's gotten to the point that many fans are asking for this once NPC and sidekick to become one of the representatives of Granblue Fantasy in the fighting game Versus.
- Deliford, the 37 year old knight from the Erste Empire, and to this day only an R/SR unit, is this. In fact, he may be the poster boy for player demand for an SSR, due to being denied one -twice- despite being the star of the 2021 event "The Time a 37-Year-Old Former Imperial Soldier Got His Life in Order by Awakening to the Greatness That Is Saunas" which had a rerun in 2023. His presence as a career-depending family man with aging pains helps endear him to older members of the audience, as well.
