Miyamoto appears in Time's top 100

By Robert Purchese Published 11 April, 2008

Can he make people thin?

Shigeru Miyamoto is in the running to make the Time list of the 100 most influential people this year.

He has been voted for over 2500 times so far, which puts him at 31 out of 200 candidates; one place ahead of David Beckham and one spot below Warren Buffett. His average rating is 56 per cent.

His "pros" are making games like Mario and Zelda to become the "father of modern videogaming", apparently, as well as making the Wii and recent smash hit Super Mario Galaxy.

Time raises the question of whether he'll be able to get Wii Fit to make all the "obese, videogame-playing kids out there" thin. Miyamoto wants people to be more "aware" of their bodies, and his challenge is to do that before they end up on Jerry Springer.

Top of the voting list for inclusion in the Time 100 is Rain, a Korean pop star. He has over 264,000 votes and an average rating of 86 per cent.

Stephen Colbert is a long way off in second with only 89,000 votes and a 79 per cent average.

The lead recurring face in the Time 100 list is Oprah Winfrey, who has appeared on the famous list five times so far. But then she does give out presents on her chat show.

Pop over to the Time website for the list of how everybody is doing or to vote for Shigeru Miyamoto.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (10) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • JHuxley #1 4 years ago

    29 now :D

    And who the heck is Rain?

  • AcidSnake #2 4 years ago

    Number 1 threat to America: Bears!

  • chrisjm #3 4 years ago

    one place ahead of David Beckham?
    "i can play football and im having chicken nuggets for tea, yayyy"
    Who is voting for him?! the worlds gone mad.

    its kind of insulting to the actually skilled people that celebs like him are in there that are just rich and in heat everyweek for doing nothing.

  • AHiFi #4 4 years ago

    It's influence...

    Rain was also number one in the online poll last year, though he was not included in the actual list.

  • r3n #5 4 years ago

    @chrisjm

    "its kind of insulting to the actually skilled people that celebs like him are in there that are just rich and in heat everyweek for doing nothing."

    He may be more of a publicity target nowadays, but you can't deny his skill. He was magnificent at Man Utd and it's possibly down to him that Real Madrid won the title a few years ago, indeed, the manager of Real at the time was sacked because he could not hold onto Beckham, despite winning La Liga. It's just a shame he's married to that manufactured woman

  • Inigo #6 4 years ago

    This is what happens when you open a poll up to public voting on the internet. For a second i thought it was the bloke who sings chocolate rain.

  • Kelduum #7 4 years ago

    Hes up to 13th now, with an average rating of 68%...

    Go Go Miyamoto!

  • fightman3b #8 4 years ago

    miyamoto is a fucking cunt - i work at a japanese owned engineering company and the miyamoto-san fucker is mates with our jap md - he visited last year and wandered around laughing all the time.

    the twat is about 5 foot nothing and he stinks of jap-shit - thank fuck he hasnt come back since; i would have had no choice but to take my cock out and piss all over the little cunt.
    Edited by 2 at 12/04/08 @ 21:16

  • montdidier #9 4 years ago

    I don't think it's Korean pop. It's Korean R&B/Hiphop.

    Actually I think it demonstrates how Anglosized the entertainment industry is. So Rain is clearly popular, but he barely rates a mention until the punters actually get a say. That says a lot about our world I think. There is always some kind of lobbying in the background that decides the fate of artists in mainstream distribution channels. Like that guy Shia LaBoeuf - talentless emo pimple petri dish. Somebody really decided to push him until we accept him.

  • marilena #10 4 years ago

    Capello was sacked for being boring.

    I can't see how Beckham can be influential, seeing as he has no personality.

    264.000 people is not enough to say that Rain is a world-wide phenomenon, just that his community of fans is very united and obviously very much online. Votes like these often get funny results, I remember once when a Eurosport poll had Gheorghe Hagi and Hristo Stoichkov as the best footballers ever as voted by the people on the site. Both of them were amazing players, no doubt, but Maradona, among others, was probably a bit better.

    Can't defend Shia LaBeuf. Useless piece of trash.

  • Slipstream #11 4 years ago

    Can\t say that I\ve heard of this...Rain, I mean because I'VE never heard of them, there is NO WAY this...PERSON, could be Number one, NO WAY!

    Anyhow...CONGRATULATIONS MIYAMOTO-SAN! I hope you kick so much ass upon your ascendance to number 1 of that list!