Hideo Kojima asked players to pick their favorite Death Stranding 2: On the Beach character, and Higgs came out on top. The returning villain, once again played by Troy Baker, took 33.8% of the vote – a tidy win for a cybernetic cowboy-clown with a guitar, which is about as Kojima as it gets.
Tomorrow, played by Elle Fanning, came in second with 30.3%, while Fragile, portrayed by Léa Seydoux, finished third at 24%. Rainy rounded out the poll with 11.9%. The spread is close enough that this looks less like a landslide and more like a cast built to split opinions on purpose.
How the Death Stranding 2 poll broke down
- Higgs – 33.8%
- Tomorrow – 30.3%
- Fragile – 24%
- Rainy – 11.9%
Kojima said he was relieved to see every character find an audience, and added that he puts a lot of ”work and love” into building them. That sounds like standard creator talk until you remember how often blockbuster games flatten supporting casts into wallpaper. Kojima’s whole trick is the opposite: make the people weird enough that players argue about them later.
Why Higgs still gets the loudest reaction
Higgs has always been the kind of antagonist who steals attention even when he is supposed to be part of the background threat. Troy Baker’s return gives Death Stranding 2 a familiar face with a fresh twist, and the poll suggests players are still drawn to characters with strong silhouettes and even stronger attitude.
For Kojima Productions, that is probably the best possible result. A sequel’s cast only works if the audience is invested in more than the hero, and this vote shows the studio has given players four very different reasons to care. The real question now is whether Higgs’s popularity translates into the kind of story presence that makes the sequel feel bigger, stranger, and harder to ignore than the first game.