Yeah, but Batman was originally a comic book character, i.e., basically a cartoon. And Holmes does not wear a costume per se.
Darth Vader.
Also, Robin Hood.
Come to think of it, this is pretty much identical to, “How many fictional characters are instantly recognizable just by their hats?”
Dunno how scientific it is, butL
The Sherlock Holmes entry at IMDB has 292 entries.
Dracula has 404.
King Arthur has 140.
God has 57
Batman has 278.
Hamlet has 224.
Santa Clause has 957!
So assuming that’s at least a decent proxy for actual number of appearences and popularity, it looks like the St. Nick blows the competition away. I guess you can quibble that there really was a St. NIck, but I think its pretty safe to say the popular character is far enough removed from the Anatolian Bishop that is his namesake that he’s effectively a fictional character.
In his helmet, yeah.
With his goatee and little feather in his cap, maybe.
Topic for a new thread! 
But many people have written novels and short stories featuring Sherlock Holmes. More, I suspect, than have written Santa Claus or Dracula fiction. But I don’t know of any comprehensive list of Sherlock stories.
Children’s publishers churn out dozens of Santa books every Christmas, so I’d be surprised if there wasn’t more written works about him then any other character as well (granted, of of them are short picture books).
Obviously IMDB entries are just going to be a rough proxy for popularity, but given how dominant Santa is there, I’d be surprised if the result didn’t hold for other types of works as well, at least in Western media.
Well, yeah. Are you telling me Sherlock’s recognizable in silhouette without his deerstalker and pipe?
Touché!
The original Wong Fei-hung was a real person. And has far less cultural influence than Sun Wukong, who’s a cultural touchstone the entirety of East Asia - which goes without saying since Journey To the West is from the 16th century, and Wong died in the 1920s, so Wong has had much less time to spread.
Alice in Wonderland.
An amazing list of choices so far! I’d be willing to bet that if there isn’t already one with this topic, then the folks behind The Book of Lists would definitely attack it with all their scholarly devices and give an answer we would all be dazzled with.
I haven’t bought one of those books in a long time and it would appear there are newer ones out now.
Anybody else a fan of theirs? Got any of their versions of the topic’s main issue?
Son Goku is actually the Japanese on-reading of 孫悟空 which is Sun Wukong in Chinese. 
Fictional characters only.
I was gonna mention Sun Wukong!
I guess that leaves Anansi as noteworthy figure that largely exists outside the scope of Western culture (though, this seems to be changing.)
Ooh, and there’s Sinbad the Sailor of Arabian fame.
I also want to add Coyote of American Indian fame, but I dunno if he, the individual, is qualified as “popular”.
Aladdin?
The Protagonist
(I have to admit that I often identify with him)