The Best Game of Thrones Characters, Ranked for 2026

How We Ranked Them

Methodology Notes 2026-08-07Game of Thrones has no official standing character poll, so this piece uses three cross-checkable sources: Ranker’s live crowdsourced list, the r/FreeFolk community Top 50 from after the finale (2019, roughly 2,011 voters), and IMDb’s “Favorite Lord” mini-poll; Esquire’s editors’ list serves as a point of comparison. With House of the Dragon still airing in 2026 and a Jon Snow spinoff in development, those are treated only as IP background—no separate out-of-show character ranking is introduced.

Current Top Ranks on Ranker

In the public summary from the search date, the top three were Tyrion, Jon, and Arya, followed by the Hound, Eddard, Ghost, Jaime, and Davos. The crowdsourced rankings can shift, so figures should be checked against that day's page; Ghost cracking the top six shows fan voting isn't necessarily limited to human leads.

FreeFolk 2019: Post-Finale Community Vote

2,011 r/FreeFolk members each picked 10 names. Tywin took the top spot with 54.15%—many fans nostalgic for the mid-series Lannister arc when the writing was still solid. Jaime, Jon, Tyrion, and Eddard followed close behind. In this voting pool, Arya dropped to eleventh place (26.55%), a far cry from her top-three standing on Ranker today. The community's anger right after the final season aired and a crowdsourced list revisited years later were never going to tell the same story.

Past winners of this same recurring poll have shifted over the years: Tyrion in 2015, Jon in 2016 and 2018, Daenerys in 2017, and Tywin in 2019—proof that the "greatest" title tends to drift with how each season lands with viewers.

IMDb Lord Ballot

In the site's "Favorite Lord" vote, Tyrion pulled about 33%, Eddard roughly 19%, and Jon around 12%. The question was limited to lords, so characters like the Hound and Arya weren't options; the sample is also far smaller than FreeFolk's, so it's only used to back up the point that Tyrion remains solidly on top within the "lord" category.

Esquire Editors' Ranking (Excerpt)

The editors' list counts down from 25 to 1. In the middle and lower stretches that can be publicly verified, Jon lands at No. 7, Olenna No. 8, Tywin No. 9, and Eddard No. 10; Daenerys is No. 13, the Hound No. 14, and Oberyn No. 15. The top five are blocked behind a paywall, so this piece won't speculate. It's normal for a subjective ranking to diverge from a fan vote—Podrick can crack their top twelve even if he wouldn't in a poll.

2026 Context

House of the Dragon has brought the Targaryen storyline back into the conversation, and a Jon Snow sequel is also moving through Hollywood's development pipeline. Character popularity still largely rests on the original eight-season run—when filling out a template, the Lannisters, Starks, the Hound, and Ser Davos typically fill up first, before moving on to Dorne, the Reach, and the Free Folk.