Harry Potter Character Rankings for 2026

How the ranking was built

Compiled on 2026-08-07Harry Potter has no continuously updated official character popularity poll, so this article lays out every verifiable source we could check: Bloomsbury Publishing’s major historical vote, YouGov’s UK fan survey, and Ranker’s live crowdsourced ranking. Screen time is included only for comparison, not as a measure of popularity. With HBO’s series in development for 2026, YouGov’s viewing-intent data is noted at the end for context, without spinning up a separate “TV series character” ranking.

Ranker Current Top 6

On the day of the scrape, the top spot was Hermione, followed by McGonagall, Hagrid, Sirius, Lupin, and Snape. The crowdsourced ranking can shift, so figures should be checked against that day's page; vote counts reflect the combined up/down tally, while placement is based on a composite score—which is why someone can have more votes yet rank lower. Snape drew plenty of upvotes, but still landed sixth overall.

The community often records ranks 7–10 from Ranker’s longer list as Luna, Harry, Dumbledore, and others, but this page’s lazy loading doesn’t fully release the later entries, so this article doesn’t hard-code those placements.

YouGov UK fans (choose up to 3)

June 2017, combined sample of book and film fans. Hermione topped at 27%; Dumbledore and Harry tied at 25%, with the copy describing the headmaster as "second, slightly ahead of Harry"; Dobby and Snape tied at 21%. These are percentages for making the top three, not single-choice winners, and cannot be directly summed with Bloomsbury or Ranker results.

*Ranked by share of votes; ties retain the same position. Another 14% selected "no favorite."

Bloomsbury 2011 Big Vote Top 15

Roughly 70,000 votes, single favorite pick. Snape took first with about 13,000 votes (20%); Hermione came second, Sirius third, Harry himself fourth, and Ron fifth. This was a publisher poll at the tail end of the film era—its results don't contradict later YouGov or Ranker surveys favoring Hermione, since both the methodology and the timeframe differ.

Appearance Count Comparison

In a fan-compiled list based on mentions in the original books, the top spots are almost entirely taken by the trio, the headmaster, Hagrid, Snape, and Voldemort—but heavy screen time doesn’t always translate to high popularity. Voldemort pulls only 3% in a YouGov poll and lands in the mid-to-lower range on Bloomsbury’s ranking as well.

2026 Series Context

During the development of the HBO live-action series, YouGov surveyed UK audiences: about 39% overall said they might watch it, and among book or film fans, that figure was around 61%. This only shows the IP still has strong appeal; it can't be used to re-rank characters. The template still follows the book and film character lineup.