Best anime characters to play as

Natsu Dragneel – Fairy Tail leads the Don't Panic Games ranking with 1087 ELO points over 56 duels, ahead of Naruto Uzumaki – Naruto and Batman – Batman.

The top three contenders cluster tightly together, but a sharp divide emerges just below the podium. Batman – Batman at rank 3 holds 1010 ELO points, while James Tiberius Kirk – Star Trek drops to 936 points at rank 4, creating a 74-point gap that marks the clearest separation in the ranking. This suggests two distinct tiers: the anime and superhero icons voters favor most, and the mixed field trailing behind. The bottom three reveal an unusual pattern, with Superman – DC Comics Deck at rank 7 accumulating 494 points despite winning 63% of his duels, and Kaneki Ken – Tokyo Ghoul anchoring the list at 388 points.

This ranking draws from 1214 duels contributed by 77 players across 8 contenders, all figures current as of 11 October 2026. The community has spoken on which Don't Panic Games characters they most want to play as, balancing recognizable anime protagonists against crossover heroes from other franchises. The vote remains open: head to VAINKEURZ to cast your duels and shift the standings, or to see how your favorite character measures up against the field.

Updated on October 11, 2026

How this ranking is computed

Every duel won lifts a contender and every loss drops them, by an amount that depends on the opponent's strength: beating the leader is worth more than beating the last. It is an ELO, the same principle as in chess. Duels are not drawn at random — an adaptive entropy sort puts the least predictable match-ups first, which settles the ranking far faster than a full round robin. A worldwide ranking is only published past 30 completed plays. Known limit: a contender who has faced few opponents keeps an approximate score, and the bottom of the table moves more than the podium.

How our rankings are made →