Nature

Animals

Best dolphin species

The community has spoken. Discover the world ranking, compare it to yours and see how everyone else voted.

Play this TopList

43contenders high-voltage

234votes

6TopList

0commentsUpdated on 10/17/2026 at 12:00 AM

Risso's dolphin1341

The worldwide ranking generated by 234 votes

43 / 43

Risso's dolphin1341

Northern right whale dolphin1314

Pygmy killer whale1305

Southern right whale dolphin1293

Pacific white-sided dolphin1285

Hourglass dolphin1275

Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin1273

Heaviside's dolphin1262

Dusky dolphin1261

#10

White-beaked dolphin1259

#11

False killer whale1250

#12

Atlantic humpback dolphin1243

#13

Atlantic spotted dolphin1238

#14

Hector's dolphin1228

#15

Indian Ocean humpback dolphin1227

#16

Orca1218

#17

Long-finned pilot whale1218

#18

Peale's dolphin1213

#19

Chilean dolphin1211

#20

Amazon river dolphin (Pink river dolphin)1206

#21

Irrawaddy dolphin1200

#22

Commerson's dolphin (Panda dolphin)1188

#23

Striped dolphin1188

#24

Fraser's dolphin1184

#25

Tucuxi1177

#26

Atlantic white-sided dolphin1175

#27

Common dolphin1175

#28

Chinese white dolphin1173

#29

Narrow-beaked dolphin1172

#30

Melon-headed whale1169

#31

Pantropical spotted dolphin1162

#32

Short-finned pilot whale1152

#33

La Plata dolphin1136

#34

Ganges river dolphin1131

#35

Indus river dolphin1131

#36

Australian snubfin dolphin1129

#37

Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin1123

#38

Australian humpback dolphin1118

#39

Clymene dolphin1116

#40

Spinner dolphin1114

#41

Guiana dolphin1113

#42

Bottlenose dolphin1110

#43

Long-beaked common dolphin1076

What the community says

Which dolphin do you prefer? Discover and rank all 43 dolphin species in the world, from bottlenose to pink Amazon river dolphin. Vote for your fave!

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 →