Best Doctor who doctors

David Tennant leads the Doctor Who ranking with 1617 ELO points over 115 duels, ahead of Peter Capaldi and Matt Smith.

The podium reflects a clear preference for the modern era, with David Tennant dominating at 1617 ELO and an 83% win rate. Peter Capaldi holds second place with 1520 ELO, while Matt Smith secures third at 1497 ELO. The sharpest drop in the ranking comes between Matt Smith and Christopher Eccleston, where 186 ELO points separate third from fourth place. This gap suggests a distinct tier break between the top three Doctors and the rest of the field. At the bottom, Peter Cushing languishes at 895 ELO with a 23% win rate, indicating that his non-canonical film portrayal resonates least with voters. The presence of Rowan Atkinson at rank 15 confirms that even novelty appearances receive serious consideration from the community.

This ranking draws from 1348 duels involving 29 voters across 16 contenders, updated on 12 October 2026. The data captures the full spectrum of Doctors, from classic television to alternate versions, offering a comprehensive view of fan preferences across the franchise's history. Cast your vote to shape the debate over which incarnation truly defines the Time Lord.

Updated on October 12, 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 →