Best Once Upon a Time characters

Killian Jones / Captain Hook wins 70% of his duels and tops the Once Upon a Time ranking ahead of Regina Mills / the Evil Queen.

A 68 ELO point gap separates Regina Mills / the Evil Queen in second place from Mr. Gold / Rumplestiltskin / The Dark One at third, marking the sharpest divide in the ranking. Killian Jones / Captain Hook edges out Regina Mills / the Evil Queen by 32 points at the summit, despite her slightly higher win rate of 71% against his 70%. Emma Swan, the show's protagonist and central hero, lands at fourth with 1339 ELO and a 60% win rate across 255 duels. David Nolan / Prince Charming completes the top 5 at 1324 ELO, winning 53% of his 325 duels. The bottom reveals a harsher verdict on later seasons: Victoria Belfrey / Rapunzel wins just 19% of her duels and closes the ranking at 907 ELO, with Lucy Mills one spot above her at 947 ELO after 197 duels.

This ranking draws on 3183 duels cast by 45 players across 19 contenders, updated 11 October 2026. Vote now on VAINKEURZ to shape the standings and pit your favorite Storybrooke residents against each other in head-to-head matchups.

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 →