Best Pokémon protagonists

16 ELO points separate Red from Serena at the top of the Pokémon Heroes ranking, after 3428 duels.

Red dominates the podium with 1374 ELO points and a 68% win rate across 139 duels, establishing a 16-point lead over Serena in second place at 1358 ELO. Dawn claims third with 1342 ELO and a 61% win rate through 157 duels, matching Serena's success rate. The sharpest gap in the top five appears between Leaf and Echo: 19 ELO points push Leaf into fourth place at 1325 ELO while Echo settles at fifth with 1306 ELO. At the bottom of the ranking, Florian lands at 1000 ELO in 27th position, with Kris just above at 1028 ELO. The community's voting patterns reveal a clear preference for protagonists from earlier generations, though the competitive middle tier suggests no consensus beyond the top spots.

This ranking draws from 3428 duels involving 39 players across 27 contenders, updated on 12 October 2026. Each duel asked players which character they enjoyed playing as the most in Pokémon games, building a hierarchy that reflects actual gameplay preferences rather than popularity or storyline prominence. The tight margins between adjacent ranks demonstrate how closely matched these heroes are in the community's estimation. Cast your vote now to influence future positions and see how your favorite playable character stacks up against the competition.

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 →