Best Shrek characters

7993 duels later, Donkey is still #1 in the Shrek ranking, with Shrek close behind at 1526 ELO points.

The sidekick beats the hero: Donkey claims the top spot with 1556 ELO points and a 79% win rate across 197 duels, narrowly ahead of Shrek himself at 1526 ELO. Puss in Boots rounds out the podium at 1446 ELO, matching Shrek's 71% win rate despite fewer duels. The sharpest divide appears between fourth and fifth place, where Princess Fiona holds 1439 ELO while Gingy sits 132 ELO points below her at fifth. That gap marks the ranking's clearest split, suggesting a firm boundary between the franchise's core cast and its supporting characters. Princess Fiona's 1439 ELO came from 246 duels with a 62% win rate, while Gingy achieved the same win rate across 225 duels but couldn't break into the top tier. At the bottom, Rumpelstiltskin languishes in last place with 980 ELO and a 29% win rate, indicating that the community reserves little affection for the later films' antagonists. Lord Farquaad fares only slightly better at 1053 ELO, while Artie sits just above at 1071 ELO.

This Shrek ranking draws on 7993 duels submitted by 125 players, comparing all 21 contenders from the film series. The figures reflect the state of the vote as of 10 October 2026. Cast your own ballot to shift the standings or cement Donkey's lead.

Updated on October 10, 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 →