Best buffy characters

237 duels later, Buffy Summers is still #1 in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer ranking, with Willow Rosenberg close behind.

Buffy Summers wins 76% of her duels and holds the top spot with 1376 ELO points, followed by Willow Rosenberg at 1297. The sharpest divide appears between ranks 2 and 3, where 213 ELO points separate Willow from Rupert Giles. That gap is wider than the 79-point difference between Buffy and Willow at the top, suggesting the Core Four splits into two tiers. Giles lands in third place with 1084 points and a 34% win rate, while Xander Harris finishes fourth at 1049 points, winning just 27% of his matchups. The distance between the watcher and the wisecracking friend is narrow at 35 points, but the verdict is clear: fans favor the women who anchor the Scooby Gang.

This ranking draws on 237 duels from 52 players who weighed in on the Core Four. The vote captures a stark preference for the show's leads while leaving Giles and Xander trailing in the community's estimation. The data was last updated on 12 October 2026. Head to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TopList and cast your own votes to shift the standings or cement the current order.

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 →