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We've now had nearly a decade with "Game of Thrones," and the cast of hundreds of characters that have graced the screen, from the lofty Queen Cersei Lannister to the lowly Poisoned Frey No. 1. These characters have been great and these characters have been terrible, while the series' actors have garnered Emmy awards and critical accolades year after year.
2019-04-18
But which actor in this stacked ensemble has delivered the best performance over the last 10 years? Which character is most beloved?
We needed to find a way to evaluate about 200 unique characters and performances. A survey could not do — even the most dedicated "Game of Thrones" fan, one of whom wrote this post, could not bear to take a 400 question survey.
To accomplish this, we developed two simple matchup generators and asked readers on social media to weigh in on it. In one, people would see two characters randomly selected from a group of hundreds. And in the other one of two actors from the group of actors that appeared on three or more episodes.
They then selected the character they liked more, or in the case of the performances, the performance they liked more. Forcing people to decide between two random options helps mitigate the impact of any vote stuffing, and we calculated these win percentages from 15,845 character matchup decisions and 20,972 actor matchup decisions.
Keep scrolling to see who the best-loved actors and characters are on "Game of Thrones."
Overall, Peter Dinklage's Tyrion Lannister came out on top.
An overview of how the different Houses stack up.Shayanne Gal/INSIDER
Tyrion Lannister was the character people liked best, and Peter Dinklage is thought to have delivered a great performance.
In fact, all of the Lannisters are in the top for best performance on "Game of Thrones."
The Lannister family and its loyalists.Shayanne Gal/INSIDER
Lena Headey (who plays Cersei), Jack Gleeson (Joffrey), Charles Dance (Tywin), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime), and Peter Dinklage (Tyrion) make up five of the top six performances fans love the most on the series.
Dame Diana Rigg's performance as Olenna Tyrell is the fourth most-loved portrayal on "Game of Thrones."
The Tyrell family's rankings.Shayanne Gal/INSIDER
Margaery (played by Natalie Dormer) came in just behind the Queen of Thorns, while her brother Loras (Finn Jones) was closer to the middle. Mace Tyrell (Roger Ashton-Griffiths) is the least likable of the family.
Of everyone who follows Daenerys Targaryen, Ser Jorah Mormont is the most loved.
Daenerys Targaryen and her family and followers are all very liked on the show.Shayanne Gal/INSIDER
We kept Jon Snow on the list of Night's Watch characters, and Tyrion is just on here for perspective.
As for Starks, fans believe Michelle Fairley delivered the superior performance as Catelyn.
House Stark and its loyalists, including Meera and Jojen Reen.Shayanne Gal/INSIDER
Ned Stark (Sean Bean) and Sansa (Sophie Turner) beat out Jon Snow (Kit Harington), Arya (Maisie Williams), and Robb (Richard Madden) by just a fraction.
There wasn't much love for Rickon Stark (Art Parkinson) though. Maybe he should have zig-zagged.
Jon Snow (Kit Harington) and Sam Tarly (John Bradley West) are the two most-liked Night's Watch brothers.
All the men of the Night's Watch featured on the series.Shayanne Gal/INSIDER
You shouldn't be surprised to see Janos Slynt (Dominic Carter) as the least-liked character of all the brothers in black.
Ygritte (Rose Leslie) is a favorite among the Free Folk.
Leaf and Wun Wun are at the bottom of the pile.Shayanne Gal/INSIDER
The Night King (played by both Richard Brake and Vladamir Furdik), on the other hand, is surprisingly close to the dead center of our chart.
Out of everyone associated with House Baratheon, Ser Davos Seaworth (Liam Cunningham) is considered the best character.
Brienne and Davos may serve House Stark now, but they started out as Baratheon loyalists.Shayanne Gal/INSIDER
Selyse (Tara Fitzgerald) is one of the least-liked characters on all of "Game of Thrones," while Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie) and Melisandre (Carice van Houten) were rated higher than Kings Robert (Mark Addy) and Stannis (Stephen Dillane), and Princess Shireen (Kerry Ingram).
Unsurprisingly, Theon (Alfie Allen) and Yara (Gemma Whelan) Greyjoy topped their elders.
The four main House Greyjoy characters.Shayanne Gal/INSIDER
Euron (Pilou Asbæk) and Balon (Patrick Malahide) were above the middle fold when it came to best acting performance.
House Martell has a majority of the characters in our worst-performance section of the chart.
House Martell and its loyalists.Shayanne Gal/INSIDER
Oberyn Martell (Pedro Pascal), on the other hand, was very high in the rankings of both loved character and better acting performance.
As for the other lesser houses and brigands and confidants, Sandor "The Hound" Clegane (Rory McCann) is preferred to all others.
People who don't fit neatly into any of the main camps.Shayanne Gal/INSIDER
Folks also really love Lord Varys (Conleth Hill), but aren't as fond of Robin Arryn (Lino Facioli). As for Ramsay Bolton (Iwan Rheon), his character is deeply disliked but people seem to have preferred Rheon's performance over many other characters in the pool.
Walt was Business Insider's Deputy Editor for Data and Analysis.Hickey is the author of You Are What You Watch, and also writes Numlock News, a daily morning newsletter. He came from FiveThirtyEight where he was chief culture writer. Walt previously worked at Business Insider from 2012 to 2013, and graduated from The College of William and Mary with a degree in Applied Mathematics. In additon to his work on elections and data journalism, he also edits comics at Business Insider.In 2022, Hickey won the Pulitzer Prize for Illustrated Reporting for his work on Business Insider's I Escaped A Chinese Internment Campdocumenting the plight of Uyghurs in China.
Kim was an entertainment correspondent for Insider. She was best known as Insider's resident "Game of Thrones" analyst, and authored "The Unofficial Guide to Game of Thrones." Kim moderated panels for the annual Con of Thrones fan convention and made guest appearances on podcasts including "Night's Cast," "Bald Move," and "Game of Owns." She co-hosts the "House of the Dragon" unofficial recap podcast "A Cast of Kings."Kim covered other sci-fi and fantasy series, including "Stranger Things," "Dark," "Westworld," "The OA," and more. Kim graduated from Hunter College with a degree in cultural anthropology.
