Wizards And Whatnot
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Harry Potter is the most written-about character in online fanfiction, according to a new study

And, there's another Harry Potter character in the top 10

ByBryce Olin|
Every Time Harry Potter Arrives At Hogwarts
Every Time Harry Potter Arrives At Hogwarts | Harry Potter

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling was published in 1997. The Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone movie premiered in theaters in 2001. It's officially been nearly 30 years since the Harry Potter craze began, and it's still going strong in the Wizarding World and the world of fanfiction.

According to a new study from QR Code Generator who reached out to FanSided to share their results, Harry Potter is still the most popular character that fans love to write fanfiction about. There were more than 366K stories about Harry Potter on the site and more in the works every day.

For the study, the company used data from Archive of Our Own, also known as AO3, and shared a top 10 list of the most popular characters from in fanfiction right now. Harry is by far the most popular character with more than 100K entries more than the second-most popular character, Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man and played by Robert Downey Jr. in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Honestly, it's no surprise that Harry Potter made the list. The character is simply the biggest pop culture character of the 21st century. With a new TV show that tells Harry's story officially in the works for HBO and MAX, we expect that Harry Potter will still be the biggest character in fanfiction for decades to come.

The most surprising part of the study, to me, -- this is probably because I do not read Harry Potter fanfiction -- was that almost 300K of those stories are shipping Harry Potter and his nemesis, Draco Malfoy. You all really love the enemies-to-lovers tropes, huh?! I'm sure part of this has to do with how well Daniel Radcliffe and Tom Felton performed over the course of eight movies as Harry and Draco, respectively.

In addition to Mr. Potter and Mr. Malfoy getting love from the fanfiction community, Hermione Granger, played by Emma Watson in the Harry Potter movies. Hermione Granger lands at No. 9 on the list, less than 100 entries behind Supernatural's Castiel.

Most of the fanfiction about Hermione is shipping -- drum roll, please -- none other than Draco Malfoy. What did I just say about enemies-to-lovers? It's a trope for a reason, I guess! People definitely love it. Although, I do have to admit that I'm cool with Hermione and Ron being together in J.K. Rowling's book series. I feel like it made sense at the time and still makes sense now.

Here is the full list of the top 10 characters in fanfiction, via the study:

  1. Harry Potter from the Harry Potter franchise
  2. Tony Stark also known as Iron Man of the MCU
  3. Dean Winchester of Supernatural
  4. Steve Rogers also known as Captain America of the MCU
  5. Sam Winchester of Supernatural
  6. Midoriya Izuku of My Hero Academia
  7. James "Bucky" Barnes also known as Winter Soldier of the MCU
  8. Castiel of Supernatural
  9. Hermione Granger of the Harry Potter franchise
  10. Bakugo Katsuki of My Hero Academia

Let us know what you think of the fanfiction top 10! We'd love to hear from you and your love for these characters.

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