A new study ranks the popularity of several Marvel Cinematic Universe heroes and villains. As many know, the MCU began in 2008 with Iron Man and steadily worked its way to becoming the biggest film franchise of all time. Its most recent installment, Spider-Man: Far From Home rolled out last summer, but its biggest film is Avengers: Endgame, which arrived just two months before Spidey's latest adventure. Currently, Endgame is the highest-grossing movie of all time worldwide, and even a year out from its release, fans are still celebrating its greatest moments. Videos went viral recently of opening night crowds reacting to scenes like Captain America (Chris Evans) wielding Thor's (Chris Hemsworth) hammer and numerous MCU heroes emerging from portals to fight Thanos (Josh Brolin).

The Infinity Saga might be over, but the MCU has showed no signs of slowing down. Phase Four of the mega-franchise will begin in November with Black Widow, a long-awaited solo film starring Scarlett Johansson. Marvel has movies scheduled for the next few years, but what might be the most exciting element of Phase Four is the expansion onto Disney+. Starting later this year, shows like The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and WandaVision will arrive to help expand the universe even more.

Related: Every MCU Character Confirmed For Phase 4

Fans already knew the MCU and its characters are immensely popular, but they might be surprised to learn which characters and movies come out on top. A study conducted by pop culture site Soaphub looked at monthly Google search data to evaluate which movies and characters were considered the most popular. When it comes to movies, Soaphub only looked at the Marvel movies available on Disney+, so the two Spider-Man films and The Incredible Hulk were ineligible. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the most popular movie was Endgame with over 2.8 million searches, followed by Iron Man (816,000) and Doctor Strange (561,000).

The Avengers assemble in the final battle of Endgame

On the characters side, fans might not be shocked at all to know Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) was #1 for the heroes, scoring 770,000 searches. Interestingly, the two characters who followed him were Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) with 445,000 searches and Vision (Paul Bettany) with 214,000. When it comes to the villains, it's not surprising to learn Loki (Tom Hiddleston) was ahead of the pack, notching 350,000 searches. The God of Mischief was immediately followed by Hela (Cate Blanchett) with 250,000 and Thanos with 200,000.

Some other fun results from the study include Captain America only appearing at #7 on the heroes list, while none of his solo films cracked the top 10 on the movie side. Smaller antagonists like Sonny Burch (Walton Goggins) from Ant-Man and the Wasp and Whiplash (Mickey Rourke) from Iron Man 2 actually made it onto the villains list at numbers 11 and 19 respectively. And, because people are likely curious, Spider-Man (Tom Holland) made it to #4 on the heroes list. This study just goes to show that MCU fans can be unpredictable and that they have a wide universe to pick favorites from.

More: Marvel’s New Phase 4 Slate: Every MCU Movie Release Date (2020-2022)

Source: Soaphub

Key Release Dates