1
Credit: Disney (top left) Disney (top center) Disney (top right) Disney (bottom left) Disney (bottom center) Disney (bottom right)On top of debating which Disney princess is the best or which of the Fab Five character deserves the top spot, Disney fans often get asked who their favorite Disney villain is. As you can imagine, here at ITM we all have our personal preferences — but the team at Onbuy.com has mapped out the data using Google search to figure out the most popular Disney villain by country.
Well, it’s good news all round for fans of The Lion King as Scar takes the top spot in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. In fact, of all the countries assessed as part of the study, only Spain, France, and Italy didn’t crown Scar as the most popular Disney bad guy!
Related: Disney reveals how Scar from The Lion King actually got his scar
Both Aladdin‘s Jafar and the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland take second place in the United States — with Jafar going on to take second place in another 14 countries, as well!
Beauty and the Beast‘s Gaston also had a big role in the study, taking the third spot globally and coming in second in both Indonesia and the United Kingdom.
Here’s a global summary of the top 10:
- Scar from The Lion King
- Jafar from Aladdin
- Gaston from Beauty and the Beast
- Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland
- Hades from Hercules
- Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty
- Captain Hook from Peter Pan
- Clayton from Tarzan
- Mother Gothel from Tangled
- Prince John from Robin Hood
It is certainly a surprise not to see villains like Ursula (The Little Mermaid), Yzma (The Emporer’s New Groove), The Evil Queen (Snow White), and Cruella de Vil (101 Dalmations) not make it into the top 10!
Here’s how the team conducted the research:
- The team  compiled a list of famous Disney villains to produce a final list of 16 villains
- Once the Disney villains were found, the team analyzed the 20 countries that currently have access to Disney+. Countries and areas, where data was not available, were excluded from the study, including Isle of Man, Monaca, Wallis and Futuna, West Indies, French Guiana, and New Caledonia.
- Data was then gathered using SEMrush to discover the search volumes of each Disney character and the film they starred in. They were then able to rank the Disney Villains and discover each country’s top three favorite Disney villains.
Do you have a favorite Disney villain and importantly, did they make the list? Let us know in the comments below!