Favourite Superheroes of 2021

New research from Ebuyer reveals which superheroes we have been talking about the most this past year, and which ones we love and hate the most.

• Your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man was the most talked-about superhero over the past year, generating over 2.4m conversations online
• The lethal Black Widow was revealed as one of our favourite superheroes, with DC’s Wonder Woman revealed as our most hated

Superhero movies have become some of the biggest cinematic events of the year, with films like Avengers: End Game and Spider-Man: No Way Home breaking records for highest-grossing opening weekends in history, and others generating huge amounts of hype in the run-up to their releases like The Batman and Thor: Love and Thunder.

By using Linkfluence data on 25 of the most popular superheroes in the world2, Ebuyer has revealed which superheroes have generated the most conversations online over the past year, as well as those that are experiencing the most positive and negative sentiment:

The most popular superheroes

Coming in at number one is Spider-Man, with the web-slinger generating 16 million conversations online over the last year. A lot of the talk around Spidey could be about his newest movie Spider-Man: No Way Home, which had the second highest-grossing opening weekend of all time3, raking in more than $260m at the box office!

In 2nd place was Captain Marvel, who generated 7.5m conversations online after her cameo appearance in Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in August last year. In 3rd place comes the self-described “Genius, Billionaire, Playboy, Philanthropist” Iron Man, with the Iron Avenger generating 4.5m conversations online over the past year.

The superheroes we love the most

The extremely funny and chaotic Deadpool, portrayed by fan-favourite actor Ryan Reynolds, took the number one spot as our favourite superhero with 27.7% of his conversations online being of positive sentiment over the last 12 months.

In 2nd place was Black Widow, following her emotional death in End Game; her conversations online were of positive sentiment 19.2% of the time. In 3rd place is Spider-Man, which after generating such a huge number of conversations this year, 16.5% of his conversations online were of positive sentiment over the last year.

The superheroes we have the least love for

In 1st place as the most hated superhero came Wonder Woman, with 18% of her conversations online being of negative sentiment, possibly down to the negative feedback that her Wonder Woman 1984 movie is still receiving from audiences and critics alike.

In 2nd place came Iron Man, with his razor-sharp wit dividing the internet 17.90% of conversations online about him being of negative sentiment. In 3rd place comes a familiar face: Spider-Man! The past year saw Spidey generate the most conversations online and have a large percentage of them be positive, however, he’s clearly a polarising figure with 17% of his conversations online being of negative sentiment.

Commenting on the research, Andy Roberts, E-Commerce Director of Ebuyer, says:

“Superhero movies have become the biggest movies of the year in recent times. With 6 of Marvel’s blockbusters featuring in the top 15 highest-grossing movies of all time, you’ll be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn’t seen at least one superhero flick.

I think this research is very interesting as it allows everyone to see what the internet thinks about their favourite superheroes.”