On tableau public, Skyler Johnson has created a handy data set that calculates the number of times each spell was used in all seven Harry Potter novels! It’s extremely handy and also very pretty.
The chart itself can be sorted by “Most Occurrences” and “Order of Appearance.” It’s important to note that none of the non-verbal spells were included in this data set, only spells that were spoken aloud. Perhaps not surprisingly, the spells that we see used most often are commonly used by Harry and his friends as means of non-violent resistance; Expecto Patronum; Expelliarmus; Stupefy. The Killing Curse appears sixth down on the list, which is fascinating–it is technically speaking the “most evil” of all the dark magic spells, and it is the most often used.
The rest of the chart can be found on tableau public, where you can fiddle around with the data and check all the citations!
So if you only learn one, make it Accio or Lumos. Might be handy to remember in role-playing.
A pity he didn’t include Cursed Child too.
Hah, Eat Slugs is on there :) I love the tooltips!
does it tally successful spells or attempted ones? wouldn’t there also be plenty which also fell between the two?
I checked for one: locomotor mortis. It is used once according to the infographic, but the example quoted is only a mention of the spell. But close to this part is an actual use of the spell, except it’s under its English name, “leg-locker curse”. Harry also fires one at Malfoy in HBP, also mentioned under the English name, and the infographic doesn’t mention it. On the same page, Malfoy attempts a crucio, but he’s interrupted by Harry’s Sectum Sempra: it doesn’t appear in the chart.
So it seems Skyler Johnson just looked for the number of occurrences of the exact incantation, whether it’s cast or not, and not for the actual uses of the spells. But doing it properly would raise its own problems: should we count the spells for which we see the consequences only and thus know it was indeed cast? What if we are told it was cast, so the name of the spell is mentioned too? What if the spell appears in a flashback? What if it’s attempted but is interrupted? What if it’s cast but doesn’t hit a target? So this method is not ideal, but the others are not necessarily better.