Dragon Ball's strongest character(s) CURRENTLY (Potentially spoilery)

[Emmeth]

Being caught up, the 5 strongest characters right now:

1. Freeza
2. Goku/Vegeta
3. Vegeta/Goku
4. Granolah
5. Jiren or Broly

These are alive characters so Gas does not count.

 

[GreatSaiyaman123]

Excluding Beerus and other gods:

1. Freeza
2. Gohan
3/4. Goku/Vegeta (Tie)
5. Piccolo

I’m not sure if Piccolo is above Granolah, but I do think Granolah has died of old age already.

 

[Emmeth]

I think there's a reason why Goku and Vegeta wasn't involved in Super Hero, that being they would mop the floor with anyone in the RRA including interrupted Cell Max. I still think they trump Gohan and especially Piccolo.

 

[GreatSaiyaman123]

I think there's a reason why Goku and Vegeta wasn't involved in Super Hero, that being they would mop the floor with anyone in the RRA including interrupted Cell Max. I still think they trump Gohan and especially Piccolo.

Piccolo says in the movie not even Goku and Vegeta could defeat Cell Max, and that the Gammas would give them trouble. Toriyama himself has said Piccolo is up there with Goku now, so I wouldn’t say they trump him by that much if at all. I think AT might have said he just gave Piccolo and Gohan the main role to change things up a bit.

But that’s for the movie. In the manga, it seems like Piccolo hasn’t seen Goku and Vegeta since the Moro Saga. So maybe he doesn’t know about Ultra Ego and True UI and them vs Gohan could go either way, but I’ll give it to Gohan for narrative purposes.