Judging from the current rosters of the adventure paths I'm currently playing in, and giving a weight of 0.5 to double-classed characters (there aren't any 3+ classed characters in these games), the top three most common are cleric, rogue and a three-way tie with fighter/sorcerer/alchemist. Almost all of the games have a single-classed cleric (although I should note that this is a bit biased because I like playing clerics!).
cleric 6.5
rogue 4
fighter 3.5
sorcerer 3.5
alchemist 3.5
ranger 3
wizard 3
psychic warrior 2
wilder 2
oracle 2
bard 2
paladin 2
barbarian 1
druid 1
incarnate 0.5
monk 0.5
magus 0.5
When I finally compile these I fully expect cleric to top the list, not for love of clerics but because "every party needs a cleric". I am partial to melee classes, but I am honestly surprised that wizard doesn't seem to be higher among forum users.
1. Bard
2. Ranger
3. Cleric
magus
psion
wizard
dming is a nightmare
1. Rogue
2. Fighter or Ranger
3. Sorcerer
(with the caveat that while most people in our group jump up and down and declare 'Oooo I want to play a stealthy sort of guy that sneak attacks', yet struggle to play the characters very effectively. Me? Dwarf Ranger all the way)
1. Gish (Fighter/mage type, Magus, eldritch knight etc.)
2. Rogue
3. Wizard
No particular order
Witch
Paladin
Wizard
Cleric
Sorc
Paladin
In order:
Ranger
Bard (carrying happysticks - hate that that's how my group does their healing, but oh well.)
Sorcerer
Sorcerer only beat Fighter by 1 in a survey of the last 6 AP's I've DM'd (still have yet to be able to join one as a player myself though :-( )
Sorcerer (including my current crush, Dragon Disciple)
Druid
Wizard
From what I recall, in the 5 adventure paths I've been in...
4 Fighters
3 Rogues
2 Summoners, Sorcerers, Rangers, Paladins, Monks, and Bards
1 Witch, Magus, Inquisitor, Druid, Cleric, & Cavalier
In the current Kingmaker game, the first Rogue in the group died and the player brought in a second, so it could be seen as 4 Rogues total.
The game just before Pathfinder had a core of a Fighter, a Cleric, and a Wizard/Rogue/Arcane Trickster. IIRC there was also a Druid and an other Wizard that briefly showed up.
The results are a little skewed do to one person's fixation on rogue.
Rogue
Sorcerer
Cleric
Thats been over the years we started in 3.5. Now that we are playing pathfinder oricle seems to be replacing cleric.
There is always a...:
1) Druid (the g/f has always played a druid with the exception of maybe 2 one-shots)
2) Rogue (frequently multiclassed with fighter it seems; one guy always rolls one, and if he doesn't, he asks to reroll one a few sessions in)
3) Third place is probably a tie between Ranger and Barbarian.
Third place is mostly my fault, as those are classes I like to play. The 4th player typically plays whatever he thinks is the most different from what he played last time, so he helps with some randomness.
We find druids to be adequate healers and switch-hitters in smaller groups, and rogues (when multiclassed as they are) tend to make decent damage dealers.
Thank you to the people who posted ONLY THREE classes, or at least clarified the top three.
Well, one of the current campaigns I'm in skews the data because it's specifically an all-spellcaster game, but... dipping back to D&D for some rounding out, I'd say...
1. Cleric
2. Rogue
3. Wizard
Ranger would probably be next in popularity.
Monk
Fighter
Barbarian
(I think)
We're a pretty relatively new group, so we've had more of a chance to let the newer classes shine alongside the older ones.
1. Magus
2. Cleric
3. Fighter
I will fully disclose that the magus on that list is almost entirely because of a single player in the group. For whatever reason, only one of her characters has been something OTHER than a magus.
I misread the initial post as asking for the classes I have played personally.
Most played by my group/s:
1. Sorcerer - had one player who ALWAYS played a sorc unless you threatened him with something, then he jumped to monk. Unless of course you allowed psionics.
2. Rogue - Every party's had one save one, that I can think of.
3. Warlock - 3.5 version popped up pretty frequently in my pre-Pathfinder games.
1. Ranger
2. Cleric
3. Wizard
My group of friends seem to love the idea of the ranger. Clerics are often played because someone sees a need for a healer. A couple times we had healing covered by a different class and someone decided to play a more combat focused cleric, so that keeps them near the top. But we always have a ranger (or sometimes more than one) in the group.
Barbarian, fighter, and paladins together would out number the wizards, but when you split them up the wizards are more common. We have only had one sorcerer played.
Since starting Pathfinder we've got a lot of ties so I'll just give the break down. This is between our RotRL, CotCT, Jade Regent and one home brew games.
Fighter: 3
Druid: 3
Monk: 2
Rogue: 2
Bard: 2
Barbarian: 1
Wizard: 1
Cleric: 1
Ranger: 1
Sorcerer: 1
Witch: 1
Inquisitor: 1
Magus: 1
Ninja: 1
The most played in my campaigns (including older editions of D&D):
1.- Fighter
2.- Rogue
3.- Cleric
If we consider only Pathfinder:
1.- Fighter
2.- Sorcerer
3.- Rogue
From what I recall, in the 5 adventure paths I've been in...
And it appears I did not recall correctly, so my adjusted list is as follows (adjustments italicized)
4 Fighters
3 Rogues
2 Witch, Summoners, Sorcerers, Rangers, Paladins, Oracles, Monks, and Bards
1 Magus, Inquisitor, Druid, Cleric, Cavalier, & Alchemist
And Ciaran, I do apologize for listing 16 out of the 19 available classes, but when you get 8 classes ties for third place...