LoL rank distribution, explained: League solo queue tier statistics

There's plenty of players to beat above you.

The Victorious Anivia skin in League of Legends, a ranked reward in 2023.
Image via Riot Games

Millions of League of Legends players join the season-long grind to Challenger every year, with thousands pouring into solo queue-ranked games at any given minute. These millions quickly find themselves spread across the competitive standings, with only the very best breaking beyond Diamond and above.

Recommended Videos

While you may not have achieved Challenger glory yet, your placements into Gold are just as exciting, and now you’re left wondering just how high that leaves you.

The distribution of players across each of the 10 ranks can often be incredibly stark, with most League solo queue players sitting in the lower tiers. Only a select few ever climb high enough to reach the upper echelons.

Here’s how League’s rank distribution works and where the most players are.

How rank distribution works in League

Singed running with bees coming out of hive on the back.
League players grind each day to reach higher rankings. Image via Riot Games

League has a spread of players across several competitive tiers that make up the solo queue standings. All up, there are 10 different ranks League players can earn.

The tiers, ranking from highest to lowest, are:

  • Challenger
  • Grandmaster
  • Master
  • Diamond
  • Emerald
  • Platinum
  • Gold
  • Silver
  • Bronze
  • Iron

Players climb (or drop) between ranks depending on how well (or poorly) each ranked game goes. The more you win, the faster you’ll climb.

League’s rank distribution, by the numbers

Here is the overall rank distribution in League, courtesy of the stat tracking site League of Graphs, which keeps an up-to-date count of each rank’s population and how it compares to the overall player base across competitive play.

Solo queue rank distribution

RankDistribution percentage
Challenger0.024 percent
Grandmaster0.061 percent
Master0.47 percent
Diamond4.1 percent
Emerald12 percent
Platinum19 percent
Gold20 percent
Silver18 percent
Bronze18 percent
Iron6.9 percent

Flex queue rank distribution

RankDistribution percentage
Challenger0.010 percent
Grandmaster0.027 percent
Master0.22 percent
Diamond3.9 percent
Emerald16 percent
Platinum19 percent
Gold16 percent
Silver17 percent
Bronze18 percent
Iron6.9 percent

Perhaps most stunning is less than one percent of the total player base plays in the Challenger, Grandmaster, and Master tiers. Despite making up nearly a third of the available ranks in League, only a handful of players make it that high in their ranked climb, which just shows how tough it is to reach them. About four percent of the game’s player base is Diamond or higher.

A majority of the League community can be found between Bronze, Silver, and Gold, with 56 percent of players between those three ranks. Although Platinum is technically the halfway point between the lower ranks and upper ranks, there is an uneven number of players populating the lower ranks.

If you’ve ever wondered why you rarely play with the same players two games in a row, it’s likely because so many share the same rank.

Author
Image of Michael Kelly
Michael Kelly
Staff Writer covering World of Warcraft and League of Legends, among others. Mike's been with Dot since 2020, and has been covering esports since 2018.
Author
Image of Isaac McIntyre
Isaac McIntyre
Isaac McIntyre is the Aussie Editor at Dot Esports. He previously worked in sports journalism at Fairfax Media in Mudgee and Newcastle for six years before falling in love with esports—an ever-evolving world he's been covering since 2018. Since joining Dot, he's twice been nominated for Best Gaming Journalist at the Australian IT Journalism Awards and continues to sink unholy hours into losing games as a barely-Platinum AD carry. When the League servers go down he'll sneak in a few quick hands of the One Piece card game. Got a tip for us? Email: isaac@dotesports.com.
Author
Image of Mateusz Miter
Mateusz Miter
Freelance Writer at Dot Esports. Mateusz previously worked for numerous outlets and gaming-adjacent companies, including ESL. League of Legends or CS:GO? He loves them both. In fact, he wonders which game he loves more every day. He wanted to go pro years ago, but somewhere along the way decided journalism was the more sensible option—and he was right.