It took six years for a ranked mode to be added to Fortnite but it’s never too late to show who’s the best. Epic Games gave players four different ranked modes with Chapter Four Season Three: three in the battle royale and one in Zero Build mode.
The competitive scene was kept alive through the Arena mode and tournaments, but the current ranked mode replaced it all. Gone are the Hype system, Divisions, and Leagues. Now players can ascend through the usual ranks known from other competitive games such as Bronze, Silver, and Gold, up to Unreal.
We’ve presented all ranks and what modes you can play, plus the rules of a ranked match so you can reach Unreal in the next season.
All Fortnite ranked modes
You can participate in four ranked modes in Fortnite. Battle Royale has three ranked modes, while Zero Build has one. There is no difference between unraked and ranked gameplay. To participate in a ranked match, you just need to enable Ranked in the Lobby and start competing in the highly-competitive mode.
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If you are a new Fortnite player, you’ll need to complete the Outlast 500 opponents quest before you are able to play ranked mode.
These ranks are separated between modes, so you won’t have the same rank for battle royale and Zero Build. Here are all the available ranked modes in Fortnite:
Battle Royale
- Solo
- Duos
- Squads
Zero Build
- Duos
All ranks in Fortnite ranked modes
There are eight ranks you can climb in Fortnite ranked mode. Your initial rank will be decided on your first-ranked match based on your last match’s performance. Each rank has three levels you need to reach before moving to the next, except for Elite, Champion, and Unreal.
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Here are all Fortnite ranks in order:
- Bronze
- Silver
- Gold
- Platinum
- Diamond
- Elite
- Champion
- Unreal
Once you reach Unreal rank, you won’t need to worry about deranking for the rest of the Season and will enter the list of the Unreal global players. You can check the live leaderboard in Fortnite‘s website.
If you are a shy and don’t want your Epic display name in the leaderboard, you can change that. Open the game and head to the Account and Privacy settings. On the “Gameplay Privacy” section, turn off the “Public Game Stats.”
Fortnite ranked rules
The way you rank up is dependent on you match placement and how many eliminations you or your team got in the match. The later you make into any given match, the more valuable each of the eliminations you get is. These calculations also take into consideration the rank of the player or team eliminated.
If you are playing Duos or Squads, all team members’ progress will be calculated and equality distributed. The rank of the team is based on the team’s highest-ranked player, but each player will mantain their respective rank.
This is important when thinking about matchmaking. If you have a Bronze player teamed up with a Silver, your team will be ranked as Silver and will be matchmaked accordingly; bad news for the Bronze player.
When playing Fortnite ranked, you’ll only play against other players playing ranked. As mentioned before, the features won’t change, except for some balancing caps:
- Material cap of 500.
- Competitive (increased) farming rate.
- Players drop 50 of each material upon elimination.
- No siphon on elimination.
If you are trying to rank up fast, it appears lategame eliminations—when there are eight to 10 players left—matter more to the rank progresion calculation. So if you place quite highly in a Fortnite competitive lobby but only get a few eliminations, you won’t progress up the ladder as much if you get the same placement but with a lot of eliminations.
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Because of that, we recommend training aim and going for kills, that will put you in more danger of elimination, but will rank you up faster and eventually lead you to better placements. You can’t be the best if you stay hidden.
