League Of Legends Ranks Explained & Demystified
For the new player, the League of Legends ranks can seem very confusing at first. With so many shiny symbols from Iron to Challenger, it can be hard to understand what they mean and which is the best. With the most recent changes both in 2023 and 2024 it's even more confusing to understand how and what affects your placement games.
The first thing you have to know is that climbing League Ranks is not a linear process. If you take a look at player distribution below you will see that significantly more players are in middle divisions than in the outer edges - Iron and Master+. What this means for your climb is that it's significantly easier to make good progress early and get "stuck" once you start sliding down the bell curve from Gold to Platinum, Emerald and especially Diamond.

All League of Legends Ranks and distribution of players
Here are all LoL ranks from the highest ranks to the lowest division. We have also noted down the Rank distribution for each Rank e.g. Gold 2 (3.9%) and for each tier e.g. entire Gold Division (18%). Keep in mind that League of Legends ranking system progresses from the higher number division to the lower number so once you hit 100 League Points in Gold 2 you will be automatically promoted to Gold 1 without any promotion games required. As you can see all ranks consist of four divisions with the exception of the Master, GrandMaster and Challenger which just show you LP you have gained since you entered Master with no cap on how many league points you can have.
Tier | Rank | Rank % | Tier % |
---|---|---|---|
![]() | Challenger | 0.017% | 0.017% |
![]() | GrandMaster | 0.051% | 0.051% |
![]() | Master | 0.26% | 0.26% |
![]() | Diamond I | 0.21% | 2.7% |
Diamond II | 0.39% | ||
Diamond III | 0.64% | ||
Diamond IV | 1.4% | ||
![]() | Emerald I | 0.89% | 7.9% |
Emerald II | 1.4% | ||
Emerald III | 2.0% | ||
Emerald IV | 3.5% | ||
![]() | Platinum I | 1.4% | 12% |
Platinum II | 2.3% | ||
Platinum III | 3.0% | ||
Platinum IV | 5.2% | ||
![]() | Gold I | 2.5% | 18% |
Gold II | 3.9% | ||
Gold III | 4.7% | ||
Gold IV | 7.3% | ||
![]() | Silver I | 3.5% | 22% |
Silver II | 5.1% | ||
Silver III | 5.8% | ||
Silver IV | 7.9% | ||
![]() | Bronze I | 4.0% | 21% |
Bronze II | 5.3% | ||
Bronze III | 5.3% | ||
Bronze IV | 6.3% | ||
![]() | Iron I | 2.8% | 14% |
Iron II | 3.6% | ||
Iron III | 4.0% | ||
Iron IV | 4.1% |
How does the LoL Ranking System Work?
For the new player, the League of Legends ranks can seem very confusing at first. With so many shiny symbols from Iron to Challenger, it can be hard to understand what they mean and which is the best, especially once you get out of Gold. The difference between things like Platinum, Emerald and Diamond can feel arbitrary for a new player, even though they're very different battlefields.
The first thing you have to know is that climbing League Ranks is not a linear process. If you take a look at player distribution below, you will see that significantly more players are in middle divisions than in the outer edges - Iron and Master+. What this means for your climb is that it's significantly easier to make good progress early and get "stuck" once you start sliding down the bell curve from Gold to Platinum, Emerald and especially Diamond.
All League of Legends Ranks and Distribution of Players
Here are all LoL ranks from the highest ranks to the lowest division. We have also noted down the Rank distribution for each Rank e.g. Gold 2 (3.6%) and for each tier e.g. entire Gold Division (17%). Keep in mind that League of Legends ranking system progresses from the higher number division to the lower number, so once you hit 100 League Points in Gold 2 you will be automatically promoted to Gold 1 without any promotion games required.
All ranks consist of four divisions with the exception of the Master, GrandMaster and Challenger which just show you LP you have gained since you entered the division, and how many LP you need to ascend to the next rank.

If you want a more detailed breakdown of this distribution, be sure to check out the dedicated article for rank distribution.
What are League Points - Ranked System Explained
League points (LP) are points you gain for winning games, which ultimately decide your elo. The amount you get varies based on your MMR, a function of where the system thinks you should be placed in, rather than the rank you're currently in. (read more about how this works here).
You can find the indepth math on how MMR affects your rank here. The basic idea is that the MMR of all members of your team is added together and compared to the enemy team's MMR. If there was large discrepancy between the two, you will gain or lose more points. Similarly, if your visual rank is lower and doesn't match your hidden MMR ranking, you will gain less points for winning games, and losing more points every time you're defeated.
The objective of this is to "pull down" or "raise up" players who have had their elo massively changed by large winning streaks or losing streaks. MMR can generally be raised by playing normal games, or having LP changes on your account.
How Many League Points Should You Get per Match?
As mentioned before, the answer to this is very unhelpful: It depends. However, we fortunately know exactly how much it depends, which you can judge from your LP gains after winning a ranked game:
- Less than 20 LP: Your rank is inflated and is at least 4 divisions higher than it should be.
- 20-24 LP: Your MMR is slightly lower than normal.
- 24-27 LP: Your MMR is normal for your rank.
- 28-30 LP: You have higher than average MMR
- 30-33 LP: You are at least 3-4 divisions lower than your visual rank.
- 33+ LP: You are hardcore smurfing, and are at least 4+ divisions too low.
A similar pattern can be observed for losses, so we will not lay it out. A base amount you should be losing per loss with normal MMR is about 21-25 LP.
How to gain more League Points (LP)? It's very simple. Win games, try not to lose and your MMR and LP gains will improve over time. However, keep in mind that MMR changes way more slowly than your LP.
If you're improving faster than your MMR is, we highly recommend you check out our Elo Boosting Services where we can pair you up with high elo players in the same team. We even offer coaching services at the same time!
What can you expect after Placement Games?
UnrankedSmurfs sells, ranks and levels thousands of accounts each year, so it's quite important for us to commit this knowledge to heart. Predicting how much time we'll need to rank up an account is one of the basic steps of our process.
First off, let's start with how you are placed before your ranked climb even begins. Since patch 14.15, there's a requirement of 10 normal Summoner's Rift games before you can even enter ranked queues. These are used to calculate a starting MMR, which will be used during your initial placement matches. In this instance, not only wins and losses are taken in account for your MMR, but also your KDA ratio.
If you want to learn more about how important these first 10 games are, read more on our standalone article for them.
The TLDR is that, if your account has not played ANY normal games at all prior, you can expect these results:
Amount of Wins | Expected MMR (Assuming you win all placements) |
0-4 Wins | Iron 1 / Bronze 1 |
5-6 Wins | Silver 4-1 |
7-9 Wins | Gold 4/3 |
10 Wins | Gold 2/1 |
When do Ranks Reset?
Ranks in League of Legends are not permanent. While there is no way of resetting it on your end, or for Riot Games to reset it manually, higher ranks do naturally decay, and all ranks are reset with the starts and ends of splits, which affect both the competitive scene and the casual scene.
This demotion at the end of a split brings you down to Unranked, and has you play your placement matches again. Your prior MMR carries over, although how much does carry over depends on the type of ranked reset. Larger resets will take in account your prior MMR less and less, although it's now standard practice to have three splits per year that do more of a "soft reset" on your MMR.
Hard ranked resets happen as League of Legends ranked seasons end, and a new preseason starts anew.
Soft ranked resets are now done after each split ends, three times a year. Hard ranked resets happen at the start of each new season, once a year during early January.
LEAGUE OF LEGENDS RANKS EXPLAINED
UNRANKED - UNKNOWN
Unranked simply means you haven't played enough ranked games to qualify for any rank. Although it's technically not a rank, all fresh level 30 accounts start off unranked, and you must finish your 10 placement matches before you receive your rank.
Since most tracking websites only track ranked players and not normal matches, it's impossible to accurately determine how many unranked players there are. The only way to find out for sure would be if Riot released the actual figures, or developed an API to access them.
It's important to remember that new accounts are being made every single day for new players and smurfs. With this constant influx of new accounts being created, it makes it almost impossible to get an accurate number. Not to mention that at the end of every season, all accounts get reset back to unranked.
When we say its impossible to tell how many players are unranked, we genuinely mean it.
Iron Rank - 19%

Iron has a remarkably low population. This is where the worst of the worst players end up, and you might have a difficult time climbing out. That being said, Iron players are generally less toxic and communicative than Bronze ones.
The lower ladders of Iron will be full of players that, despite playing a lot of games, still fail to grasp the basic mechanics such as farming or objectives. Your enemies are also likely to be bad at the game, which would normally be a good thing, if it wasn't for the fact that mistakes committed in Iron are almost never present in other divisions. You won't necessarily learn very much playing in Iron.
If you really want to be good, you've got to play against worthy foes. This is where owning a smurf account could be useful.
Smurfing doesn't always mean that you play on a lower level account. You'll be surprised at just how many tips you can pick up from being beaten by people who are better than you. On top of that, a lot of streamers use these deranked accounts to do challenges, such as Iron 4 to Challenger.
You can buy Iron rank LoL accounts here!
Bronze Rank - 19%

Bronze division is the second lowest possible division in the League of Legends ranks. Almost 2 out of 10 characters sit somewhere in Bronze. Due to this large demographic, the number of reasons a player may find themselves here are varied.
Most people in Bronze may not necessarily take the game very seriously, leaving gaping flaws in their gameplay style that they don't address, or they make take the game too seriously, easily getting tilted and surrendering early, or even ragequitting. Most people fall in the former— casual players that don't necessarily pride themselves too much on gameplay, and naturally wind up in Bronze.
The reason most of these casual players end up in Bronze is because of the ranked system. Even if a brand new account wins all 10 of their placements, there's still a really high chance they'll still get put in Bronze. The only way to guarantee you don't get placed in it is to have an account that used to be in Gold or above.
This is because the ranking system ranks you based on your previous rank. If you don't have a previous rank and have never played ranked before, then it's likely to put you in Bronze just to be safe. The last thing it wants to do is put you in Gold if you're going to get stomped every match.
If you happen to be placed in Bronze league after your placements then good luck, there's a very high chance that you'll still be in that division by the end of the season. Even though you can be a positive force in your team, a lot of matches will feel unwinnable.
To get out of Bronze, it's generally easier to buy a League of Legends account and try your placements again. If all else fails, you might have to switch up your pool to higher agency champions.
Hey it could be worse though, you could be in Iron. (Which despite being the stronger of the two metals, is lower on the ladder for some reason?)
You can buy Bronze rank LoL accounts here!
Silver Rank - 19%

Silver is generally considered to be somewhere in the middle of skill curve, with your average, relatively new player being able to snugly place into Silver. If you've landed here, congratulations!—you're perfectly average, sitting in the top 50% of players.
If you win 6 or more of your 10 initial placement matches, then there's a good chance that you will be placed in one of the 4 Silver divisions. Unlike Bronze, if you happen to be placed in this after your placements, you stand a good chance of getting out. It's not exactly the end of the world if you end up in Silver division, but you're still going to need improvement to get to Gold.
It's also worth noting that over the last couple of years, the population of Bronze used to be almost half of all players instead of Silver. There's a few theories as to why this could be happening, but we like to be optimistic and think people are just naturally getting better at the game. The worse alternative is a lack of new players in the game.
Silver division will still be full of trolls, AFKs and bad players, but here will be nowhere near as many compared to lower divisions. By focusing on your game and taking every opportunity to learn that arises, you'll quickly be on your way to Gold or above.
You can buy Silver rank LoL accounts here! We also have a comprehensive guide on getting from Silver to Gold, if you're interested in doing it the good ol' fashioned way.
Gold Rank - 17%

For many players in League of Legends this is the division they want to be in by the end of the ranked season, since it represents the better third of most "casual" players, and gives you easier access to ranked rewards such as Victorious skins.
There's a good chance that most competent players playing casually will end up somewhere in here. They definitely have the potential and base to become a great player, but they may not necessarily be in a position to spend that much time in the game, or they may not want to take it too seriously.
If you win 7 or more of your placement matches, then there's a good chance you'll be placed in Gold division, depending on your previous seasons. If you have a brand-new account then even winning all 10 matches won't guarantee you a place, though.
You can buy Gold rank LoL accounts here! We also have a comprehensive guide on getting from Gold to Platinum, if you're interested in doing it the good ol' fashioned way.
Platinum Rank - 11%

Platinum division is a relatively respectable division in the League of Legends ranks. If you're currently in it, then you should be proud! Being in Platinum represents being in the top ~25% of all players.
Platinum division is the highest division which you can be placed in after your initial 10 placements. If you have been in Silver or Gold in previous seasons then you can actually get placed in up to Platinum I after your 10 placement matches. Plat players will also find an easier time finding their way to their home division after a split or season end.
If you've already made it to Platinum then there's a good chance that you can actually make it to Diamond. With some hard work, practice, and good luck, you can quickly climb the ranks.
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Emerald Rank - 8.3%

The newest addition to the ranked ladder, introduced in 2023. Emerald is where the curve starts to close out once again, inhabited by semi-decent players who play frequently, or very good players that haven't played enough ranked games to break into the higher tiers.
Emerald represents the top 10% of players, and the percentage of players in each higher tier of Emerald gets tighter and tighter. If you sit somewhere in the higher tiers of this bracket, you start to be what most people would consider a great player. Pat yourself on the back!
Toxicity spikes in this rank, since people are so close to the cutoff point of Diamond. Keep your wits about you, and the mute button at the ready.
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Diamond Rank - 2.7%

With a distribution of 2.7%, we're starting to get into the high tiers. If you're in this division then good job, you are way above the average! People who can get to Diamond reliably can start thinking of making some money on the side through things like ranking accounts, coaching, boosting or even streaming.
For many players, Diamond division is their ultimate goal, as everything after this is just way too hard to reach unless you're an extremely dedicated player. For a casual player who fires off an hour or two a day on League, Diamond is going to be their reasonable peak. If you want to take it to the next level then you better consider quitting your job or dropping out of school as it gets considerably harder after this division.s it gets considerably harder after this division.
In order to fund their journey, many players turn to streaming at this point. Streaming allows players to show off their skills, while attracting viewers that help them generate income. This is primarily done through adverts and subscriptions. If you really want to reach the high tiers of master and above, then you'll have to play several hours a day.
You can buy Diamond rank LoL accounts here!
Master Rank - 0.60%

If you thought the other divisions were hard to get into, then think again. With a distribution of only 0.60% this means that only 1 in every 167 players make it to Master division.
Master division was recently introduced a few seasons ago as there were way too many people in Diamond. Back in the day, hundreds of players would be patiently waiting to be promoted to Challenger but there weren't enough spaces. This meant Diamond became highly overcrowded and if you were inactive for a week your ranking would dramatically drop. To fix the problem Riot introduced a new tier in between which is now Master.
This ultimately solved the problem, as it allowed players to progress to a higher tier without a cap before trying to get into the final division. This new tier makes reaching Challenger even more impressive as it's another hurdle to jump before getting on the home straight. If you've made it to Master then you should consider yourself as one of the best.
From here on out, the standards for promoting change a little bit. To rank up from Master to Grandmaster, you need to reach 200 LP within Master, and you must have gained more LP in the split than the lowest Grandmaster player in your region. What this means is that, if your total LP gain in the split sits at around +220 LP, and there's a Grandmaster player who has gained only +180 LP this split, you will rank up while the Grandmaster player in question is demoted down back to Master.
This system aims to promote constant cutthroat competition, but it also means you have to play a LOT while maintaining a positive winrate to stay in Master, Grandmaster or Challenger. Game knowledge isn't the only bottleneck here, these ranks are gatekept by having to spend at least 3-6 hours on the game daily.
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Grandmaster Rank - 0.068%

If you've managed to make it this far, then you've got a pretty decent chance of being scouted out by a pro eSports team. This means that you could potentially be playing alongside some of your favorite famous players! Of course, you've still got one hell of a climb before you reach the summit of Challenger
It's essential to play regularly in this tier. If you fail to do so, you'll quickly find yourself slipping back down the ranked ladder due to rank decay and the aforementioned promotion/demotion system. Only the most determined of players manage to keep this position for a long time.
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Challenger Rank - 0.028%

We've reached the top of Mount Everest. Challenger is by far the hardest division to get into, with only 1 player out of 3571 being able to place anywhere within the division. If you've made it to Challenger, then you could most likely try out for a professional eSports team.
Many Challenger players are actually scouted by professional teams when they need to find some new talent. Considering how hard it is to get into this division, many players at least partly rely on League of Legends for income as it can take many hours a day to maintain their rank. Not playing for just a few days can see your drop a number of places.
If you really want to show off to your friends, then getting to Challenger is the best way. Even if you're number 200 for only 1 day, at least you can say you made it to Challenger!
Reaching Challenger is an awesome achievement and you should certainly let everyone know about it. If you don't already have a Challenger t-shirt or hoodie then you should definitely get one. Not only will people look up to you, but when the ranks reset at least you'll have something to cherish forever. The might be able to take away your rank but they'll never take your limited edition Challenger hoodie!
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DESTROY THE LOL RANKS
So there you have it, all the ranks in League of Legends from Bronze to Challenger. Hopefully, now you understand how hard certain divisions are to reach and what the ranks in League of Legends mean. The next time someone brags to you about being in Silver, tell them how little it means! If they really want to impress someone then they need to be at least Platinum or higher.