League of Legends Rank Distribution in Seasons 11 and 12

League of Legends Rank Distribution in Seasons 11 and 12

The League of Legends rank distribution and percentage of players by tier during Seasons 11 and 12. Solo queue data on the entire player base in all regions.

Thanks to the API implemented by Riot, we have access to reliable statistics on the player distribution by tier. There are several websites that gather and share these data; after examining the most reliable ones, I concluded that there are almost no differences among their tools.

If you notice small percentage gaps, they are probably due to the servers considered and to the last update of their services. Even 30 minutes can create a minimum discrepancy.

The statistics in the graph and the table below consider all the regions and only the ranks in solo queue.

All the League of Legends ranked seasons

I had to split this analysis into multiple articles due to the excessive number of tables and graphs, which resulted in very long loading times.


Season 12

November 2022

League of Legends rank distribution November 2022 Season 12
Rank Percentage Rank Percentage Rank Percentage
Iron IV 0.37% Silver II 8.1% Diamond IV 0.70%
Iron III 0.58% Silver I 6.5% Diamond III 0.33%
Iron II 1.1% Gold IV 12% Diamond II 0.44%
Iron I 2.0% Gold III 5.1% Diamond I 0.26%
Bronze IV 5.5% Gold II 4.5% Master 0.18%
Bronze III 5.2% Gold I 3.1% GrandMaster 0.026%
Bronze II 6.7% Platinum IV 5.6% Challenger 0.011%
Bronze I 7.0% Platinum III 1.9%
Silver IV 11% Platinum II 1.4%
Silver III 7.2% Platinum I 1.8%

Distribution:

  • Iron: 4.1%

  • Bronze: 24%

  • Silver: 33%

  • Gold: 24%

  • Platinum: 10%

  • Diamond: 1.7%

  • Master: 0.18%

  • GrandMaster: 0.026%

  • Challenger: 0.011%

Top percentage of players

Rank Top% Rank Top% Rank Top%
Iron IV 98.55 Silver II 51.9 Diamond IV 1.9
Iron III 98.18 Silver I 43.8 Diamond III 1.24
Iron II 97.6 Gold IV 37.3 Diamond II 0.91
Iron I 96.5 Gold III 25.3 Diamond I 0.47
Bronze IV 94.5 Gold II 20.2 Master 0.21
Bronze III 89 Gold I 15.7 GrandMaster 0.037
Bronze II 83.8 Platinum IV 12.6 Challenger 0.011
Bronze I 77.1 Platinum III 7
Silver IV 70.1 Platinum II 5.1
Silver III 59.1 Platinum I 3.7

August 2022

League of Legends rank distribution August 2022 Season 12
Rank Percentage Rank Percentage Rank Percentage
Iron IV 0.35% Silver II 8.2% Diamond IV 0.65%
Iron III 0.61% Silver I 6.8% Diamond III 0.34%
Iron II 1.2% Gold IV 11% Diamond II 0.41%
Iron I 2.2% Gold III 5.0% Diamond I 0.28%
Bronze IV 5.7% Gold II 4.5% Master 0.16%
Bronze III 5.3% Gold I 3.2% GrandMaster 0.030%
Bronze II 6.9% Platinum IV 5.1% Challenger 0.012%
Bronze I 7.3% Platinum III 1.9%
Silver IV 11% Platinum II 1.4%
Silver III 7.3% Platinum I 1.6%

Distribution:

  • Iron: 4.5%

  • Bronze: 25%

  • Silver: 33%

  • Gold: 24%

  • Platinum: 10%

  • Diamond: 1.7%

  • Master: 0.16%

  • GrandMaster: 0.030%

  • Challenger: 0.012%

Top percentage of players

Rank Top% Rank Top% Rank Top%
Iron IV 98.36 Silver II 50.5 Diamond IV 1.8
Iron III 98.01 Silver I 42.3 Diamond III 1.23
Iron II 97.4 Gold IV 35.5 Diamond II 0.89
Iron I 96.2 Gold III 24.5 Diamond I 0.48
Bronze IV 94 Gold II 19.5 Master 0.20
Bronze III 88.3 Gold I 15 GrandMaster 0.042
Bronze II 83 Platinum IV 11.8 Challenger 0.012
Bronze I 76.1 Platinum III 6.7
Silver IV 68.8 Platinum II 4.8
Silver III 57.8 Platinum I 3.4

June 2022

League of Legends rank distribution June 2022 Season 12
Rank Percentage Rank Percentage Rank Percentage
Iron IV 0.33% Silver II 8.3% Diamond IV 0.67%
Iron III 0.62% Silver I 7.0% Diamond III 0.36%
Iron II 1.3% Gold IV 10% Diamond II 0.38%
Iron I 2.4% Gold III 4.9% Diamond I 0.30%
Bronze IV 5.9% Gold II 4.4% Master 0.17%
Bronze III 5.4% Gold I 3.3% GrandMaster 0.032%
Bronze II 7.0% Platinum IV 4.8% Challenger 0.014%
Bronze I 7.5% Platinum III 1.8%
Silver IV 11% Platinum II 1.3%
Silver III 7.4% Platinum I 1.5%

Distribution:

  • Iron: 4.7%

  • Bronze: 26%

  • Silver: 34%

  • Gold: 23%

  • Platinum: 9.6%

  • Diamond: 1.7%

  • Master: 0.17%

  • GrandMaster: 0.032%

  • Challenger: 0.014%

Top percentage of players

Rank Top% Rank Top% Rank Top%
Iron IV 98.05 Silver II 49.2 Diamond IV 1.9
Iron III 97.72 Silver I 40.9 Diamond III 1.25
Iron II 97.1 Gold IV 33.9 Diamond II 0.89
Iron I 95.8 Gold III 23.9 Diamond I 0.51
Bronze IV 93.4 Gold II 19 Master 0.21
Bronze III 87.5 Gold I 14.6 GrandMaster 0.046
Bronze II 82.1 Platinum IV 11.3 Challenger 0.014
Bronze I 75.1 Platinum III 6.5
Silver IV 67.6 Platinum II 4.7
Silver III 56.6 Platinum I 3.4

April 2022

League of Legends rank distribution April 2022 Season 12
Rank Percentage Rank Percentage Rank Percentage
Iron IV 0.28% Silver II 8.5% Diamond IV 0.68%
Iron III 0.61% Silver I 7.4% Diamond III 0.37%
Iron II 1.5% Gold IV 9.8% Diamond II 0.33%
Iron I 2.8% Gold III 4.8% Diamond I 0.29%
Bronze IV 6.1% Gold II 4.4% Master 0.18%
Bronze III 5.6% Gold I 3.4% GrandMaster 0.038%
Bronze II 7.2% Platinum IV 4.2% Challenger 0.016%
Bronze I 8.0% Platinum III 1.7%
Silver IV 10% Platinum II 1.3%
Silver III 7.5% Platinum I 1.2%

Distribution:

  • Iron: 5.3%

  • Bronze: 27%

  • Silver: 34%

  • Gold: 22%

  • Platinum: 8.5%

  • Diamond: 1.6%

  • Master: 0.18%

  • GrandMaster: 0.038%

  • Challenger: 0.016%

Top percentage of players

Rank Top% Rank Top% Rank Top%
Iron IV 98.49 Silver II 48.9 Diamond IV 1.9
Iron III 98.21 Silver I 40.1 Diamond III 1.22
Iron II 97.6 Gold IV 32.7 Diamond II 0.85
Iron I 96.1 Gold III 22.9 Diamond I 0.52
Bronze IV 93.3 Gold II 18.1 Master 0.23
Bronze III 87.2 Gold I 13.7 GrandMaster 0.054
Bronze II 81.6 Platinum IV 10.3 Challenger 0.016
Bronze I 74.4 Platinum III 6.1
Silver IV 66.4 Platinum II 4.4
Silver III 56.4 Platinum I 3.1

Ranked queue health

The following info has been shared when discussing the state of competitive in spring 2022 by Cody “Riot Codebear” Germain, Product Lead for Competitive Gameplay and Behavioral Systems on League of Legends.

Solo/Duo queue status

From a high level viewpoint, Solo/Duo queue is currently in one of the healthiest states we’ve ever seen.

  • Autofill is at its lowest ever global rate hovering between 0.5% and 3% of player games.

  • Queue times are at a 2 year low in many large regions and hovering firm in our small regions.

  • Lastly, MMR accuracy is strong, where 99% of players are playing with those within a maximum of 2 divisions of their rank with a steady win-prediction accuracy to back it up.

That said, we do see issues with Solo/Duo Queue that consistently point to our accommodation of premade duos–this directly adds quality and population volatility into the matchmaking mix.

It causes games with duos of imbalanced MMR to impact our autofill/secondary role rates (sometimes double the chances), queue times (~10 second increase for players per game on average), and most importantly-game quality metrics (upwards of a 10% win-rate spread in both directions).

Ranked Flex queue status

On the flip side, we’ve started to see a significant decline in the health of Ranked Flex queue where queue times (~7 min on average for 3 person parties) and match quality (2-4 division discrepancies between teams) have diverged significantly.

The ironic thing here is that the total population in Ranked Flex remains healthy, but the premade distribution and make-up of that population has shifted to a point where it’s difficult to make matches at a quality bar we’d like.

The root cause of this is the high number of 3 person parties that want to play together, with not enough 1s and 2s to fill them out as these solo/duo players can just opt to play a different game mode. This can cause those matchmaking envelopes to expand to a point where queue times and quality expectations cannot reconcile.

Additionally, the difficulties making quality matches for our most popular premade size amplify the impact of disruptive actors in the queue like boosters (who queue as duos with their boostee) and account sellers (who queue as solo) such that the queue itself overall becomes unhealthy, especially at the top level.

Potential solution

In order to match player intent and provide the healthiest competitive individual queue possible, we’re re-evaluating our take on Solo/Duo and exploring a world where solo players play in solo queue and premades play in Ranked Flex or Organized 5’s modes.

That said, we absolutely want to be confident that our duo population, which is fairly significant in size, can still find a competitive environment before making any large changes to the current systems.

February 2022

League of Legends Rank Distribution February 2022 Season 12
Rank Percentage Rank Percentage Rank Percentage
Iron IV 0.20% Silver II 8.7% Diamond IV 0.68%
Iron III 0.55% Silver I 8.2% Diamond III 0.37%
Iron II 1.6% Gold IV 8.3% Diamond II 0.30%
Iron I 3.5% Gold III 4.5% Diamond I 0.27%
Bronze IV 6.3% Gold II 4.3% Master 0.18%
Bronze III 6.0% Gold I 3.7% GrandMaster 0.046%
Bronze II 7.7% Platinum IV 3.3% Challenger 0.019%
Bronze I 9.0% Platinum III 1.4%
Silver IV 10% Platinum II 1.2%
Silver III 7.7% Platinum I 0.96%

Distribution:

  • Iron: 5.9%

  • Bronze: 29%

  • Silver: 34%

  • Gold: 20%

  • Platinum: 7%

  • Diamond: 1.6%

  • Master: 0.18%

  • GrandMaster: 0.046%

  • Challenger: 0.019%

Top percentage of players

Rank Top% Rank Top% Rank Top%
Iron IV 98.97 Silver II 46.4 Diamond IV 1.86
Iron III 98.77 Silver I 37.7 Diamond III 1.18
Iron II 98.2 Gold IV 29.5 Diamond II 0.81
Iron I 96.6 Gold III 21.2 Diamond I 0.51
Bronze IV 93.1 Gold II 16.7 Master 0.24
Bronze III 86.8 Gold I 12.4 GrandMaster 0.065
Bronze II 80.8 Platinum IV 8.7 Challenger 0.019
Bronze I 73.1 Platinum III 5.4
Silver IV 64.1 Platinum II 4.0
Silver III 54.1 Platinum I 2.8

Season 11

November 2021

Rank Percentage Rank Percentage Rank Percentage
Iron IV 0.13% Silver II 9.1% Diamond IV 0.71%
Iron III 0.25% Silver I 7.2% Diamond III 0.31%
Iron II 0.51% Gold IV 14% Diamond II 0.23%
Iron I 0.92% Gold III 6.3% Diamond I 0.24%
Bronze IV 3.2% Gold II 5.2% Master 0.13%
Bronze III 3.8% Gold I 3.3% GrandMaster 0.025%
Bronze II 5.5% Platinum IV 6.3% Challenger 0.010%
Bronze I 5.9% Platinum III 2.2%
Silver IV 11% Platinum II 1.5%
Silver III 8.4% Platinum I 1.9%

Distribution:

  • Iron: 1.8%

  • Bronze: 18%

  • Silver: 36%

  • Gold: 29%

  • Platinum: 12%

  • Diamond: 1.5%

  • Master: 0.13%

  • GrandMaster: 0.025%

  • Challenger: 0.010%

Top percentage of players

Rank Top% Rank Top% Rank Top%
Iron IV 98.21 Silver II 58.6 Diamond IV 1.65
Iron III 98.09 Silver I 49.5 Diamond III 0.94
Iron II 97.83 Gold IV 42.3 Diamond II 0.63
Iron I 97.32 Gold III 28.3 Diamond I 0.40
Bronze IV 96.4 Gold II 22 Master 0.16
Bronze III 93.2 Gold I 16.8 GrandMaster 0.035
Bronze II 89.4 Platinum IV 13.5 Challenger 0.010
Bronze I 83.9 Platinum III 7.2
Silver IV 78 Platinum II 5.0
Silver III 67 Platinum I 3.5

In October, Cody “Riot Codebear” Germain, Product Lead for Competitive Gameplay on League of Legends, summarized the Season 2021 highlights and what to expect from the next one. I quoted his words below.

Season 11 highlights

  • New accounts were ranked much more evenly and effectively.

  • Overall match quality improved, with less than one division of skill difference between teams for 99% of games.

  • Time to game (from queue start to match start) stayed the same or improved in every region.

  • We saw autofill reduced to less than 2% of games in almost every region. In some regions, autofill rates in popular roles like top and mid were brought to almost 0%.

Season 12 expectations

Apex Decay: At high MMRs (Master tier and above), decay rates have long functioned like timers ticking away to keep the best of the best at the edge of their game. However, that clock may be ticking too quickly and pushing players into places where they really don’t belong. We're taking a closer look at what decay does for our players and tweaking the system to ensure even fairer matchmaking over the entire season.

Season Reset: The soft resets we did this year might have been a little too soft. This year, we want to provide a longer runway for players to really show off their growth since last season and get the proper liftoff at the start of their climb. We do this by tuning the resets to be stronger, which puts more uncertainty back into the system.

August 2021

League of Legends Rank Distribution August 2021 Season 11
Rank Percentage Rank Percentage Rank Percentage
Iron IV 0.12% Silver II 9.4% Diamond IV 0.62%
Iron III 0.26% Silver I 7.5% Diamond III 0.31%
Iron II 0.55% Gold IV 13% Diamond II 0.23%
Iron I 1.0% Gold III 6.3% Diamond I 0.24%
Bronze IV 3.3% Gold II 5.3% Master 0.11%
Bronze III 3.9% Gold I 3.4% GrandMaster 0.027%
Bronze II 5.7% Platinum IV 5.7% Challenger 0.011%
Bronze I 6.2% Platinum III 2.2%
Silver IV 11% Platinum II 1.4%
Silver III 8.5% Platinum I 1.7%

Distribution:

  • Iron: 1.9%

  • Bronze: 19%

  • Silver: 37%

  • Gold: 28%

  • Platinum: 11%

  • Diamond: 1.4%

  • Master: 0.11%

  • GrandMaster: 0.027%

  • Challenger: 0.011%

Top percentage of players

Rank Top% Rank Top% Rank Top%
Iron IV 97.93 Silver II 57.4 Diamond IV 1.54
Iron III 97.81 Silver I 48 Diamond III 0.92
Iron II 97.55 Gold IV 40.5 Diamond II 0.61
Iron I 97 Gold III 27.5 Diamond I 0.38
Bronze IV 96 Gold II 21.2 Master 0.14
Bronze III 92.7 Gold I 15.9 GrandMaster 0.038
Bronze II 88.8 Platinum IV 12.5 Challenger 0.011
Bronze I 83.1 Platinum III 6.8
Silver IV 76.9 Platinum II 4.6
Silver III 65.9 Platinum I 3.2

In the mid year dev blog published in July 2021, Cody “Riot Codebear” Germain, Product Lead for Competitive Gameplay on League of Legends, talked about the future changes to the matchmaking and ranked systems.

Main goals: “Improve queue matchmaking quality without compromising queue time or availability” and “Improve progression satisfaction and skill expression in our systems.”

  • The developers are looking into better options for decay rate as currently a Diamond+ player that gets some weeks off is forced to play in a place that doesn’t represent their skill level, creating unsatisfactory and unbalanced games.

  • In 2020, they shipped Premade Parity to balance out premades across teams. The dev team is studying additional filters to improve skill balance between each team’s premades.

  • In an even skill matchup, map side advantage can make the difference between a victory and a defeat. They are looking to tweak the matchmaking to adjust automatically the team selection filters depending on the map side that has the advantage in a specific meta.

  • Early testing indicates that by improving the way the game calculates position popularity, they can reduce autofill rates, which in turn leads to reduced queue times by up to 10% across all MMRs.

June 2021

League of Legends rank distribution June 2021 Season 11
Rank Percentage Rank Percentage Rank Percentage
Iron IV 0.11% Silver II 9.5% Diamond IV 0.66%
Iron III 0.27% Silver I 7.8% Diamond III 0.34%
Iron II 0.60% Gold IV 12% Diamond II 0.25%
Iron I 1.1% Gold III 6.3% Diamond I 0.25%
Bronze IV 3.3% Gold II 5.3% Master 0.12%
Bronze III 4.1% Gold I 3.5% GrandMaster 0.029%
Bronze II 6.0% Platinum IV 5.3% Challenger 0.013%
Bronze I 6.6% Platinum III 2.1%
Silver IV 11% Platinum II 1.4%
Silver III 8.5% Platinum I 1.4%

Distribution:

  • Iron: 2%

  • Bronze: 20%

  • Silver: 37%

  • Gold: 28%

  • Platinum: 10%

  • Diamond: 1.5%

  • Master: 0.12%

  • GrandMaster: 0.029%

  • Challenger: 0.013%

Top percentage of players

Rank Top% Rank Top% Rank Top%
Iron IV 97.78 Silver II 56.2 Diamond IV 1.66
Iron III 97.67 Silver I 46.7 Diamond III 1.0
Iron II 97.4 Gold IV 38.9 Diamond II 0.66
Iron I 96.8 Gold III 26.9 Diamond I 0.41
Bronze IV 95.7 Gold II 20.6 Master 0.16
Bronze III 92.4 Gold I 15.3 GrandMaster 0.042
Bronze II 88.3 Platinum IV 11.8 Challenger 0.013
Bronze I 82.3 Platinum III 6.5
Silver IV 75.7 Platinum II 4.4
Silver III 64.7 Platinum I 3.0

April 2021

League of Legends Rank Distribution April 2021 Season 11
Rank Percentage Rank Percentage Rank Percentage
Iron IV 0.10% Silver II 9.9% Diamond IV 0.72%
Iron III 0.28% Silver I 8.3% Diamond III 0.37%
Iron II 0.68% Gold IV 12% Diamond II 0.27%
Iron I 1.2% Gold III 6.3% Diamond I 0.24%
Bronze IV 3.3% Gold II 5.3% Master 0.087%
Bronze III 4.2% Gold I 3.6% GrandMaster 0.030%
Bronze II 6.2% Platinum IV 4.7% Challenger 0.013%
Bronze I 7.2% Platinum III 2.0%
Silver IV 11% Platinum II 1.4%
Silver III 8.7% Platinum I 1.1%

Distribution:

  • Iron: 2.3%

  • Bronze: 21%

  • Silver: 38%

  • Gold: 27%

  • Platinum: 9.3%

  • Diamond: 1.6%

  • Master: 0.087%

  • GrandMaster: 0.030%

  • Challenger: 0.013%

Top percentage of players

Rank Top% Rank Top% Rank Top%
Iron IV 99.16 Silver II 56.3 Diamond IV 1.73
Iron III 99.06 Silver I 46.4 Diamond III 1.01
Iron II 98.78 Gold IV 38.1 Diamond II 0.64
Iron I 98.1 Gold III 26.1 Diamond I 0.37
Bronze IV 96.9 Gold II 19.8 Master 0.13
Bronze III 93.6 Gold I 14.5 GrandMaster 0.043
Bronze II 89.4 Platinum IV 10.9 Challenger 0.013
Bronze I 83.2 Platinum III 6.2
Silver IV 76 Platinum II 4.2
Silver III 65 Platinum I 2.8

Ranked matchmaking changes in 2021

We did discover one issue at the start of season where MMR was adjusting too slowly, causing LP gains to be a bit lower than expected overall, and in some cases caused winstreaking players to experience negative LP gains (eg +12 for a win, -16 for loss). That issue was addressed with patch 11.2.”

— Riot

  • New account placements: if you are new to ranked, the game will use your performance in normal matches to determine your initial rank.

  • Start-of-season reset: after the provisional matches, you will climb faster towards your previous rank.

  • Division promos removed: there are no more promo series between divisions (Gold III to Gold II), but there are still between tiers (Gold to Platinum), and there is also demotion protection between tiers.

  • LP Mitigation: if the game detects an AFK on your team, you will lose less LP for a loss depending on how the game was going before the AFK.

  • LP gains and losses will be slightly smaller this season to keep matchmaking healthy.

  • Master, Grandmaster, and Challenger are open from day 1.

  • Players in Master, GrandMaster, and Challenger can no longer duo queue.

Decay system explained

Master, Grandmaster, Challenger

  • Each game played banks 1 day of activity, up to 10.

  • After 10 days of inactivity, you'll begin consuming banked days.

  • Once all banked days have been consumed, you lose 250 LP each day until you fall out of Master.

Diamond

  • Each game played banks 7 days of activity, up to 28.

  • After 28 days of inactivity, you'll begin consuming banked days (this initial grace period is skipped if you decayed into Diamond from Master+).

  • Once all banked days have been consumed, you lose 50 LP each day until you fall out of Diamond.

February 2021

League of Legends Rank Distribution February 2021 Season 11
Rank Percentage Rank Percentage Rank Percentage
Iron IV 0.088% Silver II 10% Diamond IV 0.69%
Iron III 0.30% Silver I 9.4% Diamond III 0.38%
Iron II 0.82% Gold IV 10% Diamond II 0.28%
Iron I 1.6% Gold III 6.1% Diamond I 0.23%
Bronze IV 3.4% Gold II 5.4% Master 0.095%
Bronze III 4.3% Gold I 3.8% GrandMaster 0.031%
Bronze II 6.7% Platinum IV 3.6% Challenger 0.014%
Bronze I 8.3% Platinum III 1.8%
Silver IV 10% Platinum II 1.3%
Silver III 8.9% Platinum I 0.88%

Distribution:

  • Iron: 2.8%

  • Bronze: 22%

  • Silver: 39%

  • Gold: 25%

  • Platinum: 7.7%

  • Diamond: 1.5%

  • Master: 0.095%

  • GrandMaster: 0.031%

  • Challenger: 0.014%

Top percentage of players

Rank Top% Rank Top% Rank Top%
Iron IV 98.40 Silver II 54 Diamond IV 1.72
Iron III 98.32 Silver I 44 Diamond III 1.03
Iron II 98.02 Gold IV 34.6 Diamond II 0.65
Iron I 97.2 Gold III 24.6 Diamond I 0.37
Bronze IV 95.6 Gold II 18.5 Master 0.14
Bronze III 92.2 Gold I 13.1 GrandMaster 0.045
Bronze II 87.9 Platinum IV 9.3 Challenger 0.014
Bronze I 81.2 Platinum III 5.7
Silver IV 72.9 Platinum II 3.9
Silver III 62.9 Platinum I 2.6

Statistics from LeagueOfGraphs - Header image: Riot

Vincenzo is an esports writer with ten years of experience. Former head editor for Natus Vincere, he has produced content for DreamHack, FACEIT, DOTAFire, 2P, and more. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.