Home » Gaming » Apex Legends Ranking System Explained

Apex Legends Ranking System Explained

We explain the Apex Legends Ranking System works

WePC is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Prices subject to change. Learn more

Last Updated:

Over the past year and a half, the competitive mode and ranked leagues for Respawn and EA’s battle royale Apex Legends has seen many changes and adjustments, as the game progresses through its various seasons.

For the purpose of relevancy, this article will not cover the state of Ranked in prior seasons and will instead focus on the ranking system that is in place at the time of writing; we are currently in season 6 of Apex.

Ranked Changes for Season 6

With that being said, let’s have a very brief reminder of the seasonal update article posted by EA at the end of each Ranked season, which gives competitive analysis as well as intended goals for the next competitive season:

The most notable change for season 6 is the retirement of the term “series” in association to Ranked Leagues and will instead use “season”. Corresponding and existing Ranked rewards have also had their names updated to suit the change.

Aside from this, there have not been many changes to Ranked Leagues from season 5, and we will analyse some overall goals and recap of the last season further down the article.

For now, let’s introduce the Ranking tiers themselves as well as their corresponding emblems:

apex ranks pic 300x90 1
All ranked tiers in Apex Legends. (Image Credit: EA)

What are the Ranks and what is RP?

Apex Legends has seven Ranked tiers beginning with the lowest ranked players in Bronze and ending with the top 500 players in Apex Predator. The system operates under an RP system where RP stands for Ranking Points.

Each tier has a minimum threshold of RP that is required to exceed in order to advance to the tier above. These include:

  • Bronze – (0 as it is the default rank)
  • Silver – 1,200 RP
  • Gold – 2,800 RP
  • Platinum – 4,800 RP
  • Diamond – 7,200 RP
  • Master – 10,000 RP
  • Apex Predator – (Top 500 with no cap on RP)

 

As with previous seasons, Ranked games in Apex cost a minimum amount of RP for each tier which is needed to play a single match. These are listed below:

  • Bronze – Free
  • Silver – 12RP
  • Gold – 24RP
  • Platinum – 36RP
  • Diamond – 48RP
  • Master – 60RP
  • Apex Predator – 60RP

RP Losses

RP will be lost for ditching games before the match is over; that means you habitual rage-quitters should stay calm to maintain even greater losses as you will lose what you spent in your entry fee in addition to what you would have gained if you had played the whole match.

Loss forgiveness system

The loss forgiveness system in Apex is one that attempts to rule out losses of RP in unfortunate circumstances or those that are out of your control. The loss forgiveness system initiates when you have an unexpected quit or backing out of a game, for example if you lose connection to the servers.

Other situations where you will find loss forgiveness coming into play will include the times when you begin drop sequences without any teammates or in a case where one of your matchmade teammates abandons the game (note: this does not include those on your friends list).

Players have a limit of three forgiveness abandons for each season and the game will consider a match that is abandoned as a result of you disconnecting from the server and then quitting the game as out of your control, thus a “forgiveness abandon” will be used.

However, if you unexpectedly quit for a second time after this first one, Respawn will consider this as a forced abandon and it could cost you RP. After the limit of three forgiveness abandons are used up, Respawn will count all unexpected quits afterwards as suspicious and so they will be treated as abandonments.

On the bright side, for season 6 you are able to reconnect to matches if you unexpectedly quit, which is a helpful feature that has been implemented into the game for the first time.

 

How does the ranking system work?

The system operates under the same factors as it did so in season 5, with players being rewarded for kills, assists and placement at the end of the game. In order to maximise the outcome of your rank, you should aim to place in the top ten of matches as this gives you the most amount of RP.

After this is considered, your RP is multiplied based upon the number of kills and assists you achieve in that particular game. It is fairly straightforward; as with most competitive games, aim to do the best that you can whilst slaying everyone that you see, but ensure to make calculated decisions.

Ranked splits

Respawn has chosen to divide the regular season into two splits. The reason for this is because the developers have aimed to keep the game engaging and fun throughout the season, with soft resets after each split offering a fresh competitive spirit.

The two splits will be broken up by a planned reset. Here ranks will suffer a soft reset and rewards will be granted for the highest tier achieved. Players can also earn exclusive animated badges if they make it to the same tier in both splits.

The soft reset will occur between the transition of the first to the second split. Players will notice rank dropped by around 1.5 tiers during the reset. For example, if you finished the first split in Gold II, you’ll start the second split in Silver IV. The first split in season 6 will be played on World’s Edge, with the second on Kings Canyon.

The planned split reset is scheduled for today (29th September).

Ranked distribution

According to EA’s official report which simultaneously concludes Ranked in season 5 and announces Ranked for season 6, the distribution of players by percentage in Ranked after season 5 came to a close to below metrics. While these are old statistics, the Apex Legends Ranking System means that the player base is often loosely divided.

  • 16.21% Bronze (17.51%)
  • 22.83% Silver (27.2%)
  • 32.31% Gold (33.7%)
  • 23.96% Platinum (18.82%)
  • 4.37% Diamond (2.51%)
  • 0.31% Master & Apex Predator (0.2%)

 

These results are as of August 13th, with the distribution including players in Split 2 who played more than 5 hours of Ranked. In comparison to the previous season (season 4), there has been a minor improvement of skill level of players.

EA wrote: “There’s been a slight but noticeable increase in players in the higher tiers. Overall we are pleased with the distribution of players in this fashion and hope players are enjoying the climb through the Ranks every Season.”

Ranked rewards

Dive trails, charms, and badges will be given out to players in Apex Legends Ranked Season 6 based on the highest rank they achieve in the series.

Conclusion

As always, EA and Respawn have set out some objectives for the each and every Apex Legends Ranking seasonal system. They were reported in the article that has already been mentioned:

  • Reward competitive players for the time they invest in Apex Legends
    Dive Trails continue to be a highly sought-after cosmetic item that allow players at the top to visually distinguish themselves. This Season sees the first time that Trails from a previous Ranked Season will expire, but if you missed the chance to earn the Season 4 Trail, fear not, we plan to let players have a chance to earn it again in Season 8.
  • Ensure competitive integrity through skill-based matchmaking
    RP based Matchmaking continues to group players of similar skill together for close matches. From our perspective this is working well, but we are aware of the feedback about how bad it feels when players are matched against players they think are far above them in terms of skill. We are currently considering changes to improve the situation, see sections below for details.
  • Let top-tier Apex Legends players compete at the highest levels of skill
    The introduction of Master Tier has been a success, and we are happy with how only the most consistently successful players in the world can maintain being in Apex Predator Tier.

Staff Writer AT WEPC

Craig Robinson

Craig has spent several years in esports. He began his journey as a volunteer, writing about games he loved whilst studying at University. Upon graduating, he worked as a freelance writer, talking about esports and gaming for several years before landing in WePC's gaming section.