League of Legends ranked guide

There’s only one real way to challenge yourself in League of Legends: ranked. If you want to become the next Unkillable Demon a la King Lee ‘Faker’ Sang-hyeok, you’ll want to know everything about MMR, how rank decays at high level, and the general rank distribution – yes, it’s okay if you’re sitting in either silver or gold. So, without further ado, here are all of the LoL ranks in order, as well as some explainers of key terms.

LoL ranks in order

There are ten different ranks in League of Legends, beginning with Iron and ending with Challenger. Master, Grandmaster, and Challenger all fall into the distinct Apex ranks category, reserved for the best of the best.

Here is are the LoL ranks in order, from lowest to highest, alongside their duo queue restrictions:

Each rank from Iron to Diamond is split into four divisions, so if you want to climb from Platinum to Emerald, for example, you need to progress Platinum IV through I before reaching the new overall Emerald rank.

Current LoL rank distribution

Here is the LoL rank distribution for August 2026, according to Esports Tales:

Traditionally, distribution has been quite bottom-heavy. Coming into 2026, however, Riot acknowledged that previous iterations of the system haven’t quite reflected the skills of the modern player base. As a result, it’s made some tweaks to ensure that your true rank is better represented, leading to more players landing in Silver, Gold, and Platinum.

What is LoL MMR?

As you play ranked, you’re assigned a hidden number calculated from your wins, losses, and in-game performance – this is known as your Matchmaking Ranking, or MMR. You’re then pitted against other players with a similar MMR.

MMR remains controversial in League of Legends and will forever be a talking point. Often players feel like they’ve been wrongly assessed (or dumped in the mythical ‘Loser’s Queue’), and that’s what the ranked distribution changes that I mentioned above are actively targeting.

In a developer blog published on March 2, 2026, lead gameplay designer Matt ‘Phroxzon’ Leung-Harrison says Riot has “seen a lot of success in this change,” but at the lower end of the spectrum it hasn’t been enough to “distinguish between these skill levels.” As a result, “there may be a need for an entirely new rank below Iron in the future.”

Rank decay

As you likely know, every time you win a ranked game, you earn LP. At 100 LP, you’ll be promoted to your new rank, with that number rising to 400 LP at Grandmaster, and 800 LP at Challenger. Similarly, if you lose games, you lose LP, and will subsequently be demoted.

At higher-level ranks however, your LP begins to decay. At Diamond, Master, Grandmaster, and Challenger, you’ll consistently lose LP if you don’t play the game. You don’t need to play every single day – you’re issued a number of ‘banked days’ so that you can go outside and touch grass once in a while. When these run out, however, you’ll lose a set amount of LP daily.

Below is a rundown of the number of banked days you accrue at apex tiers, and how much LP you’ll decay if you burn through them all:

Remember, you have a 400LP and 800LP at Grandmaster and Challenger respectively, so while that looks brutal at first, there’s a little bit of wriggle room.

It’s also worth noting that LP works slightly differently for autofilled players. Coming into 2026, Riot confirmed that autofilled players will receive an Aegis of Valor, which rewards either double LP for a win or full protection from LP loss if you score a C or higher. This is due to the role that autofill plays in the wider ecosystem, effectively keeping queues manageable for other role-dedicated players. Similarly, Riot has taken aim at queue dodging this year, with a dodge counting as a full loss, and you’ll still get hit with the usual timer.