Ultimate Ranked Leagues Guide - Apex Legends Wiki

Table of contents

• Overview
• Mechanics
• Tiers
• Bonuses
• Ranked Seasons
• Ranked placement results
• Trivia
• Gallery
• History
• Notes
• References

Overview

Ranked Leagues is a competitive Battle Royale mode where trios are matched by skill tier and earn Ranked Points (RP) based on placement and combat performance. Ranked seasons typically align with the game’s main seasons, and rewards are granted at the end of each season according to the highest tier reached in either split.

Since Season 4, Ranked seasons have been divided into splits, with progress soft-reset between them. Final rewards are determined by the highest rank achieved across both splits.

Mechanics

Ranked matches play similarly to standard trios Battle Royale, with RP being deducted as an entry cost and earned from eliminations, assists, participation, and placement. Matchmaking attempts to create lobbies of players near the same tier, with performance over time affecting promotion and demotion through divisions and tiers.

Abandon and Penalties

Leaving a match early can trigger an abandon penalty—from the connecting stage up to your squad’s elimination. If your banner remains recoverable, leaving early will still be penalized. Once a teammate recovers your banner, you must wait 2 minutes and 30 seconds to exit safely without penalty.

Unexpected disconnects may also incur penalties if you don’t reconnect within 2 minutes. If teammates are AFK or partially disconnected, leaving is still considered abandoning. If your squad isn’t full due to matchmaking or disconnects, you must wait until the dropship phase to leave without penalty.

• Minimum 10-minute lockout from all modes (including Firing Range and Training).
• Loss of any RP earned that match and double subtraction of the entry cost.

Loss Forgiveness

Loss Forgiveness prevents RP loss in specific scenarios, turning a negative RP change into zero for that match.

• A matchmade teammate abandons (does not apply to pre-made parties with the leaver).
• You reach the start of the drop sequence without a full squad. Leaving before this still triggers abandon penalties.
• One unexpected quit per 24 hours is forgiven. Exceed it three times in a season and further quits will incur penalties.

Parties

You can queue solo or as a party of two or three. Empty squad slots are filled with players of similar rank. Parties are matched based on the highest-ranked member, and all members must be within three ranked tiers of each other, otherwise matchmaking will fail.

Tiers

Players progress through Rookie, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Master, and Apex Predator. Most tiers have four divisions (IV to I). Master and Apex Predator are global per-platform leaderboards based on total RP. Rookie serves as an introduction with no entry cost and cannot be demoted into after reaching Bronze.

Promotion grants a small RP bonus. Demotion can occur if RP drops below a division threshold. Tier threshold promotions provide three games of soft demotion protection; once used, demotion moves you to 50% of the prior division (e.g., Masters to 50% of Diamond I). Apex Predator is restricted to the top players platform-wide.

Progression

Each match deducts an entry cost based on your current rank. RP is earned from placement and combat (kills/assists/participation). Assists are granted when you damage an enemy within 15 seconds before that enemy is eliminated by your squad, and the timer refreshes if the enemy is revived and downed again. A participation award grants 50% of the normal RP for a teammate’s kill if assist conditions weren’t met. After a team reaches eight combined eliminations, kill/assist/participation values are halved for that team.

Bonuses

• Top 5 Streak Bonus: Maintain consecutive placements of 5th or better to earn an escalating RP bonus per match, up to +40 RP (2-match streak: +10; 3-match: +20; 4-match: +30; 5+ match: +40).
• Challenger Bonus: Eliminating a higher-ranked player you’ve contributed damage to grants a 50% RP bonus for that elimination. This is unaffected by the soft cap after eight team eliminations.

Ranked Seasons

Reaching the same tier in both splits of a season can award an animated badge (introduced with Season 4 splits). Rewards vary by season and tier, commonly including badges, weapon charms, holosprays, and skydive trails at higher tiers.

Ranked placement results

Distribution by tier among players meeting the minimum ranked hours (5+ hours for Seasons 1–8; 10+ hours for Seasons 12–13). Data from Season 4 onward reflects Split 2 and may not represent Split 1. Apex Predator is included in Master for distribution purposes after Master was introduced in Season 4.

Trivia

• Ranked Series numbering (pre-Season 6) was offset from season numbering by one, causing confusion; numbering was aligned with the seasons starting in Season 6.
• Season 13 introduced the Rookie tier, removed tier demotion protection between tiers (adding a limited soft protection on promotion), and increased many RP thresholds and entry costs.
• Splits were added in Season 4, removed in Season 17, and reintroduced in Season 20.

Gallery

• Season 2 Ranked Overview

  

• Season 3 Ranked Overview

  

• Season 4 Ranked Overview

  

• Season 7 Ranked Overview

  

• Season 8 Ranked Overview

  

• Season 11 Ranked Overview

  

• Season 12 Ranked Overview

  

• Season 13 Ranked Overview

  

• Season 17 Ranked Overview

  

History

Selected patch highlights that shaped Ranked Leagues:

• August 09, 2022

  • Entry costs increased by 5.
  • Removed diminishing returns from eliminations.
  • Rank reset remained at six divisions.

• June 28, 2022

  • Entry costs reduced by 10 across all tiers/divisions.
  • Mid-season reset softened to four divisions.
  • Adjusted diminishing kill values: 60% after 6 K/A, 40% after 9 K/A, 20% after 12 K/A.
  • Higher-tier kill bonuses increased (+1: 150%, +2: 200%, +3: 250%).

• May 10, 2022 – Ranked Reloaded

  • Assist timer increased to 15s; refreshes on revival.
  • Tier demotions enabled (to 50% of prior division), with three-game protection after promotion.
  • Entry costs increased; costs rise per division and scale in Masters+ with total RP.
  • Teamwide 50% participation RP for squad kills; kill cap removed with diminishing value per kill.
  • Rookie tier added (no entry cost; cannot be demoted into).
  • RP thresholds per division increased by 200 RP.

• February 08, 2022

  • Placement RP increased at top placements (e.g., 1st: 125).
  • Max kill KP adjusted to 125; K/A bonuses rebalanced across placements.

• November 02, 2021

  • Kill RP now considers tier differences between killer and victim; effective kill RP cap raised via placement/tier modifiers (max 175 kill RP before placement bonus).
  • Apex Predator and Master treated as the same tier for modifiers.

• May 04, 2021

  • Fixed issues causing improper abandon penalties on server errors.

• February 02, 2021

  • More players matched within the same tier; placement RP starts at 13th.
  • Assist timer increased to 10s; kill/assist cap to 6.
  • Apex Predator raised to top 750 players per platform.

• August 18, 2020

  • “Series” terminology retired in favor of “Season.”

• February 04, 2020

  • Introduced splits (~6 weeks each) and the Master tier; Predator reserved for top players per platform.
  • Tier party restrictions tightened at Platinum and above (within one tier).
  • Limits on unexpected quits added; assist timer increased to 7.5s.
  • Skydive trails made seasonal rewards.

• November 05, 2019

  • No abandon penalty for leaving 2.5 minutes after your banner is picked up.

• October 01, 2019

  • Assists added to RP; RP requirements and entry costs increased; kill/assist multipliers tied to placement.

• July 02–10, 2019

  • Ranked introduced; early fixes to abandon penalties and loss forgiveness.

Notes

• If player A loads into a server and player B joins A’s team, but A disconnects before B finishes loading, then player C joins B, the server may treat B/C as having had a full squad. In such edge cases, B and C may not receive loss forgiveness for A’s early exit, especially if A was partied with B.

References

1. Season 13 – Ranked Reloaded
2. Season 20 – Ranked changes overview
3. In-game menus and tooltips