Rocket League Ranking System Explained

Rocket League is a game unlike any other. Its unique blend of driving skills and soccer mayhem makes tons of fun and a playing experience that stands out.

Psyonix labels Rocket League a “sports-action hybrid,” a label it stays true to. Its similarity to conventional sports gets your competitive drive up, while the distinctive vehicular gameplay keeps you engrossed as you attempt to master the game’s mechanical intricacies. 

Rocket League is a simple premise - soccer (and other sports) with cars - but its high skill ceiling provides ample room for significant tactical depth. It is easy to have fun in - but extremely difficult to master. You can also improve your game using the Rocket League best camera settings.

You have two main fronts to improve on in Rocket League: your mechanical ability to control your car and your tactical ability to grasp the strategy involved in Rocket League’s competitive game modes.

Have you picked up Rocket League recently and want to try your hand at the game’s competitive side? 

The Rocket League ranking system is built directly into the game, which lets you test your skills in a fun but competitive environment against fellow players. All players in Rocket League’s ranking system are assigned a rank, which reflects their skill level.

As you improve and beat opponents, you will climb the ladder by ranking up. Your rank reflects your progress and improvement as you pour time into improving and grind to get better.

When starting your competitive journey, you will begin as Unranked. From there, Rocket League’s ranking system has 22 unique ranks to climb. Players start in Bronze I and can climb to the revered Supersonic Legend (SSL). 

There are eight tiers of ranks: Bronze, Silver, Platinum (usually shortened to ‘Plat’), Diamond, Champion (or ‘Champ’), Grand Champion and Supersonic Legend (‘SSL’).

Since different game modes require different skills and strategies, you have a separate rank for each game mode in Rocket League. You rank up separately in each mode, meaning you could be Bronze I in 1v1 but Silver I in 3v3.

Here is a breakdown of all of Rocket League’s competitive ranks, in order:

Rocket League’s ranking system assigns a publicly visible rank, representing your skill level in a particular game mode. But the game calculates your rank based on a hidden matchmaking rank number, referred to as your MMR.

This MMR number is what determines your rank. You gain MMR points for each match you win, and you lose MMR points every time you lose. Passing certain hidden MMR thresholds will cause you to rank up or de-rank. 

You can‘t see your hidden MMR until you reach Grand Champion. However, Rocket League shows you your MMR value on the in-game queue menu if you’re Grand Champion or above. If you want to find out what MMR you are at, third parties offer services that can show you your MMR regardless of rank. 

For example, Rocket League Tracker allows you to see your MMR in each playlist, and BakkesMod is an unofficial in-game mod you can install that shows you your MMR in-game.

In Rocket League, you rank up by winning competitive matches. So win enough competitive matches, and you will rank up, but of course, this also means that losing matches can derank you. Casual is a separate playlist, and playing casual games will not affect your competitive rank.

There are four divisions in each rank (Division I, Division II, Division III and Division IV), which show you how close you are to ranking up or ranking down.The amount by which you go up and down each game depends on the rank of your opponents (which is shown at the end of the game on the post-game scoreboard). This is because the game tries to match you against opponents of a similar rank.

If you manage to beat a player ranked higher than you, for example, defeating a Silver I opponent as a Bronze II, you will climb the divisions and rank up quickly. If you lose against someone much lower ranked than you, you’ll also de-rank quicker.

Who you decide to queue with also matters - partying up with a higher rank will put you into more difficult lobbies, so be careful who you choose as teammates.

At the end of the competitive season, your rocket league rank will reset, and you will have to play placement matches to receive a new rank.

Are you wondering how your rank stacks up against the rest of the player base? Game developer Psyonix releases rank distribution data showing how many people are in each rank at the end of each competitive season.

Last season (Season 2), the majority of Rocket League competitive players were in Gold III. Most players sat around this rank or ones near it, such as Gold II and Platinum I. Only 1.12% of the player base reached Champion I in 3v3 last season, and just 0.02% of players made it to Supersonic Legend.

Here is a full list of the data showing the percentage of players in each rank in each competitive playlist:

Impatient to get an idea of how well you’re doing in this current season, Season 3? Rocket League Tracker maintains an unofficial ongoing count of current skill rating distributions.

Seasons in Rocket League usually last approximately 3-4 months. At the end of each season, everyones’ rank resets, and season rewards players get rewards based on what rank they were. 

To qualify for a particular ranks’ season rewards, you need to win ten games at each rank (you can do this in any playlist).

The season rewards change every season but are always some type of in-game cosmetic. For example, for Season 2, Rocket League handed out new rank-themed boosts for each rank.

You are guaranteed at least one season reward no matter which rank you achieve, but higher-ranked players can earn more than one. In addition, players that hit Grand Champion, and Supersonic Legend, get respective in-game titles for their efforts, alongside the base cosmetics.

If you’re a fan of Extra Modes (explained below), you can get unique titles for reaching Grand Champion or Supersonic Legend in those modes.

One of the most exciting elements of Rocket League is its plethora of different game modes to try.

Rocket League’s ranking system has a playlist for each game mode which, as mentioned previously, allows you to get a rank in all of the different competitive modes.

There are separate competitive playlists for 1v1, 2v2 and 3v3, which all play differently and require different skill sets and strategies to excel in. 3v3 is the main game mode played in Rocket League esports, but there are thriving competitive communities for 1v1 and 2v2.

On top of this, there are four competitive Extra Modes in which you can get ranks in. They are Rumble, which is 3v3 with power-ups, Dropshot, a unique take on Volleyball, Hoops, like basketball, and Snow Day, which takes inspiration from Ice hockey.

There are plenty more casual modes (including 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4 and a rotating limited-time mode), but these are purely casual and you cannot get a rank in them. Check out our Rocket League news section for more updates.