# How Rankings Are Scored: The 1000-Point System > Why is the leader always 1000 points? Here's how YouPickBest turns votes into scores — win rate, tournament progress, and the breadth of who an option beats. *By YPB Team · Published June 2, 2026 · https://youpick.best/articles/how-rankings-are-scored* --- Every option in a YouPickBest ranking is scored on a 0–1000 scale. The top option always reads 1000, and everything below it is measured against that figure. An option that wins about as often as it loses settles around the halfway mark. An option that loses nearly everything sinks toward zero. None of this is a vote count: the number is built from win rate, how deep an option gets, and the spread of opponents it has beaten. > **The short version:** The leader is pinned at 1000 and the field is scaled beneath it, so a score reads as a distance from the best option rather than a total of anything. Win rate does most of the work. Deep runs and a wide list of beaten opponents add small bonuses on top. ## Why the leader is always 1000 Scores are relative. After each completed session, every option's raw rating is recalculated, the strongest rating in that ranking is set to 1000, and the others are scaled beneath it. Gaps in win rate are stretched before the scaling, so real differences stay visible instead of everything crowding into the top hundred points. A fixed ceiling makes the standings readable without any of the underlying arithmetic. The distance between 1000 and 820 tells you how clear the leader is. It also means one option can score differently in two rankings: a pizza topping that dominates a soft field will score lower against a strong one, because the competition sets the bar.
A results page with options ranked by score, the leader at 1000 and others scaled beneath it
One option pinned at 1000, the rest scaled underneath.
## What goes into a score Three things feed the rating, and they carry very different weights. Vote count is not one of them. It sits next to the score on a results row, and it never lifts it. ### How often it wins Win rate is most of the score — the share of matchups an option wins out of the matchups it played. Eight wins in ten beats three wins in ten, whatever the vote totals behind them. That is how a little-known option that quietly wins most of its matchups can finish above a famous one that keeps losing the close ones. ### How far it gets Surviving longer earns a small extra. Reaching a bracket final is worth more than an early exit, and in King of the Hill a long unbeaten run on screen earns the equivalent. The bonus is sized to reward options that hold up under pressure, not to let one good run outweigh a weak overall record. ### Who it beats Beating a wide field counts too. Each distinct opponent an option has defeated adds a small amount. Ten different rivals beaten says more than the same rival beaten ten times, so the score favours options that have proved themselves against the whole list rather than one convenient victim.
A close-up of a single option row showing its score out of 1000 alongside its vote count
A single row: the score, and the votes behind it.
## Why a bracket win and a long streak count the same The two modes are calibrated against each other so neither one pays better. Taking a whole bracket is worth roughly what a fifty-match unbeaten run in King of the Hill is worth. That calibration is deliberate — people play whichever mode they like, and the results do not tilt toward whichever format happened to be popular that week. A score stays a statement about the option, not about the format it was voted in. ## What doesn't count Two rules keep the numbers honest. - **Unfinished sessions are ignored.** A rating updates only when a session is completed. Abandon a play halfway through and nothing you clicked is recorded. - **Replays don't stack.** Play a ranking a second time and your previous run is rolled back before the new one is applied. Voting the same way repeatedly adds nothing. So the number moves for one reason: options are winning their matchups. Those matchups come from [head-to-head voting](/articles/how-head-to-head-voting-works). The fastest way to get a feel for the scale is to watch it work on a question you chose yourself. Publish a ranking, send it to a few people, and read the numbers afterwards. ## Common questions ### Why isn't the score just the number of votes? Because a vote total would only measure exposure. An option shown in more matchups would drift upward without winning anything. Win rate and the identity of the beaten opponents measure performance instead. ### Why is the top option always 1000? Because a relative scale needs an anchor. Fixing the strongest option at 1000 makes the gaps between places readable at a glance. Change the field around it and the same option can land on a different number. ### What does a score near 500 mean? An even record: about as many wins as losses. The scale is centred, so an option that splits its matchups evenly settles in the middle while the consistent winners climb toward the leader. ### Does replaying a ranking stack up extra points? No. The earlier result is removed, and the fresh one counts in its place. Repeating the same picks changes nothing. ### Do unfinished rankings count? No. A session has to be completed before it affects anything. Quit partway and the ranking stays exactly as it was.