About Ranklist
I built Ranklist.io because I was tired of seeing chaotic internet polls and social media arguments that go nowhere. It is a place to rank the things we actually care about, whether that means anime, films, games, athletes, or anything else where the debate over “best to worst” actually matters. The goal was to build a system where the final results mean something.
How rankings actually work
Most websites rely on basic upvotes or simple star ratings, which usually fail to capture reality. One loud fan can easily skew an entire average, while upvotes just reward popularity instead of building an actual consensus. We do things a little differently.
When you put together a list, the system looks at the exact position you assign to each item. We take your number one pick, your number two, and so forth, and then aggregate everyone’s ballots using a Borda count smoothed out with Bayesian inference. That sounds a bit complicated, but it just means items with only a handful of votes won’t get artificially inflated by outliers. It is the same basic statistical concept that drives the top lists on IMDb, meaning items really have to earn their spot through sustained agreement across plenty of independent ballots.
This setup creates a few important rules:
- Position truly matters. A character ranked first on three different ballots will absolutely beat a character ranked second on three ballots.
- New items aren’t stuck at the bottom just because they were recently added. We use a Rising badge to highlight new additions as they gather enough votes to lock in their real position against the list-wide average.
More than a tier list
We all know tier lists are great for personal expression. The issue is that your top tier might mean something entirely different from a stranger’s top tier. You can definitely still use tier-style placements on your own personal ballot here. However, Ranklist will convert those placements into strict numerical positions on a global level so the community results remain completely comparable across all users.
The community signal
We also want to give you a clear view into the community signal. You are able to see exactly who else ranked a list, filter the data by region, check how recent the activity is, and spot where the biggest disagreements pop up. Lists generating heavy debate naturally surface in our Most Controversial feed. Sometimes the most interesting story is simply seeing who is fighting over the rankings. And if you notice something is missing, anyone can suggest a new item to add to the pool.
About the founder
As for who runs the site, that would be me. My name is Baladan, and I am an independent developer and UX professional. I operate the platform under my company, Sentire Labs. You will not find a corporate parent, algorithmic biases pushing an agenda, or boosted lists here. The exact same code ranking your ballot is ranking everyone else’s. I personally handle site reliability, moderation, and the direction for new features.
Our promise
My promise to you is pretty simple. We do not sell rankings, we do not accept payment to feature lists, and we never seed lists with fake votes. If a list ever looks rigged to you, it is a bug rather than a feature, so please flag it.
For the finer details on data collection, check out our Privacy Policy. For acceptable use of the site, take a look at our Terms of Service.