For the more competitive player, there’s nothing better than finding out that a multiplayer title has a Ranked Mode. It’s where the more skilled competitors cut their teeth, showing off their talents against tougher opponents in more restricted lobbies. In many cases, Ranked Mode is where players start their climb into the top-tier esports tournaments for a game. It can be a gateway to greatness, finding a Ranked Mode. If you’re hungry for harder competition, we’ve broken down the best games with Ranked Modes in 2025.
Some developers put a huge amount of attention and effort into shaping and perfecting their Ranked Mode. They’re aware that it’s where the better-than-average player wants to flex their skills, and for that reason, everything needs to be curated. There are often more restrictive rulesets, banned weapons or items, and only certain modes and maps allowed in Ranked – that’s a consistent rule across the business. It doesn’t matter if you’re hunting for the games with the best Ranked Mode in terms of shooters, battle royale games, or sports titles, there is something for everyone.
So, are you ready to learn about the top games with Ranked Mode in 2025? Let’s dive in.
Image Credit: Riot Games
VALORANT is one of the newest games with a Ranked Mode on the market, having emerged in 2020 to an overwhelmingly positive reception. It’s a perfect fusion between Counter-Strike and Overwatch, combining Counter-Strike’s operating model with Overwatch’s hero shooter-style characters. It’s the perfect arena to flex your Ranked Mode talents, and it could be argued that it’s the most stable, well-built Ranked Mode in the business.
In VALORANT, players will take part in Ranked matches in ‘Competitive Mode’ that’ll see them climb up the leaderboard. They’ll start on ‘Iron’ and can rise to ‘Radiant’, which is the highest rank in VALORANT. It’s easy to track your progress in VALORANT ranked, and Riot Games is a master of ensuring the ecosystem is kept fair, well-governed, and reliable. It’s also completely free to access, which is a huge bonus.
Image Credit: Activision
Call of Duty’s Ranked Mode – known as Ranked Play – is a hugely popular platform that is enjoyed by the best Call of Duty players in the world. For years, Call of Duty has been one of the most competitive games on the market, and to accommodate the need for a higher challenge, Activision’s studios regularly build top-tier Ranked Mode ecosystems. Typically, the players that occupy the Call of Duty League will sit at the top of the table, but it’s also where up-and-coming players can get themselves noticed.
It’s not free (except for Warzone Ranked), given that it’s a key part of the core multiplayer offering that’s released every year, but it is hugely entertaining. It can be more stressful than other modes because of a harsh skill gap, but year after year, Call of Duty’s Ranked Mode is relatively well-balanced and logical.
Image Credit: Respawn Entertainment
Apex Legends is a free-to-play battle royale game with one of the best Ranked Modes around. There are goals to support Apex Legends for years, which means that players will be able to climb up those ranks for a very long time to come. In Apex Legends Ranked, players (higher than level 20) will be able to play through a series of Ranked Seasons, competing against players they’re matched with via an intelligent matchmaking system. There are six tiers to climb, at the top of which a player will become known as an Apex Predator.
In a unique twist, those playing Ranked Mode in Apex Legends will need to spend ‘RP’ to get access to matches, but they can earn those points by competing, killing players, and placing high in their matches. It’s considered one of the best games with Ranked Mode because of how popular it is – there’s always a dense community competing on the platform, ensuring it’ll stay alive for as long as the developer wants it to. It helps that it’s totally free to play.
Image Credit: EA
EA Sports FC – which was formally known as FIFA – has a fantastic Ranked Mode known as Ultimate Team Rivals. What was once known as the FIFA ranking system is now simply the ESF ranking system, and it’s the ladder that players climb on their way to soccer-based greatness. In ‘Rivals’, aspiring competitors play against others in online seasonal campaigns that work on a solo or cooperative basis. They’ll fly up through the Ranks and Divisions as they win matches, earning rewards that they can use to build their Ultimate Team.
Each season, players start in ‘Division 10’, and from there, they’ll climb the ranks based on their performance. It tops out with the Elite Division, which is where the best ESF players in the world play against each other. In terms of sports games with a Ranked Mode, EA Sports FC is the cream of the crop for many millions of players.
Image Credit: Epic Games
Fortnite’s ranking system has been enjoyed by many battle royale fans for years – and that means ‘many’. There are millions of gamers in Fortnite’s Ranked Mode ecosystem, and they’re all hugely capable competitors with goals of making it big in the battle royale space. Epic Games – the developer behind Fortnite – maintains a bustling competitive scene in Fortnite that’s appreciated by countless gamers the world over. There are eight ranks to climb through in Fortnite, and the challenges will get tougher with each new tier.
If you’re good enough, you’ll surpass the ‘tiered ranks’ and end up in Elite, Champion, or ‘Unreal’. Only the best Fortnite players in the world will find their way into Unreal, though. It’s a free-to-play Ranked Mode and it has the largest gaming ecosystem on Earth, so perhaps you should consider giving it a try.
Image Credit: Valve
Counter-Strike is one of the founding fathers of modern competitive multiplayer modes. In 2023, Counter-Strike 2 was released, ushering in a new generation of games with Ranked Modes and enticing millions of players onto the platform, both new and old. However, there’s a slight twist here, as Counter-Strike 2 makes use of a unique, map-based ranking algorithm to determine your matchmaking status. This means that you can be the highest-ranked player one one map and the bottom-ranked player on another. It’s a highly intelligent way of running a Ranked Mode.
Counter-Strike 2 ranked is free-to-play, which is great news for players looking for games with Ranked Modes who don’t want to part ways with a single penny to enjoy them. It’s arguably the most popular Ranked Mode in gaming, with hundreds of thousands of players jumping into a few matches every single day. CS2 ranking system also contributes heavily to one of the most valuable esports ecosystems in the business, so that counts for something, too.
Image Credit: Ubisoft
Rainbow Six Siege is already a tough game with some intense mechanics, but players can take it one step further by competing in the game’s Ranked Mode. In Rainbow Six Siege’s Ranked Mode, competitors are ranked based on their success as a team rather than as an individual, given that this is a cooperative, collaborative, and highly tactical title. In 2023, Ubisoft released ‘Ranked 2.0’, which was seen as a total overhaul to the Ranked Mode in Rainbow Six, perfecting what was already a brilliant competitive ecosystem.
There are looping seasons in Rainbow Six Siege Ranked, and players must climb the ladder with each successive one, picking up rewards along the way. Rainbow Six Siege isn’t free to play, but considering it was released in 2016, it’s not an expensive game to buy. There’s a steep learning curve, though – which means only the best R6 players in the world will hit the highest ranks.
Image Credit: Riot Games
As arguably the most popular MOBA in the world, and probably the best of the best games with ranked modes out there. League of Legends boasts an intense, well-structured Ranked Mode that time and again proves it’s the best in the genre. League of Legends is one of the most highly competitive games ever made, which can make it a controversial title at times, but that means that it’s perfect for a solid Ranked Mode. There are ten ranks to achieve in League of Legends, ranging from Iron to Challenger, but it’s only the best League players on Earth who will make it into the top tier of the game.
In 2024, Riot Games revealed that just 0.03% of all players had made their way into the Challenger rank.
As a free-to-play game with a booming esports ecosystem, League of Legends is appreciated by millions of gamers around the world. It’s a fantastic game with more than ten years on the market, and there’s no indication that it’s going anywhere anytime soon, making it one of the best games with Ranked Mode.
Image Credit: Microsoft
In October 2023, a unique Ranked Mode was introduced to Forza Motorsport, the most recent game in the series. It was titled ‘Forza Race Regulations’, and it saw players pick up a rating based on their performance in the game. It’s calculated by a player’s ability to race cleanly while abiding by the rules of the track. There are a few ranked sections in Forza Motorsport, which are named ‘Spec Events’ and ‘Open Events’, and as one of the leading racing games on the market, Forza Motorsport is the best Ranked Mode titles out there.
It’s not free, though. It’s included with Game Pass on Xbox and PC, but if you’re not a user of that service, you’ll need to pay full price for the game.
There are plenty of games out there with Ranked Modes that didn’t make this list. It’s a diverse ecosystem, and there’s a good chance that if a game has a multiplayer platform, it’ll have a Ranked Mode. It’s a solid deliverable for any developer, accommodating the more talented players who want to flex their skills and climb the ranks, lording their abilities over their peers and opponents online.
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