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Conquer the Street Fighter 6 ranking system with our essential how-to guide
Street Fighter 6 can seem intimidating at first, but the ranking system is actually quite simple. Here's everything you need to know about rising through the game’s ranks.
Street Fighter 6 is an evolution of the fighting series, embraced by fans new and old into a thriving online community battling it out to reach the game’s most prestigious rankings.
Street Fighter 6 has casual and ranked modes to choose from. Once you've found your feet in casual matches, you can then look to test your mettle in ranked mode. Street Fighter 6's ranked mode can seem intimidating at first, but it's actually rather simple, and will be familiar to players who have played competitive online games before.
Street Fighter 6’s ranking system is deceptively simple
© Capcom
What are the ranks in Street Fighter 6?
Street Fighter 6's ranking system sorts players into different leagues, ensuring that players will be matched to other players at their skill level. The eight leagues in Street Fighter 6 are as follows:
- Rookie
- Iron
- Bronze
- Silver
- Gold
- Platinum
- Diamond
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01
Master
There are five rankings within each league. If you are ranked in Iron, you'll have to work your way up to Bronze, but you'll first need to progress from Iron 1 to Iron 5. This is done to ensure that you're fighting players who are as close as possible to your skill level.
It's also worth noting that you have a separate rank for each character you play. So you could be a Gold Ryu but only a Silver Chun-Li. This means that you're free to experiment with different fighters without affecting the rank of your main.
02
How do you get the starting rank?
Which league you are placed in is determined by your performance in your 10 placement matches. The difficulty of these is based on how you answer a question about your experience with fighting games.
E. Honda returns to the arena in Street Fighter 6
© Capcom
03
How do you go up and down the ranks?
As you complete matches you will gain or lose League Points (LP), depending on whether you win or lose. How you gain or lose LP is different based on the league, with the rules being as follows:
- Rookie – get win streak bonus, no LP loss on defeat
- Iron, Gold – get win streak bonus, no league demotion, one-time rank-down protection
- Platinum, Diamond – no win streak bonus, league demotion enabled, one-time rank-down protection
- Master - no win streak bonus, no league demotion
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04
Why is Master different?
The Master League is a new introduction for Street Fighter 6, and is, naturally, the highest level of competition in the game. In Masters' League, you'll be competing for Master's Rate (MR) which is an entirely different currency. Master League points reset every three months but you can't be demoted from Masters.
Practise against CPU opponents and then take the fight online
© Capcom
05
The biggest changes from SF5 to SF6 ranked system
Street Fighter 6's key changes from its predecessor have been implemented to encourage more online play. In the past, once the desired rank was achieved, there was little incentive to keep playing when there was a high chance of dropping to a lower league.
The one-time rank-down protection and lack of demotion from Masters have been implemented to stop players from getting frustrated by dropping down the ranks.
New character JP is a popular pick for Master-level players
© Capcom
06
SF6 ranking system statistics
As of November 2023, Platinum was the most highly populated league, with 396.2k players, representing 22.1 percent of the online player base. Second most popular was Silver with 19.5 percent of the player base, with Gold coming in third at 16.7 percent. Bronze and Iron both represented 13.5 percent of the player base, with the beginner league Rookie representing just 7.1 percent. Diamond represents just 5.6 percent of the player base, with 100,000 players. The most exclusive league is, of course, Master, which represents just 2 percent of the player base, roughly 35,000 players.
When it comes to character breakdowns, it’s no surprise that series favourite Ken has the most players in Master with 3,741. Newcomer JP is in second place with 2,669, while another long-time hero Cammy appears in third place. What may be a surprise is to see iconic characters Ryu and Chun-Li lower down in the ranking, at 8 and 12 respectively.
Now that we've given you the skinny on Street Fighter 6's ranking system, all that's left is for you to head online and throw down! Good luck, fighter.
