Rank the Players
Last updated: 28 June 2026
Rank the Players is a free, crowd-powered ranking game built around the footballers named in the 48 squads of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Instead of one person deciding an order, the ranking is built one head-to-head choice at a time by everyone who plays. You are shown two players, you pick one, and thousands of those small choices add up to a single live leaderboard.
It is a light-hearted, just-for-fun project: a way to argue about the tournament with the whole internet, not just your group chat. This page explains how it works and answers the questions we are asked most often.
Start voting →Under the hood we use a rating method in the Elo family, the same approach used to rank chess players. Every player starts on equal footing, and each match-up nudges both players' scores. Because the order is rebuilt from the full history of votes, it stays consistent and fair as more people play. We also track how confident we are in each player's score, so the public board can highlight the players whose ranking has actually settled rather than ones that have only been seen a handful of times.
Most voting is completely free. Supervotes are an optional extra: a stronger vote you can spend to give a favourite player a bigger push on the "Hype" board. New players receive some to start, and you earn more for free over time through a daily allowance, a bonus for voting, and rewards for inviting friends. They are a fun cosmetic boost. They are not required to play, are not for sale, and the main crowd leaderboard is always driven by ordinary free votes.
Yes. The site is free to use, and supervotes are an optional in-app extra that we do not sell.
If you would like to, there is an optional Donate button: a voluntary tip that helps cover running costs and development. It is purely a thank-you. Donating is never required, gives no advantage in the game, and does not buy supervotes or any player content. Donations are handled securely by Stripe on its own page; we never see your card details.
You can start voting right away. An account lets your supervote balance, referrals and history follow you across devices, and you can sign in with email, Google or Facebook.
Players named in the published 2026 FIFA World Cup squads: roughly 1,250 footballers across 48 national teams. We only include adults: a player is shown only if their date of birth is known and they are 18 or older for the whole tournament. If a player's age cannot be verified, they are left out.
Biographical details and photographs come from publicly available, openly-licensed sources such as Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons. We only use images with a reusable license, which is why some players appear without a photo, and those players are simply not shown in voting.
To keep the ranking fair, the app sometimes pairs lesser-known players, so that every footballer gets a fair number of comparisons and not only the famous ones. Over time this gives everyone a more accurate place on the board.
Email [email protected] and we will remove you. See our Privacy Policy for more on how we handle the data of featured public figures.
No. The site does not currently show third-party ads or use advertising cookies. If that ever changes, we will update the Privacy Policy and add cookie controls first.
See the Data Deletion page, or email us and we will take care of it.
Questions, feedback or requests: [email protected].