What is this

PlayChart is a forced-choice ranking site for video games. You see two games at a time and pick one. Every pick updates your personal Elo ranking and feeds the global one.

The idea comes from Flickchart, which does the same thing for film. Scoring a game out of 10 is hard. Picking between two games takes half a second, and the math builds a ranking from those picks.

How the ranking works

We use a standard Elo system, the same family used by chess. Each game starts at 1500. When you pick A over B, A's rating goes up and B's goes down. The size of the swing depends on how surprising the pick was.

The global leaderboard only counts duels from registered players, weighted by experience. A brand-new account moves a game a little. Long-time players move it more. You can save up to 100 duels without an account, and those picks carry over when you sign up.

Game data

All metadata, covers, and genres come from IGDB.

Keeping it running

PlayChart runs without ads. If you enjoy it, a tip on Ko-fi helps pay for the servers and keeps it that way. Tip with the email on your PlayChart account and you get a gold star next to your name.