What is a tier list?
Basics · 4 min read
A tier list is a ranking chart made of rows. Each row is a tier, everything in the same row counts as equally good, and the top row holds the best items while the bottom row holds the worst.
The point of a tier list is that it removes false precision. If someone asks you to rank forty anime from 1 to 40, you will spend an hour deciding whether number 14 should really be number 15, and nobody reading it will care. Group them into five tiers instead and the whole thing takes ten minutes, reads better, and still says exactly what you think.
Where the format came from
Tier lists started in Japanese fighting games in the 1990s. Players of Street Fighter and later Smash Bros needed a quick way to say which video game characters were strong enough to win tournaments, so they sorted the roster into lettered groups instead of an exact order. The idea travelled with the fighting game scene onto forums, then onto YouTube and Reddit, and by the 2010s people were using it for anime, football clubs, crisps and everything else.
That history is why the letters look odd at first. They are borrowed from Japanese grading, not from the English alphabet, which is why S sits above A. There is more on that in what does S tier mean.
Tier list, tierlist, or tiermaker?
All three refer to the same thing. The format is usually written as two words, tier list, but plenty of people write it as one, tierlist. Tiermaker started as the name of one particular site and has drifted into being a generic word for any tool to create these charts, the way people say hoover for a vacuum. Whichever you searched for, you are in the right place, and the maker on this site is free with no sign-up.
How the rows work
A standard chart uses five or six rows. Each row gets a letter, a colour and a horizontal strip you fill with items. Two things sitting in the same row are being called equal, which is the part people forget. If you find yourself carefully ordering items inside a row, you probably need one more tier.
| Rows | Works well for |
|---|---|
| 3 rows | Quick opinions. Yes, maybe, no. |
| 5 rows | The default. Enough nuance without overthinking. |
| 6 or 7 rows | Big lists, forty items or more. |
| 8 or more | Usually a sign the list should be split in two. |
When a tier list is the wrong tool
If the order genuinely matters, use a numbered list. A top ten of the year is a ranking, not a tier list, because the gap between first and second is the whole point. Tier lists are for when you want to group things by quality and argue about the boundaries.
If you are comparing two things on two separate qualities, an alignment chart fits better. That comparison is covered in tier list versus alignment chart.
Making one
Open the tier list maker, pick a set from the template library or add your own items, then drag them into rows. Every tile can be moved, and you can rename the tiers to whatever wording fits your topic. Save the finished tier list as an image without making an account, and keep different versions of the same chart if you change your mind.