How the badminton world ranking works

What earns points

A player or pair earns ranking points by playing in a graded tournament and by winning matches in it. Two things set the amount: the grade and level of the tournament, and how far the player got in the draw.

Every tournament the BWF sanctions counts, except junior tournaments. The BWF grades each one, and the grade is published in the international calendar.

The table

These are the points for each finishing position. A player who loses in the quarter-finals finishes in places 5 to 8; one who loses in the round of 16 finishes in places 9 to 16.

Two exceptions sit under the table. At the Olympic Games the bronze medallist gets 11,500 and fourth place 10,500, because the Olympics play a bronze medal match. At the World Tour Finals, which start with groups, third place in a group gets 8,900 and fourth place 7,800.

The levels inside Grade 2 are the BWF World Tour. The tournaments are better known by the names the tour gives them (Super 1000, Super 750 and so on); the statute uses only the level numbers.

Continental championships

The continental championships are graded on the same scale, and not all at the same level. The Asian Championships are Grade 2, Level 2. The European Championships are Level 4 and the Pan American Championships Level 5. The Oceania and African Championships are Grade 3, International Challenge. Badminton at a continental multi-sport games, such as the Asian Games, counts at the level of that continent's championships.

So winning the Asian Championships is worth 12,000 points, and winning the African Championships 4,000.

Byes, walkovers and groups

A bye is not a win. A player who had a bye and then lost gets the points for losing in the first round. A walkover is different: a player who won by walkover and then lost gets the points for the round they lost in.

A player who got in on a wildcard and lost the first match gets no points.

Where a tournament starts with groups, a group place is turned into the knockout place it matches. In a draw of eight groups of four, the winner of a group goes on to the knockout. The second gets the points for places 9 to 16, the third for 17 to 32 and the fourth for 33 to 64.

Ten best, 52 weeks

A ranking counts the tournaments of the last 52 weeks, in that event. A player with ten or fewer adds them all up. A player with eleven or more keeps only the ten highest scores.

A result stays on the ranking until the same tournament is held again, or for 52 weeks, whichever comes first. That is why a ranking can fall in a week with no match: the anniversary arrives, last year's points leave and nothing replaces them.

Only one World Championships counts at a time, and only one continental championship from each continent.

A worked example, made up to show the arithmetic. A player's ten best results add up to 60,000 points. They win a Level 4 tournament, worth 9,200. If their smallest counting result was 4,000, that result drops out and the total becomes 65,200. If the same week was the anniversary of a 7,000-point result, that one leaves too and the total falls back by 7,000, unless another result now counts in its place.

Ties

The player or pair with more points ranks higher. If two have the same points, the one who played more tournaments ranks higher. If that is equal too, they share the rank and the next rank is skipped: three players tied for sixth are all sixth, and the next player is ninth.

Team tournaments

Points also come from the team championships: the Thomas and Uber Cup finals and continental stages, the Sudirman Cup finals, the continental team championships and the FISU University Games. Only a player's best team result in 52 weeks counts.

The team points work differently from the table. A player who wins a match gets their own average points, plus one hundredth of the opponent's points. A player who loses gets their average. The average is the points divided by the number of tournaments played, or the ten best divided by ten for someone with more than ten.

A worked example, made up. A player averages 5,000 a tournament and beats an opponent with 40,000 points. The match is worth 5,000 + 400 = 5,400 to them.

New or unsettled doubles pairs are handled with an estimated ranking. A notional ranking is worked out for a new pair from each player's record with earlier partners, and an adjusted ranking for a pair that has played fewer than eight counting tournaments together. Those estimates are used for seeding, and in team events a pair with one scores from it in place of an average. The BWF changed how this team scoring works in November 2025, and the new text is not covered here.

Who is on the list

A player is ranked after playing one or more graded tournaments in the last 52 weeks. A player who retires formally is taken off. So is one suspended from BWF tournaments for a year or more. If the BWF's disciplinary committee cancels a match, the points for it are removed.

A tournament counts only if its main draw has at least eight players or pairs in that event and at least one entry from outside the host country. An event that falls short is left out of the ranking even if the rest of the tournament counts.

What the ranking is for

The ranking sets seedings in a draw. It is also the route to the World Championships and the Olympic Games. For Los Angeles 2028 the BWF uses a separate list over its own dates (see the badminton qualification page).

Where to see it

The BWF publishes all five lists every Tuesday on its website.