By Michael Szerencsy

Most game scores go up because you played. A Trivia rating does not. It is a measure of how you do against the people who faced the exact same questions, so it can sit still through a hundred games and then move a long way in ten. This piece is the whole thing: what the number means, why it behaves the way it does, when it settles, what the titles ask for, how the twenty topic ratings work, and the short list of things that genuinely raise it. If you want the game itself first, start with the complete Outlier Trivia guide and come back here.

What the rating actually measures

Every question you answer has been answered by other people. The rating starts there, one question at a time: for each question you were asked, it looks at everyone else who was asked the same one and works out what share of them you beat. Points carry both rightness and speed, so beating somebody means you were right where they were wrong, or right and quicker.

That gives you a share, question by question. Beat everyone on a question and the share is one. Beat nobody and it is zero. Land in the middle and it is a half. Your rating is built from the average of those shares across everything you have ever answered, Today's Ten and Quick 10 alike, and then placed on a scale where 1,200 is the middle of the field.

1,200The middle of the field

3Players before a question counts

30Answers before you are rated

20Topic ratings, one each

Two consequences fall straight out of that. The first is that the rating never asks whether a question was hard, because it does not need to: if everyone found it hard, beating them on it is worth a lot, and if everyone breezed it, beating them is worth almost nothing. The second is that you cannot inflate it by choosing gentle games. There is no such thing as a gentle comparison.

The algebra, once, for the people who want it

You do not need this part to play well, and everything above is the honest version in plain words. But the shape of it is simple enough to write down, so here it is and then we will not mention it again.

The 30 halves are the interesting part. They are a steadying weight, thirty imaginary answers that were exactly average, folded into everyone's record. With ten answers behind you they dominate and your form sits close to the middle whatever you did. With three hundred behind you they barely register. Per topic the same weight is used, set to 10 rather than 30, because a topic record is necessarily shorter.

Three curves showing how a player's measured form approaches their true form as the number of compared answers grows, all three starting from the middle of the field. — Same three players, same standard of play throughout. Only the length of the record changes.

The second line is what turns a share into points. Your form on its own is a number between zero and one and means nothing to a reader, so it is measured against the spread of everybody else's form: sit exactly at the average and you are at 1,200, sit one standard deviation above it and you are at 1,550, two above and you are at 1,900. That is why the ladder is spaced the way it is, and why the top rungs are genuinely rare rather than just high-sounding.

It is an average, not a counter. This is the part that surprises people

Word game scores add up. Streaks add up. A Trivia rating does neither. It is an average of how you compare, so playing another game does not add to it, it folds one more result into it.

Playing more does not raise your rating. Playing better than the field does.

Ten more games at your usual standard leaves you roughly where you were, which is exactly what an average should do. Ten games well above your usual standard move you up. Ten below move you down. A long record does not make the number bigger; it makes the number harder to move, in both directions, because each new answer is a smaller share of the total.

The flip side is the fairest thing about it. A player with forty games and a player with four hundred are on the same scale. Turning up every day is a lovely habit and it will not, on its own, put you above somebody who plays twice a week and answers better.

Your first thirty answers, and why a new rating moves

Under 30 compared answers you do not have a rating yet. You have a record being built. Each game puts roughly eight compared answers on it, so most players cross the line somewhere in their fourth or fifth game, and the first number lands the next time ratings are worked out.

When it does land, it will often look higher or lower than you expected, and then wander over the following week. That is the steadying weight letting go. Early on it is pulling you toward the middle and hiding how good you actually are; later it stops mattering and your real form shows through. Nothing changed about you. The record simply got long enough to trust.

A step chart showing the highest rating that can be published at each length of record: 1,499 up to 100 compared answers, 1,649 up to 150, 1,849 up to 250, 1,999 up to 400, and the player's own form beyond that. — The published number is held at the top of the band your record covers, and climbs toward your form as the record grows.

There is a second, deliberate hold on top of that, and it is the reason points and titles never disagree. The number on your profile is capped by the length of your record: below 100 compared answers it will not show above 1,499, below 150 not above 1,649, below 250 not above 1,849, below 400 not above 1,999. Past 400 the cap is gone and the number is simply your form.

Compared answers on your recordHighest rating your points can show

Under 30No rating yet

30 to 991,499

100 to 1491,649

150 to 2491,849

250 to 3991,999

400 and upYour form, uncapped

The title ladder

Six titles sit on the scale, and each one asks for two things: enough rating points, and a long enough record to believe them.

A chart of the Trivia title ladder showing Club Player from 900, Expert from 1,300, Candidate Master from 1,500, Master from 1,650, International Master from 1,850 and Grand Master from 2,000, with the compared answers each band needs. — Points on the scale, and the record each band asks for.

TitlePoints, and the record it needs

Grand Master2,000+ · 400 compared answers

International Master1,850+ · 250 compared answers

Master1,650+ · 150 compared answers

Candidate Master1,500+ · 100 compared answers

Expert1,300+ · 30 compared answers

Club Player900+ · 30 compared answers

Below 900Rated, points shown, no title name

Below Club Player there is no title on screen, only your points. That is on purpose: a rung with a discouraging name on it is worse than no name at all, and the points already tell you where you stand.

The bands were not chosen to sound impressive. They were drawn against the shape of the field so that each one lands near a share of the rated players, with Grand Master near the top one per cent, International Master near the top three, Master near the top ten and Candidate Master near the top twenty. As the field grows those shares drift a little, because the scale follows the field rather than a fixed table.

RatingRoughly where that sits in the rated field

2,000 and upNear the top one per cent

1,850 and upNear the top three per cent

1,650 and upNear the top ten per cent

1,500 and upNear the top twenty per cent

1,300 and upNear the top forty per cent

Around 1,200The middle of the field

Titles from Candidate Master up carry a short chip beside your name on the boards. Everything from Club Player up shows in full on your profile.

How to actually raise it

Four things move the number, and they are not the four people assume.

1. Be right firstA wrong answer beats nobody, however fast it was. Speed only ever breaks ties between people who were both right, so accuracy is the whole foundation and speed is the decoration on top.

2. Then be quickTwo players who both got it right are separated by the clock, and that separation is real rating movement. Read the question while it is on screen, before the choices go live, so the seconds you spend are spent deciding rather than reading.

3. Chase the hard onesThe questions where most people fail are where a right answer is worth the most, because you beat almost the entire field on that one question. Every game has an expert and a very hard question in it. Those two are where ratings are made.

4. Stop guarding the easy onesA question everybody gets right, quickly, moves your rating almost not at all, whichever way it goes. Getting it right is table stakes, not progress. Spend your attention where the field is struggling.

One practical note that follows from all of the above: breadth pays. A player who answers across all twenty topics meets more questions where the field is weak, and those are the profitable ones. A specialist who plays only their best topic spends most of their answers in a crowd of other people who are also good at it.

And one thing that does not help: replaying what you already know. Each numbered Quick 10 game is playable once, so there is no farming a set you have seen. The comparison is always against people who faced the same ten.

Topic ratings: twenty ladders, not one

Alongside your overall rating you carry a rating in each of the twenty topics, worked out exactly the same way but only from your answers in that topic, and measured against the field for that topic alone. Being good at Mythology is a claim about Mythology, so it is compared only with other people answering Mythology.

Topic ratings start much sooner. Ten compared answers in a topic and you are rated there, which is often a single game or two if the deal was kind. The volume each title asks for is smaller in the same proportion: Candidate Master, Master and International Master each need 25 compared answers in the topic, and Grand Master needs 60. The published number is held at 1,499 until 25 and at 1,999 until 60, the same idea as the overall cap.

10Answers to be rated in a topic

25For Candidate Master upward

60For a topic Grand Master

20Boards to climb

Every topic has a boardEach one carries a Score tab and a Rating tab. The Rating tab is the one that answers who is actually best at this, rather than who has played it most.Yours are on your profileEvery topic you have been rated in shows with its points and title, best first, and each one opens that topic's board.The fastest title on the siteA weak topic is the cheapest place to earn a name, because ten answers gets you rated and twenty-five opens the higher bands.

What is in each of the twenty topics

Since topic ratings are earned topic by topic, it helps to know what you are walking into. Here is the honest range of each one, in summary. No questions, because the questions are the game.

TopicWhat the questions are about

ArtMaterials and techniques first, then movements, museums and makers. The easy end names tools and surfaces; the hard end goes into regional traditions and specific works.

BooksCharacters, authors and plots at the easy end, then plays, poetry and world literature. The deep end favours forms, translators and the books people name-check.

BrandsWho makes what, where it came from and what the name means. It climbs from household logos to founding dates, old advertising lines and the stories behind emblems.

CultureFestivals, food customs, dress, dwellings and religious practice from everywhere rather than one part of the world. The topic most likely to take you somewhere new.

Everyday MathArithmetic you can do in your head, then percentages, averages, areas and probability. The hardest rungs name results rather than asking you to calculate them.

FoodIngredients, dishes and origins, then technique and the chemistry of cooking. Expert questions lean on regional specifics and the trade behind a spice.

GamesBoard games, card games, puzzles and video games together. Rules and counts at the easy end; designers, histories and the deeper corners of chess, bridge and mahjong at the top.

HistoryWorld history rather than one country's. Empires, treaties, revolts and voyages, with the hard end reaching well past the usual syllabus.

Human BodyBones, organs and systems, then cells, hormones and finer anatomy. It starts with what you can point at and ends where only anatomists go.

LanguageWords, their origins and how languages work. Everyday translations and collective nouns low down; writing systems, sound change and endangered languages high up.

TopicWhat the questions are about

MoviesDirectors, casts and titles across Hollywood, Bollywood, anime and European cinema. The top end is cinematographers, festivals and the films critics keep returning to.

MusicNotation and instruments, then artists, bands and composers across pop, jazz, classical and world music. Theory sits at the hard end beside historical firsts.

MythologyGreek and Norse, certainly, but also Slavic, Egyptian, Japanese, Polynesian, Mesopotamian and South Asian story. A broad reader beats a classicist here.

NatureAnimals, plants and the physical world outdoors. Definitions and life cycles at the easy end; behaviour, ecology and rare phenomena at the top.

PlacesCapitals, rivers, seas, mountains and borders. It starts with the map you already carry and ends on islands and lakes you will have to think about.

SciencePhysics, chemistry, earth science and biology in one topic, plus the people who did the work. Everyday cause and effect low down, named effects and discoveries high up.

SpacePlanets, moons, missions and stars. Phases and orders at the easy end; orbits, solar structure and modern cosmology at the hard end.

SportsRules, scoring and clubs across football, athletics, cricket, motorsport and more, plus Olympic history. The expert rungs are dates, records and famous incidents.

TechnologyHow the things around you work: files, screens, networks and the parts inside a machine. It climbs into protocols, standards and the history of computing.

TVShows, characters and channels from several countries at once. British, American and Japanese television all appear, and the hard end rewards watching outside your own schedule.

Read that list as a map of where your answers are cheap and where they are expensive. The topics you skim past are usually the ones where the field is thinnest.

Reading a Trivia profile

Every player with a username has a public Trivia profile, and it is the place all of this becomes concrete. Your own is always at /trivia/me.

The tilesGames played, average score and best game, with a TOP N% badge on any of the three where you are in the top tenth of players. These are score facts, not rating facts, and they answer a different question.

Title and pointsYour title, your rating points, your place on the Ratings board, and the full ladder with your rung marked. If your form is ahead of your published points, the gap is the record cap closing.

The next stepOne line saying exactly what the next title needs: the points, the compared answers, or both. It counts answers honestly and never promises that a number of games will deliver points.

Every topic playedEach topic with your points out of 1,000 and your accuracy in it, best first, and separately your rated topics with their titles. This is the fastest read on where to spend your next game.

The distinction worth holding on to: score and rating are two different measurements of you. Average score says how many points you tend to put on the board. Rating says how you did against the people who faced your questions. A player can have a modest average and a strong rating because the games they played happened to be brutal, and the rating is the one that knows that.

Your main OUTLIER profile carries a Trivia card with your title and points that opens the full record, and the profile menu has a switch to hide it if you would rather keep Trivia to yourself.

Send it on

The share row at the top of this piece sends the whole explanation in one link, which is usually what you want when somebody asks why their rating went down after a good week.

Your rating itself is shareable too: your Trivia profile has its own link and its own card, so a friend who opens it sees your title and your points rather than a generic page. Every result, every board and every numbered Game has the same, and a shared Quick 10 result deals the opener the exact same ten questions you faced. That is the only fair kind of challenge in a game built on comparison.

The complete Trivia guideHow the game itself works: Today's Ten, the numbered Quick 10 games, scoring, the clock and the boards.The Ratings boardEvery rated player in order. This is where the titles live.Play a gameRoughly eight compared answers a time. The rating takes care of itself.