Why matchmaking ratings form a bell curve
Matchmaking rating (MMR) systems, including Elo and its derivatives such as Glicko and TrueSkill, assign each player a skill number that rises with wins and falls with losses. Across a large population, these ratings tend to cluster around the median and thin out toward the extremes, producing an approximately normal (bell-shaped) distribution. Most players sit near the middle, with progressively fewer at very high and very low ratings.
Rank tiers in competitive games are usually drawn as percentile bands over this curve, which is why the middle ranks contain far more players than the top ones.
Why average ranks feel lower than they are
Because the bulk of players occupy the central tiers, being genuinely above the median can still place a player in a rank that intuitively sounds unimpressive. Reaching the top few percentiles requires a rating well into the thin tail of the curve, so high tiers are mathematically rare by design.
This distribution shape also explains matchmaking behavior: the system can find evenly matched opponents quickly near the crowded median, while very high-rated players wait longer because few comparable opponents exist.