Platinum | Valorant Rank Explained

Ladies and gentlemen, let's learn what it means to be a Platinum player in Valorant!

Platinum Rank Valorant
Everything you need to know about the Platinum rank in Valorant! | © Riot Games

If you've checked out our previous articles on Valorant ranks, you know that the Gold is a tier made to separate the good players from the outstanding ones. And well, the outstanding ones find their way to Platinum after a short period of time, and they make up only 16.2% of the entire Valorant community with the following distribution:

RankTop % of all players% of all players in this rank
Platinum 131.6%6.4%
Platinum 225.2%5.2%
Platinum 320%4.6%

Now, this is where the "big boy stuff" starts to happen. Like, it basically means that statistically, you have the skills to beat more than 75% of the entire player base. And honestly, it's not a hard rank to get; you just need to get on one sweet win streak in Gold and you'll be good. Some people really think that the Deathball concept is one of the best strategies to get into the Platinum tier. If you want to learn more about it, be sure to check out this article: Does Deathball Work in Valorant?

How Good is Platinum Rank in Valorant?

If you are a Platinum player, this basically means that if you would find yourself in a room of 100 Valorant players, you'd statistically beat about 85 of them – that's how good you are. You are significantly better than a majority of the player base; maybe it's not the VCT level, but you are pretty good at the game. If Platinum is your first rank, you should be proud of it, as even some of the pro players started their ranked ladder climb in lower ranks.

Platinum deathball
You're not a pro, but still know how to click some headshots. | © Riot Games

Even though you are not TenZ yet, if you have reached this rank and have a lot of time to dedicate to the game, we think that you might want to consider making an amateur team participate in online tournaments. You are good enough to have a good chance of winning one, and it would be an excellent way to practice.

How Many Hours Do You Need To Achieve Platinum?

If you have played other FPS games before (like CS:GO), you might get to Platinum in less than 350 hours.

However, if shooters are entirely new to you then well, it could take you 1000 hours or even more, depending on how regularly you will practice. We really think that getting to this rank requires some serious dedication; at the end of the day, it's just the top ~25% of the entire player base, so this rank clearly isn't for everyone.

Ways To Improve From Platinum in Valorant

  • Take a break if you need one. We know that lots of Platinum players grind hard to get to that sweet Diamond rank. However, it can be super overwhelming, and we think that grinding that hard could be seriously counterproductive, leading to massive loss streaks. If you start tilting by your enemies just using their abilities, you've had enough, and it's time for a break. You won't lose all of your muscle memory if you take a weekend off and hang out with some of your friends, and you might re-gain your fun of playing the game.
  • Practice lineups and strategies. There are maps like Bind or Breeze where lineups just win games. Even if you main Reyna, try to come up with some new 200IQ brain strategy that might be good in the current metagame. You could even consider asking your duo partners for ideas. A lot of internal links, we know, but it just shows why you might want to visit our website more often if you want to improve at the game.
  • Focus on your weakest points. Maybe you lack skills during the pistol rounds? Or you just can't win a game on a specific maps? Whatever that is that you need to still practice – focus on it. If you are already good with Vandal or Phantom, there's no need to practice it all the time; there are other weapons in the game.
  • Learn proper communication. You're in the big ranks now, and how you convey information about the enemy team should change. Screaming and pinging out where an enemy is located on any map like Fracture won't simply do it anymore. Make sure to learn and practice proper map callouts, as well as tell how much damage you've dealt to the enemies. Another piece of information you should practice giving is what abilities the enemies used. This can help out tremendously to your team to win duels, for example knowing that Reyna used all his flashes if they were fighting against him.
Szymon Bielawski
Szymon Bielawski