The rules of the game
Mechanics
Trusted rankings decide the places. Votes decide the order inside a shared place and light the Spotlight. The official title goes to the nominee the most different people voted for.
- 01
Best ’25: the trusted rankings decide the places
We read the 2025 editions of at least 4 trusted public rankings, in any language (for example The World's 50 Best, La Liste, Skytrax, Times Higher Education, QS, ARWU, the Ballon d'Or, The Guardian). The place of an entry is the number of these rankings that name it: named by 3 is ahead of named by 2. We cannot say one is better than another when both are named by the same number of trusted rankings, so they share the place, for example eight restaurants at =2. Under every entry you see each ranking that names it, with its place there and the link.
- 02
Votes decide the order inside a shared place
Inside a shared place, the entry with the most votes goes first and pushes the others behind it. A vote costs $1.99. Every entry shows how many votes keep it ahead of the next one, or how many it needs to pass the one before it. Votes never lift an entry above one that more trusted rankings name.
- 03
Nominees ’26: one renowned ranking is enough
The contenders of this year are the names in the 2026 editions published so far. One renowned ranking is enough to be nominated. Where an award publishes an official shortlist, such as the 30 Ballon d'Or nominees, that shortlist is the list. Nobody can pay to be nominated.
- 04
Spotlight ’26: the votes decide
The Spotlight is the live board. Every Nominee ’26 is on it from day one with 0 votes, no paid nomination needed, and whoever has the most votes is on top. Votes for a Nominee ’26 count on the Spotlight too.
- 05
Your own nomination
Anyone can add a name to the Spotlight, for any title: a nomination costs $9.50 and counts as the first vote; extra votes are $1.99 each. It appears right away; we remove nominations that break the rules (insults, private data).
- 06
The official result: voters, not votes
On 31 December the official winner of the year is decided by the number of different voters. Ten votes from one person are one voter (one payment card counts as one voter). More money buys more attention, never a bigger count of people.
At a glance
The small print
- A name counts only where its place number stands right next to it on the ranking page. A name that only appears in a sentence, such as “lost its place as the best”, does not count.
- Every ranking page is read twice, by two different AI models, and both reads must give the same names in the same order. Pages that block programs are opened in a real browser.
- The lists are rebuilt once a month from the rankings on the Sources page. When No. 1 changes or many names change, an editor checks the new list before it goes live. News and the daily summary are written every day.
- An edition counts for the year it was published: La Liste “2026” and the THE and QS “2026” rankings came out in 2025, so they are 2025 editions.
- Votes and nominations are paid by card (Stripe, US dollars). Paid votes can change the order inside a shared place, never the place itself.
- The rankings we read are listed on the Sources page.
- It is a summary of what public rankings say and who the public backs, not our own judgement.