What percent of mobile apps have a leaderboard or ranking screen?
6.8% of tracked apps (55 of 809) have a captured leaderboard or ranking surface [1]. So leaderboards are a rare, niche gamification pattern — under 1 in 14 tracked apps — even rarer than streaks (11.6%), the pattern they most resemble. Competitive ranking only fits a narrow set of social and habit-forming apps.
55 of ~800 tracked apps (6.8%) have a leaderboard or ranking screen — Lazyweb Research, July 2026.
The finding
55 of 809 apps (6.8%) show a leaderboard [1]. It is roughly half as common as streaks and sits near the bottom of the gamification prevalence ladder [2].
| Gamification pattern | Apps | % |
|---|---|---|
| Streaks | 94 | 11.6% |
| Celebration / success | 96 | 11.9% |
| Leaderboard | 55 | 6.8% |
How to apply it
Leaderboards need a social comparison that motivates rather than demoralizes, which is why they are rare — they backfire in apps where users are on individual journeys [1]. They fit competitive fitness, learning, and social apps. If you are considering one, streaks (nearly 2x as common) are usually the safer first gamification bet; add a leaderboard only when peer comparison is genuinely motivating for your users.
Caveats
Lower bound — reflects only leaderboard screens Lazyweb captured [1]. With only 55 apps, this is a small-numerator pattern; treat the 6.8% as an order-of-magnitude, not a precise rate. Match on '%leaderboard%', deduped by company.
The numbers
| Stat | Computed from |
|---|---|
| 6.8% (55 of 809) | prevalence_leaderboard: 55/809 |
| Streaks 11.6% (94), Celebration 11.9% (96), Leaderboard 6.8% (55) | prevalence_streaks, prevalence_progress_celebration, prevalence_leaderboard |
Sources & citations
- [1] Lazyweb Research analysis of 809 mobile apps (809 mobile apps with >=1 captured screen; 751 with tag data; median 41 screens/app), July 2026. Prevalence = COUNT(DISTINCT company_name) over LLM synonym tags; denominator is 809 tracked apps (reported conservatively over all apps-with-screens, not the 62,376-row companies table). Lower bound: only reflects screens Lazyweb captured (median 41/app). ↩
Source: Lazyweb Research — proprietary analysis of real, in-market app screens. Cite as Lazyweb Research, 2026-07-07.