Hearthstone Ranked Play graph illustrates the difficulty of becoming a Legend

Do you ever get the feeling that your quest to become a Hearthstone Legend just isn't going as well as it should? You probably shouldn't lose too much sleep over it: As Blizzard's recently-released breakdown of the Hearthstone Ranked Play ladder shows, the vast majority of players sit in the bottom ten ranks, and less than one percent have achieved the coveted rank of Legend.

"Recently, we've seen some comments from our players that feel they are not performing well in Ranked Play compared to others, or disappointed by the fact that they haven't hit Legend rank. We're here to let you know that you're actually doing better than you think!" Blizzard wrote in a new Hearthside Chat . "In fact, most of Hearthstone's Ranked Play players lie between Ranks 25 and 15. Many players aspire to acquire the unique Hearthstone card back each season that awaits at Rank 20. Even going from Rank 20 to Rank 15 is an impressive feat."

The numbers tell the tale: Fully 75 percent of all Hearthstone players are rated between Rank 25, the entry tier, and Rank 15. Only 7.5 percent of players are at Rank Ten or higher, Rank Five and up has only been achieved by two percent of players, and fewer than 0.5 percent of all players have achieved the Legend Rank. (And yes, the graph does add up to more than 100 percent; Blizzard said it's because of rounding.)

It really shouldn't come as a surprise. Blizzard announced earlier this month that Hearthstone had reached 20 million players in just six months, and even though not all of them are on the Ranked Play ladder, there's still a huge number of people vying for a shot at the title. Working to even the midpoint of a field of that size is, as Blizzard says, quite an accomplishment.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.