# Ranking Rules

> How upvotes are counted and how each week’s rankings are decided.

Canonical: https://spotlighted.app/ranking-rules
Last updated: 2026-11-09

## Launch weeks

- A launch week runs Monday 00:00 to Sunday 23:59 UTC
- Each product is ranked only against products in the same MRR stage that launched the same week
- Only upvotes cast during the launch week count towards that week’s ranking

## Who can upvote

- You need to be signed in, and you get one upvote per product. You can take it back while the week is live
- You need to have opened the product’s website from Spotlighted first, so upvotes come from people who had a look. On a board, the first press of the upvote button opens the website; press it again to upvote
- Makers can’t upvote their own products
- One account can cast up to 20 upvotes a minute, and upvotes from one network are rate limited too

## Vote weight

Upvotes are weighted by the age of the voter’s account when the vote is cast. The count you see is the number of upvotes; the ranking uses their weights.

| Voter’s account | Weight |
| --- | --- |
| Less than 7 days old | 0.5 |
| 7 days old or more | 1 |

## Hidden counts on the first day

- For the first 24 hours of each launch week (until Tuesday 00:00 UTC), that week’s upvote counts and ranks are hidden and its board is shown in random order
- Every launch gets a fair first look whatever its makers’ time zone, and early votes can’t snowball
- Upvotes cast on the first day still count. From Tuesday the counts show and the board is ranked

## Ranking and winners

- Products rank by score: the sum of their upvotes’ weights during the launch week
- Ties go to the product with more upvotes, counted without weights, then to the one approved first
- The top 3 in each MRR stage each week get a winner badge, once the week has ended
- Sponsored rows are labelled “Sponsored” and sit outside the ranking

## Fair play

- Don’t vote from several accounts, swap votes in groups or pay for votes
- We may remove votes or listings that break these rules. The wider rules are in the [Community Guidelines](https://spotlighted.app/guidelines)