What Does S Tier Mean? Tier List Ranks Explained

You open a tier list and the top row says S. Then A, B, C, D, F. School taught you that A is the best grade there is. So what does S tier mean, and why is it sitting above A?

Short answer: S tier means the best of the best. It's the row for things so good that A doesn't feel like enough. Everything else on the list gets measured against it.

Where S tier comes from

The letter comes from Japan. Japanese schools and video games have long used a grading scale that puts S above A. Some say it stands for "superior", some say "special", some say "super". Nobody has a receipt, and it doesn't matter. What stuck is the idea: A is excellent, and S is a step past excellent.

Players saw S ranks in Japanese games first. Finish a level cleanly and you'd get an S. Finish it flawlessly in some games and you'd get SS or even SSS. When fighting game players started ranking characters by how strong they were, they borrowed the same ladder. The strongest picks went in S tier. From there the format spread to every argument on the internet: games, snacks, movies, cereal, your friends' cars.

What each tier means

A tier list only works if the rows mean something. Here's the usual reading, top to bottom.

• S tier. The best. If you could only pick one, it's from this row. Keep it small. If half your list is in S, you've made a list with no S.
• A tier. Great. You'd happily pick anything here, and you wouldn't be surprised if someone else put it in S.
• B tier. Good. Solid, dependable, no complaints, but not the first thing you'd reach for.
• C tier. Fine. It does the job. You wouldn't argue for it and you wouldn't argue against it.
• D tier. Below average. There's a reason it's down here, and you can name it.
• F tier. The bottom. Either it fails at the job or it's just the thing you like least. Some lists call this E tier, but most follow American school grades, which skip E and jump straight to F.

Notice there's no E in the default scale. That's not a mistake. US schools grade A, B, C, D, F, so the tier list format does too. If you want an E, you can add one. It's your list.

S tier, SS tier and beyond

Some lists stack letters: SS tier, SSS tier, even S+ tier. These come from the same Japanese game-score tradition, where SS meant a perfect run and SSS meant you did something ridiculous. On a tier list they usually mean "I ran out of room at the top." Use them if you need them, but a list that needs SSS tier probably needs a stricter S tier instead.

How to use S tier without wrecking your list

The S row is the one people argue about, so it's the one to get right.

1. Rank everything else first. Fill B and C before you touch S. Once you've seen the middle, the top is obvious.
2. Cap it. Pick a number before you start. Three in S is a strong list. Ten in S is a shrug.
3. Ask the hard question. For every S pick, ask "would I trade this for anything in A?" If the answer is maybe, it's an A.
4. Expect pushback. S tier is where the comments go. That's the point. Nobody argues about C.

What people mean when they say something is "S tier"

Outside of lists, "S tier" has become slang. "That sandwich is S tier." "Her playlist is S tier." It just means top of the pile, best in class, nothing comes close. Same idea as the row on the list, minus the drag and drop.

If someone says "that's F tier," you can guess what they mean too.

Make your own

The fastest way to understand S tier is to fill one. Our tier list maker starts you with S through F, lets you rename or recolor any row, and takes text or images. Drag things around, export a PNG, or share a link so your friends can rank the same items and fight back.

Not sure what to rank? Our tier list templates come with the items already loaded. Try the fast food tier list or the candy tier list. Decide what earns S tier, then show your work.