Transparent by design
A fair launch, with clear rules.
Version 1 · 24 October 2026. Only actual eligible activity creates a rank or a winner.
What do current and peak players mean?
Current players come from Valve’s GetNumberOfCurrentPlayers endpoint, captured outside page rendering and timestamped in UTC. Counts older than 30 minutes are labeled Players at last check. Unavailable counts stay unavailable; zero is shown only if the endpoint actually returned zero. Steam chart peak comes from peak_in_game in Valve’s most-played rollup. Its precise peak window is not established here, so it is neither labeled peak today nor all-time peak. Current and rollup observations can differ, and current players can exceed an earlier rollup peak. Schedule the protected steamplayers job regularly; a local import is not a deployed live feed.
Which games count as indie or solo?
The indie view contains cited maker examples and itch.io’s own lists. Solo development origin describes the creator’s original or core development work, not a claim that every port, soundtrack, update, publishing or support task was done alone. Maker & source on each researched game explains the scope. A studio name or one Steam developer label alone does not establish team size. New releases are Valve’s monthly release selections, not a universal newest-game ranking.
Which games can enter?
An approved, playable community submission can enter once, within seven days of its first approval. Imported or editorial games cannot enter. Prototypes without a playable demo and coming-soon listings cannot compete. No existing audience, revenue, player or wishlist minimum is required.
What is the competition window?
Each competition runs from Monday 00:00 UTC until the following Monday 00:00 UTC, end exclusive. The database clock sets the period; browser time and time zone cannot change it. Approval with Arena opt-in enrolls the game, or its owner can enter from their dashboard during the eligibility window.
How are games ranked?
Only unique, eligible votes count. One vote per user, game and competition is enforced by a database uniqueness constraint. Accounts must have verified email, be at least 24 hours old and remain unbanned. Makers cannot vote for their own games. Page views, revenue, referrals, feedback counts, sponsored placements and payments have zero ranking weight.
What happens on a tie?
Equal vote totals are ordered by earlier entry time, then stable launch ID. Zero-vote games display no numeric rank and cannot win. A winner is recognized only after the period closes and a maintenance/finalization job succeeds. At least one eligible vote is required. Historical vote totals are frozen at finalization; moderation can revoke a badge if abuse is discovered.
How do new games get seen?
Fresh community launches are listed by approval recency independently of vote totals. Game directory filters expose browser, free, development status, AI-tool disclosure and games seeking testers. No secret popularity score decides who can appear.
What stops vote manipulation?
Verified accounts, account age, maker exclusion, per-account and network rate limits, unique votes, honeypot checks and audit records. A salted network fingerprint is stored rather than a raw IP address. The sixth distinct voting account on a network in a day is held for manual review; shared networks may be legitimate. Moderators can flag/restore votes or disqualify a game, with an audit trail. These controls reduce abuse; they do not establish a bot-free system.
What does an outbound visit mean?
The Play Now redirect records at most one referral per game and salted network fingerprint per UTC day, excluding known prefetch requests. It never proves a game loaded, a person played, a sale happened or a download occurred. Referrals do not influence organic rankings and are retained for 90 days.
Where do game listings come from?
Developer submissions and a bounded selection from itch.io's documented public RSS feeds. Imported candidates require moderation and a real game review; asset demonstrations and tools are held back. Original project pages and artwork are attributed. Browser play opens the developer's project; no unapproved iframe embedding is used. App Store game observations remain on their original country chart pages; platforms and metrics are not merged.
Can someone buy #1?
No. Sponsored placements are labeled and separate from organic competition, eligibility, votes and winners. Manual sponsorship invoicing does not buy Arena rank or guaranteed players. No self-serve payment provider is connected.
Source documentation: itch.io RSS feeds. Concerns or appeals: support and corrections.
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