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The Tier List format
A tier list is a short-form video that sorts a set of items into labelled bands - conventionally S, A, B, C and D, with S as the highest - on a grid that stays visible on screen while the creator places each item and defends the controversial placements. Unlike a numbered countdown it allows ties, shows the whole judgement at once rather than withholding a single winner, and is designed to be disagreed with at every placement rather than only at the end.
Reference format
- Also known as
- tier list video, s tier ranking video, tier ranking short, s a b c d ranking
- Platforms
- TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels
- Typical length
- 30-60 seconds
- Difficulty
- Medium - the grid has to stay readable on a phone
Why the tier list format works
It holds attention by exposing the judgement, not by hiding it
A countdown works by withholding number one. A tier list has nothing to withhold - the grid is visible from the first frame and fills up in public. What keeps the viewer is the opposite mechanism: they can see which items have not been placed yet, and one of those is the one they care about. The open loop is not 'what wins', it is 'where does mine land', and the viewer chooses their own loop from the pool on screen.
Bands are honest in a way a strict order is not
Most opinions are not ordered, they are grouped. You know four things belong at the top without believing any one of them beats the others. Forcing that into positions one through four invents a claim you do not actually hold, and viewers can feel the invention. A tier list lets you be certain where you are certain and vague where you are not, which reads as expertise rather than as hedging.
It scales to sets a countdown cannot handle
A countdown is capped at about five items before the middle sags. A tier list can absorb ten or twelve, because items sharing a band get placed together and cost a second each rather than a full beat. If your topic has twenty candidates, the countdown format forces you to throw fifteen away before you start.
It offers many surfaces to argue with instead of one
A countdown gives the comment section a single disagreement: your number one. A tier list gives it as many disagreements as there are items, and they are all visible simultaneously, so a commenter can dispute three placements in one comment. The format has been enormously popular on YouTube - the platform reported more than a billion views of videos with 'tier list' in the title in the first six months of 2025.
Anatomy of a tier list
The beat structure below is the reusable part of the format - the thing that stays constant while the subject changes. Timings assume a video around 30-60 seconds; scale them proportionally.
Show the labelled bands and the full pool of unplaced items, and state the category in one sentence.
Why: The viewer needs to see the shape of the video immediately - how many bands, how many items, how long this will take. It is also where they spot the item they have an opinion about, which is the thing that keeps them watching.
Three or four items that nobody will contest, placed fast with a word or two each.
Why: Fast uncontested placements establish that you are not going to explain everything, which buys you the right to spend eight seconds on a placement that matters. They also visibly reduce the pool, which reads as progress.
One item placed lower or higher than expected, with a single line of reasoning.
Why: This is the beat that tells the viewer the list has a point of view. A tier list where everything lands where the audience expected is a summary of consensus, and consensus does not get commented on.
The item everyone came to see, held back until near the end and then placed with your actual argument.
Why: This is the closest thing the format has to a reveal and it is the only real lever on completion rate. Mention it early - 'we will get to this one' - and place it late. Placing the popular item first means the video has nothing to hold anyone with for the remaining thirty seconds.
Hold on the completed grid long enough to read it, then ask which placement is wrong.
Why: The full grid is the screenshot people quote in comments and stitches, so it needs a still beat. And 'which one did I get wrong' outperforms a generic prompt because the viewer is looking at a finite set of specific things to name.
Hook patterns that fit this format
Templates, not scripts. Swap the bracketed terms for your subject.
- Every [category] ranked, and one of these is going in D tier
- You are going to disagree with exactly one of these
- Ranking every [category] - and no, [popular item] is not S tier
- S tier is only for [strict criterion]. That disqualifies most of these
- I put [beloved thing] in C tier and I will explain why
Common mistakes
Putting everything in S and A
A tier list with no bad tier is not a list, it is a compliment. Something has to go low, and you have to say why in one sentence. The low placements are where the comments come from - almost nobody argues about what you liked.
Too many items for the screen
Cap at ten to twelve. On a phone, five bands with more than about six items per row makes each thumbnail unreadable, and an item the viewer cannot identify is an item they cannot disagree with.
Placing the item everyone came for in the first ten seconds
Name it early, place it last. The pool of unplaced items is the format's only retention device, so the most-wanted item has to stay in the pool.
Explaining every placement
Defend two or three, and let the rest land silently or with a single word. Uniform commentary flattens the video and buries the placements that were actually arguable.
Not saying what the tiers mean
State the criterion once at the top - S is 'would buy again', not 'good'. Undefined tiers produce comments about your criteria instead of about your opinions, which is the least interesting argument available.
Using a tier list when the topic has one obvious winner
If the whole point is which single item is best, a numbered countdown is the stronger format - it can withhold that answer, and a tier list cannot. Tier lists are for sets where the interesting information is the shape of the grouping.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a tier list and a ranking countdown?
A countdown puts items in a strict order and withholds the top one, so its retention comes from an unanswered question and it caps out at about five items. A tier list groups items into bands, allows ties, shows the entire judgement on screen as it is built, and handles ten or more items. Use a countdown when the payoff is a single winner you can hold back. Use a tier list when there are too many items to order honestly, when ties reflect what you actually think, and when you want to be argued with about several placements at once rather than one.
Why is S above A?
The convention came out of competitive gaming communities, where a rank above A was borrowed from Japanese grading and ranking screens - S is variously read as 'special', 'super', or the Japanese 秀 (shū), 'exemplary'. It spread from fighting-game character rankings into general use, which is why the scale looks like an academic one with an extra grade bolted on top.
How many items should a tier list short cover?
Eight to twelve. Below eight the grid looks empty and a countdown would have been tighter. Above twelve the thumbnails stop being legible at phone size and the pace required to place them all leaves no room to defend anything.
Do I have to use S, A, B, C, D?
No, and renaming the tiers is one of the cheapest ways to give the format a voice - bands named for what they actually mean ('would rebuy', 'only on sale', 'never again') carry more opinion than letters do. But keep the count at four or five and keep the order obvious; a viewer who has to work out which end is good has stopped looking at the items.
Where should the F tier go?
Include one only if something genuinely belongs there. An empty joke tier at the bottom wastes a row of screen space on a phone, and a tier list is fundamentally constrained by how much of the grid is legible at once.
Can ViraShort build a tier list?
ViraShort does not build tier lists yet - there is no tier grid or drag-to-place layout in the editor. The closest format it does build is the ranking countdown, which is genuinely adjacent: if your topic has five or fewer items and a single winner worth withholding, the countdown is the better structure anyway and ViraShort makes it end to end.
Related formats
- Ranking CountdownA ranking countdown is a short-form video that presents five or so items in descending numbered order, using the unresolved question of what places highest to hold a viewer through the middle of the video.
- ListicleA listicle is a short-form video that presents a fixed number of items about one subject in an order that carries no meaning, using an on-screen counter to give the viewer a sense of progress.
- Would You RatherA would you rather short is a vertical video that presents the viewer with a series of two-option dilemmas, one at a time, and forces a choice between them with no third answer available.