The Badminton World Federation (BWF) is the governing body of professional badminton. The BWF is responsible for organizing the badminton tour and overseeing how professional shuttlers are ranked to make their mark at the global stage.
Based on their performances in tournaments organized by the BWF, players are given ranking points. The amount of points a player gets is based on the level of the tournament in which they entered and how they fared in the event. The Grade 1 events are the highest tier of events and comprise the World Championships and Olympic Games. The winner of these events gets 13000 points.
The BWF World Tour events make the Grade 2 category. There are six sub-categories in this event that are named from Level 1 to Level 6. The winner of a Level 1 & Level 2 events is rewarded with 12000 points while the winner of a Level 6 event wins 5500 points. Events from Level 2 to Level 6 are called the “Super” tournaments. Grade 3 comprises of the BWF Continental circuit. The three subcategories of events are International Challenge, International Series and Future Series. Winners are awarded 4000, 2500 and 1700 points respectively.
At the end of the season (52 weeks), the ten best performances of the player are taken into consideration for determination of their ranking. The rankings also help in determining the qualification for Summer Olympics, World Championships and BMF World Tour Championships.
The maximum points a player can accumulate as of 2023 is 125000. Viktor Axelsen holds the records for accumulating the highest points between 2020-22 (122606 points).
