Leaderboards and OrderedDataStores

Introduction

Leaderboards drive competition and retention. Roblox provides built-in leaderstats for session stats and OrderedDataStore for persistent global rankings. This hub covers both approaches with UI integration patterns.

Session Leaderstats

Create a Folder named 'leaderstats' in the player object. Add IntValue children for each stat. These appear in the default Roblox leaderboard automatically. Update values server-side. Leaderstats reset each session—they are not persistent.

Global Rankings with OrderedDataStore

OrderedDataStore stores numeric scores sortable across all players. Use :SetAsync(userId, score) and :GetSortedAsync(false, pageSize) for top-N queries. Cache results and refresh periodically—OrderedDataStore has strict rate limits.

Use Cases

• High score tracking
• Weekly competitions
• Friend rankings

Best Practices

• Cache leaderboard data client-side
• Rate-limit score submissions
• Validate scores server-side

Troubleshooting