Mobile and console games
Global, regional and friends-only boards are separate sorted sets, updated after every match.
Core dataGaming
Real-Time Leaderboards
Live rankings for games, sports and social apps, with score updates and reads running in parallel.
- sorted on write
- Always
- command for the top 10
- 1
- command for a player's rank
- 1
Step 1 of 5
Record a score
A match ends and the result is written.
Example sessionplaying
# Record a score
hotkv> ZADD board:2026-w42 1500 alice
(integer) 1
An animated walkthrough with real HotKV commands and example replies. Click any step to jump to it.
The problem
A leaderboard is written constantly and read constantly. Every score change can reorder the table and every player expects to see their rank right away. Recomputing rankings in a relational database does not hold up once traffic grows.
How HotKV handles it
Sorted sets keep members ordered by score as they are written, so the top of the table and any player's rank are always ready to read. HotKV executes commands on many worker threads, so score updates and reads are not funnelled through one thread.
Step by step
What happens, command by command
- 01
Record a score
A match ends and the result is written.
ZADD board:2026-w42 1500 alice - 02
Add to a score
Bob wins a round. His score grows and the order updates at once.
ZINCRBY board:2026-w42 250 bob - 03
Show the top 10
Every client and the stream overlay read the leaders while writes continue.
ZREVRANGE board:2026-w42 0 9 WITHSCORES - 04
Where do I stand?
Each player sees their own position.
ZREVRANK board:2026-w42 alice - 05
Weekly reset without a job
Each week has its own key and expires after two weeks.
EXPIRE board:2026-w42 1209600
Where it fits
Real-world scenarios
Fitness and learning apps
Weekly streak and points rankings reset themselves by switching to a new key each week.
Live events and esports
Broadcast overlays read the standings every second while results stream in.
Built in
What you get
Always-ordered rankings
No ranking job to run. The order is maintained as scores arrive.
ZADDZINCRBYTop lists and player rank
One command each.
ZREVRANGEZREVRANKMany worker threads
Score updates and reads are spread across worker threads instead of one.
Periodic boards
One key per period with an expiry.
EXPIRECommon questions
How do I build a daily or weekly leaderboard?
Use one sorted set per period, such as board:2026-w42, and set an expiry on it.
Can I combine boards?
Yes. ZUNIONSTORE adds several boards into one, for example a monthly board from four weekly ones.
Will heavy writes slow down reads?
HotKV runs commands on multiple worker threads, so score updates and reads are not forced through one thread.
Related use cases
Try it on your own workload
HotKV speaks the Redis protocol, so you can point an existing client at it and run these same commands.