the math, explained plainly
How the scoring
actually works.
The itspizza.com leaderboard isn't a star rating. It isn't an average. It's a weighted ranking system built on one idea: your #1 pick should count for more than your #10.
The point system
Every list gives out 55 points total — 10 for your #1, 9 for your #2, down to 1 for your #10. Each pizzeria accumulates points across every list it appears on.
A real example
Say three people submit lists and Di Fara Pizza appears on all three. Here's how its score accumulates:
Di Fara Pizza — Brooklyn, NY
sauceboss99's list
ranked #1
+10 pts
margherita.vida's list
ranked #3
+8 pts
thincrustpurist's list
ranked #2
+9 pts
total score
27 pts · 3 lists
A place on 50 lists at #1 will always beat a place on 500 lists at #10. That's intentional — passion outweighs popularity.
Common questions
Can I game the system by submitting multiple lists?
No. One account gets one list. Your list can be updated every 30 days but each update replaces your previous submission — not adds to it. Creating multiple accounts to vote multiple times violates our terms and any accounts we identify doing this get removed.
What if I haven't eaten at 10 places worth ranking?
Submit however many you have. A list of 3 is honest. A list of 10 filled with places you don't genuinely love helps nobody. Quality over quantity.
Does the score account for regional bias?
Not yet — this is something we're actively thinking about. Right now a city with more users has more influence on the global leaderboard. We're building regional leaderboards and a normalization layer so that a world-class Neapolitan pizzeria isn't buried by sheer volume of submissions from larger markets. It's a hard problem and we want to get it right.
How do you verify people have actually eaten at these places?
We don't — and we're at peace with that. The 10-slot constraint is the integrity mechanism. You only get 10 picks. Every place you add bumps something else down. Nobody lies about their top 10 the way they lie in a star rating — it costs you something to include a place you don't genuinely love.
Why are only verified places scored?
Verified places are matched to a real Google Maps listing via their unique Place ID. This means "Lucali" and "Lucali Brooklyn" and "lucali pizza Carroll Gardens" all resolve to the same place and their votes combine. Unverified text entries still appear on your personal list but don't accumulate toward the leaderboard score until matched.
What's coming
Live
Weighted leaderboard based on top 10 list submissions, verified via Google Places
Live
City and style filters, real-time stats, place popups with Maps links
Soon
Public profiles and eaten-at lists — your lifetime pizza passport
Soon
Regional leaderboards — best in New York, best in Naples, best in Tokyo
Soon
Verified pizzeria profiles — claim your listing, add your story
Later
Regional normalization for the global leaderboard — equal weight regardless of submission volume by geography
Later
Community reactions and list browsing — explore other people's pizza lives
Have a question about the scoring that isn't answered here? hello@itspizza.com