The math, explained plainly

How The Scoring
Actually Works.

The itspizza.com leaderboard is not a star rating. It is not an average. It is 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. Your #1 gets 10, your #10 gets 1. Each pizzeria accumulates points across every list it appears on.

Rank
Weight
Points
#1
10 pts
#2
9 pts
#3
8 pts
#4
7 pts
#5
6 pts
#6
5 pts
#7
4 pts
#8
3 pts
#9
2 pts
#10
1 pt

A Real Example

Three people submit lists. Di Fara Pizza appears on all three.

Di Fara Pizza — Brooklyn, NY
sauceboss99 — ranked #1+10 pts
margherita.vida — ranked #3+8 pts
thincrustpurist — ranked #2+9 pts
Total27 pts · 3 lists

A place on 50 lists at #1 will always beat a place on 500 lists at #10. Passion outweighs popularity.

Common Questions

How Top Pizza Cities Are Ranked

The three city pills on the leaderboard show the cities whose pizzerias have accumulated the most weighted points across all submitted lists. A city earns its spot not by having the most submissions, but by having the highest-scoring places. One transcendent pizzeria that everyone ranks at #1 can put a city on the board.

The cities update automatically as new lists are submitted. As the community grows, cities will rise and fall based on where the best pizza is being discovered and ranked.

Common Questions

Can I game the system?
One account, one list. Updates replace your previous submission. Accounts found gaming get removed.
What if I haven't eaten at 10 places worth ranking?
Submit however many you have. A list of 3 is honest. Quality over quantity.
Does the score account for regional bias?
Not yet. Regional leaderboards and normalization are coming so great pizzerias aren't buried by volume from larger markets.
How do you verify people have eaten at these places?
We don't — and we're at peace with that. The 10-slot constraint is the integrity mechanism. Nobody lies about their top 10 the way they lie in a star rating.

What's Coming

Live
Weighted leaderboard, Google Places verification, city filters, Near Me, eaten-at lists
Live
Community page — browse public lists, Slice Junkie badges, sort by eaten-at count
Soon
Regional leaderboards — best in New York, Naples, Tokyo
Soon
Verified pizzeria profiles — claim your listing
Later
Regional normalization for the global board
Later
SMS-powered announcements — updates pushed live from anywhere

Questions? [email protected]