Apex Legends Ranked Reset Explained (2026): Season Start and Split Two

Apex Legends doesn't let you keep a rank for long. Every season wipes the ladder once, and halfway through it drops you again. The two resets work in completely different ways: one is hidden and personal, the other is a fixed table that treats every Diamond II the same. This guide explains both as EA describes them on 2 November 2026, with the landing spot and the RP gap for every tier, the reward rules that make a drop hurt less, and what to expect when Season 31 "Cipher" starts on 3 November 2026.

Two resets every season

EA Help puts it plainly: "A Season is about three months long", and ranked resets twice in that time, once when the season starts and once at split two. Season 30 "Marked" shows the rhythm:

1. 4 August 2026Season 30 starts

   Season-start reset: everyone is placed again from hidden Ranked MMR. Ranked maps World's Edge, Storm Point and E-District.

2. 15 September 2026Split two

   Six weeks in. EA's fixed table drops every rank; the map pool changes to World's Edge, Olympus and Broken Moon.

3. 3 November 2026Season 31 "Cipher" starts

   The next season-start reset. EA scheduled the patch notes for 2 November; its earlier posts give no split-two date.

Each reset is a fresh climb on the same ladder: the same tiers, the same RP per division and the same entry cost per match. Our Apex ranks guide shows the full ladder.

Season start: placed from hidden MMR

When a new season begins, EA doesn't use a table. "At season start you are placed from your Ranked MMR", the hidden rating the matchmaker keeps for you, and "if you're new to Ranked, your MMR from Unranked Trios will be used as your Ranked MMR." There are no placement or provisional matches: you open the ranked tab on day one and your new badge is already there.

Because the MMR is hidden, nobody outside EA can tell you exactly where you'll land, and EA publishes no formula. What you can say is that the placement reflects how you've actually been playing, not just the badge you ended on. A player who reached Diamond in the last days of a season on a lucky run may start lower than one who sat in Diamond all split. EA also fixed a bug in May 2026 (the Overclocked patch) where "players near tier boundaries could sometimes be placed lower than others" after a season reset, so a placement that felt too harsh before then may genuinely have been one.

Split two: EA's fixed table

Split two is the opposite: no MMR, just a table. EA Help lists where every rank goes and how much RP it lands with:

Rank before split two	Lands on	RP after the reset	Back to your old tier
Bronze IV–I	Bronze IV	1,000	Back to the start of Bronze
Silver IV–I	Silver IV	3,250	Still Silver, 250 RP into Silver IV
Gold IV–I	Gold IV	5,750	Still Gold, 250 RP into Gold IV
Platinum IV–I	Platinum IV	8,750	Still Platinum, 250 RP into Platinum IV
Diamond IV – III	Platinum III	9,250	2,750 RP to Diamond IV
Diamond II – I	Platinum II	10,000	2,000 RP to Diamond IV
Master and Apex Predator	Platinum I	11,000	5,000 RP to Master

EA Help, "How Apex Legends Ranked works" (read 1 November 2026). The last column is worked out from the division floors in our ranks guide. Rookie has no row in EA's table.

The extra 250 RP for Silver, Gold and Platinum is what EA's table calls demotion protection: Silver lands on 3,000 + 250, Gold on 5,500 + 250 and Platinum on 8,500 + 250, so a few bad games right after the reset don't push you straight into the tier below: at Platinum's 48-RP entry, 250 RP covers five bottom-half finishes without a kill. Bronze lands exactly on 1,000.

How far each reset sets you back

For most of the ladder split two is mild. A Silver, Gold or Platinum player keeps the tier and only loses the divisions climbed inside it. A Gold I player at 7,750 RP, for example, lands on 5,750: 2,000 RP below where they were, but still Gold.

From Diamond up it bites, for two reasons:

• You leave the tier. Diamond IV–III go to Platinum III with 2,750 RP back to Diamond; Diamond II–I go to Platinum II, 2,000 RP short of Diamond IV and 4,000 short of where a Diamond II player was.
• Master and Predator fall furthest. They restart on Platinum I at 11,000 RP: 1,000 RP to Diamond IV, then all four 1,000-RP Diamond divisions again, 5,000 RP in all.

The climb back is cheaper per match at first, because Platinum matches cost 48 RP to enter instead of Diamond's 65 or Master's 90, and a top-half finish earns the entry back as usual. Expect tough Platinum lobbies, though: right after the reset everyone from Diamond II to Predator sits between 10,000 and 11,000 RP, and the matchmaker builds lobbies from players of similar RP, so early split-two Platinum games are full of former Diamonds and Masters. How RP is scored is covered in Apex RP explained.

Rewards: your best split counts

A reset drops your rank, not your reward. EA Help: season-end rewards follow your highest rank from either split. If you reached Diamond in split one and finished split two in Platinum, you still get the Diamond reward.

There's one reason to climb back anyway. "You'll get an animated version of the Season-end reward badge if you match the rank you achieved in the first split." Reach the same rank again in split two and the badge animates; finish lower and you get the standard badge for your best rank. For a split-one Master, that means climbing the 5,000 RP from Platinum I back to Master before the season ends.

What a reset doesn't touch

The next resets: Season 31 and Season 32

Season 31 "Cipher" starts on 3 November 2026 with a normal season-start reset from hidden MMR. EA's announcements so far (the Ranked Roadmap of 20 October and the Cipher posts of 29 and 30 October) don't give the split-two date or say whether the split-two table changes; EA scheduled the patch notes for 2 November. If Season 31 follows Season 30's rhythm, split two would come about six weeks in, around mid-December, but that's a pattern, not an announcement. The other Season 31 changes, such as Legend bans and three visible demotion shields, are in Season 31 ranked changes.

Season 32, "early 2027", resets onto a different ladder: Iron instead of Rookie, a new Emerald tier, four Masters divisions and Grandmaster on top. EA hasn't said how today's ranks will map onto it, so any "you'll start in Emerald" claim online is a guess. See the Season 32 overhaul.

Getting back after a reset

If split two dropped you and the season's end is close, our rank boost prices the climb back division by division from the same engine as checkout. Platinum I back to Master, the split-two drop of a Master player, is $93.24 today, and Platinum II to Diamond IV $20.16. We boost up to Master, not Predator. Apex Legends boosting isn't open for orders yet: get the launch alert on the Apex Legends page. Boosting conflicts with EA's rules, which call account sharing and paid levelling by third-party sellers unauthorized; read the Risk Disclosure and is Apex boosting safe? before you decide. Coaching is the option that stays inside the rules.

• Back to your rank: Rank Boost, piloted or duo in your squad.
• Hold it this time: 1-on-1 coaching with a Master+ player.
• Something that never resets: the 4K damage badge stays on your banner for good.

Related guides: Apex ranks explained · Apex RP explained · reaching Master and Predator · Season 31 ranked changes