Seasons

Though the developers often discussed Diablo 3 ladders (for PvP and PvE) during Diablo 3's development, there were no such character ranking systems when the game launched, and none were added in patches. Ladders are a common fan request, either for the fun of ladder seasons/resets, or to mark different character types, such as Ironborn, and Blizzard has strongly hinted that ladders are being worked on for inclusion in the Diablo 3 Expansion, or further down the line.

Paragon levels and the Achievements provide something of comparative player or account ranking, though there is no way to view global rankings of any such features on Battle.net. Third party sites such as Diablo3Ladders.com offer ways for participating players to rank their characters by kill score or by all in-game values such as DPS, EHP, etc, sorted by class and many other variables.

Experience Ladders in Diablo III

During development players often requested top level ranking ladders, as we saw in Diablo II. Rankings for PvP were much-anticipated as well. Neither came true, and in retrospect blue comments on the issue show the lack of enthusiasm for those features.[1]

As far as the e-peen meter goes for showing off a higher level character, we think a proper achievement system is much better at this. There’s more variety, they’re more interesting and compelling for people to work toward. One important point of note is that our achievements are cross-character, meaning we can give achievements for things like leveling 5, 10... hell, 20 characters to 60. Certainly a bigger feat than a level 99, and we can give tangible rewards for it too.

Achievements do exist along those lines, but they do not satisfy the desire of many players for a more robust and global ranking, since they can only be viewed one account at a time, rather than on some huge leaderboard.

Ladders Coming in D3X?

Travis Day spoke about future plans for Diablo 3 ladders during a live stream in May 2013. [2]

Will there ever be a ladder?

Travis Day: We’re discussing and looking into it, but I can’t promise that we’ll ever have one.

Ladder seasons some day?
Travis: Everyone keeps asking about this! It’s something we talk about. It’s possible someday. One of the things I want is for Diablo 3 to remain playable for the long term, even after we’re not working on new updates anymore. It’s like D2 where there was hardly anyone working on it long term. Like, 5 years from now we’ll probably not be releasing new content an patches for Diablo 3. We’ll have moved on to working on Diablo4 or whatever.

Ladders work very well for that. They keep the game fresh and reset the economy for people who want to opt into it. That’s great, but it does come with some baggage. But we probably want to have that one day, but I don’t know when we’ll do it or how it’ll work.

Season Wipes for the Ladders?

Many players requested regular seasonal ladder wipes in Diablo 3, and Blizzard's replies were ambivalent on that issue.[3]

will there be ladder resets for the rankings on PvP?—Scyberdragon

Hrm, there’s no intent for design on something like what. Why do you think it would be useful?—Diablo

without resets, new players would have a hard time getting up in the ranks as people who have been playing for years.—ScyberDragon

Since it’s a personal progression system it’s not likely to be something where you’re looking at a leaderboard a whole lot.—Diablo

after a certain amount of time (a couple of months-years) the ladder would probably rarely change as far as the top rankers.—Scyberdragon

Potentially, but it isn’t really a competition in that way. I’ll concede a *shrug* though as most of it is in early design.—Diablo

Well, are matches paired by ranking? New players (lower ranked) will never get to play older players (higher rank)—Scyberdragon

Matches are paired by skill, which isn’t the same as personal progression.—Diablo

well, how is skill quantified/paired then? I assumed you got #up rank based on how well you did therefore rank representing skill.—Scyberdragon

Skill is quantified by your performance (win/lose) versus others. Your rank/personal progression always moves up. Think MW2.—Diablo

then what is the rank for?—ScyberDragon

A way for you to see your progress, compare against friends, and a way for us to (potentially) give some vanity rewards away.—Diablo

Obviously from those comments, the developers didn't think the emphasis of PvP would be on overall rankings. As the PvP system was overhauled and then delayed in D3C, it's unknown how much progress was made on any sort of ladders or character scores.

Diablo II Ladders

In Diablo II there are ladders that rank characters by experience. These are sorted by character class, Hardcore and Softcore characters, and by realm. There have been numerous ladder seasons since Diablo II was released, and since D2X these ladder resets have been used to reset the player population and economy, since ladder characters must be created anew in each ladder season, and can only interact with other ladder characters.

Many players would like to see expanded ladders in Diablo III, with more stats tracked and ranked, along with ladders measuring PvP prowess, as well as guilds, and more. Those sorts of features get added very late in the development cycle, or even after release, so it's unlikely that we'll learn more about ladders for some time, yet.