Game Center Overview – Apple Developer

Leaderboards

Leaderboards let players participate in new competitions within your game and challenge other players to beat their score. Players see how they rank among global players, as well as their Game Center friends. You can even create a friends-only leaderboard in your custom UI. Classic leaderboards are ongoing and maintain a player’s score forever. Use these to showcase scoring for overall or lifetime events, such as all-time number of matches won or the shortest time taken to complete a level. Recurring leaderboards are short lived and expire, then repeat after a set time, such as daily, monthly, or weekly. Use recurring leaderboards for timed live events — for example, to show the most matches won in a week. You can use one or both leaderboard types in your game.

Players can receive push notifications about leaderboard activity — such as when someone passes their score — so they can stay on top of the latest activity in your game and stay engaged.

Achievements

Achievements are special milestones that indicate when a player has successfully reached a particular goal in your game. You decide which achievements are relevant to your game and worth offering to your players. Players see achievements as locked, in progress, or completed. You can also create hidden achievements, which only appear once they’re completed. Consider using hidden achievements to prevent spoilers in your game and to surprise and delight players. You can provide up to 100 achievements, each of which can award up to 100 points, and your game can award up to 1,000 points in total. Keep these limits in mind when releasing the initial version of your game, as you may want to add new achievements in future updates. For variety, consider creating a set of achievements that require dedication and a range of skills to complete.

Challenges

Challenges let players compete directly with friends to beat a high score or accomplish a specific achievement. By default, challenges are not displayed on the dashboard. Opt in to display challenges on the dashboard using App Store Connect.