Which states are S-tier and which fall flat? Drag every state into a tier and make your ranking official.
Everything is loaded — drag each into a tier. Missing one? Hit ＋ Add items. Every state already comes with a picture — use 🏷 Image + label to switch to pictures only.
A US states tier list ranks the states from S, the ones you'd move to or keep going back to, down to D. All 50 are in the tray from the start, each tile showing its state flag — California, Texas, New York, Hawaii, Colorado and Michigan included — so there's nothing to type before you sort. Export a PNG once the map feels settled.
Nobody is neutral about the states. That is why this US states tier list maker opens with the loudest ones already on the board — California, Texas, New York, Florida, Colorado, Hawaii and the rest of the usual suspects. Scenery, food, weather, vibes, taxes: pick whichever of those you actually care about and start sorting. The ones still standing near the top at the end have earned it.
Nothing stops you adding Washington, D.C. as a 51st tile — rename the tiers, recolor them if the defaults annoy you, then export a PNG of your US states ranking and let the replies sort themselves out. If tier lists are new to you, how to make a tier list covers the setup, and what S-tier really means is there for when the top row gets uncomfortable.
California, Texas and New York are the loud ones; the quieter states are where a 50 states tier list gets interesting. Alaska and Montana usually rank on scenery alone, Louisiana on food, Nevada and Utah on how you feel about desert. Ohio and New Jersey are the classic punchlines, which is exactly why they deserve an honest look — and so do Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Idaho, Maine and Vermont, which are easy to rush past on a 50-state board. Start with your home state, though — where it lands after a fair sort says a lot.
S-tier is not the same as good. S-tier is the shortlist you would defend across a dinner table without pausing to think — states you would live in, return to, or argue for unprompted. Say next summer allows exactly three road trips: the ones you book first are your S tier US states. A-tier holds the strong all-rounders, B and C absorb the ones that are perfectly fine and nothing more, and D is where the states you would rather fly over end up. Scenery, food, weather, cost of living — whichever of those you started with, do not quietly swap it out by the time you reach row C.
Pick a lens before you start, because each one redraws the map. National parks and mountains pull the West upward, and a beaches board hands the win to Hawaii and Florida. Switch to nightlife and the big-city states climb instead. Climate, affordability and the job market pull in different directions again, and a quality-of-life board rarely matches a road-trip board. So-called flyover states often hold up far better on the practical criteria than their reputation suggests. Your best state and worst state should come from the same test — that's what keeps the middle rows honest.
Fifty tiles is a lot to hold in your head at once, so plenty of people rank one region at a time. The Census Bureau's regions map splits the country into four — Northeast, Midwest, South and West — with New England as its own division inside the Northeast, and each makes a tidy board. A Midwest board settles Michigan versus Illinois versus Wisconsin; a South board puts Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina side by side; a Pacific Northwest board is mostly Washington against Oregon, with Idaho as the wildcard. East Coast versus West Coast works too, if you want the argument as loud as possible.
Those same 50 names work for more than ranking the places themselves. A state flag tier list is a classic, and every tile here already shows its flag, so you can judge the designs instead of the places (the seal-on-a-blue-background crowd tends to sink). State shapes make a sillier board that somehow gets heated, and state capitals suit anyone who has actually visited a few. You can also rank only the states you've been to, or add Puerto Rico, Guam and the other territories to put the whole map in play. Ranking whole nations instead? That's what the country tier list is for.
Browse every ready-made board, or start from a blank one.
Every option is pre-loaded in the tray below — drag each one into a tier from S (best) to D, then click Export PNG to save and share your ranking.
Yes. Hit “Add items” and type anything we missed, one per line. Add, rename, recolor and reorder tiers however you like.
Completely. No login, no sign-up, and no watermark on your exported image.
Nobody gets to declare that one for you. Scenery, food, weather and cost of living are the usual deciders, and the states you'd genuinely choose to live in — or happily revisit — deserve the highest spots.
Yes. All 50 load in the tray with their flags — drag each one into a tier, and export once the last state is placed.
There's no single official answer — counts differ depending on whether they measure domestic trips, overseas visitors or spending — but Florida, California and New York are the names that keep coming up. All three are on this board already. Popularity with tourists doesn't guarantee an S, though: crowds, prices and traffic are fair reasons to rank a famous state below a quieter one you liked more.
Yes, and it's often easier than sorting all 50 at once. Clear the board or start a blank one, add a single region's states one per line, and rank that group by itself. New England alone is six states — Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut — which makes a quick first board. Work through a few regions, then rank the winners against each other.
You can, as long as you're honest about it. Most rankings mix states people know well with ones they only know from TV, road signs and a single airport layover. One simple fix: add a row called “Haven't been” and park the unknowns there, or keep separate boards for visited states and reputations. Either way, a D for a state you've never set foot in says more about its reputation than about the place.
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