W.A.L.S.H. Pulse Composite Ranking Methodology

A composite measure of Instagram engagement rate weighted equally with Instagram audience reach. This ranking does not represent NIL deal value, brand suitability, or on-field performance. It measures how strongly an athlete engages their Instagram audience relative to the size of that audience.

WAER (W.A.L.S.H. Authentic Engagement Rate) is a weighted blend of self, sponsor, and institutional tracks.

How the composite is calculated

For every athlete eligible to appear in a pool, we calculate two percentile ranks within that pool:

• Instagram follower percentile — where the athlete sits relative to all other eligible athletes in the pool by Instagram follower count.
• WAER percentile — where the athlete sits relative to all other eligible athletes in the pool by W.A.L.S.H. Authentic Engagement Rate.

The composite score is the simple average of those two percentiles. Athletes are sorted by composite score descending. Ties are broken by raw WAER value, with the higher WAER ranking first. All percentile and composite values are rounded to one decimal place.

Eligibility

To enter any pool ranking, an athlete must have at least 10 lifetime Instagram posts in the W.A.L.S.H. Pulse database. Athletes below this threshold are excluded from the leaderboard.

Tier bands

Each eligible athlete is assigned to one of five tier bands based on their composite score percentile within the pool. Bands are 20 percentile points wide and lower-inclusive.

• MAGNETICcomposite percentile 80.0 – 100.0
• HIGHLY CONNECTEDcomposite percentile 60.0 – 79.9
• ACTIVELY ENGAGEDcomposite percentile 40.0 – 59.9
• MODERATELY CONNECTEDcomposite percentile 20.0 – 39.9
• PASSIVE PRESENCEcomposite percentile 0.0 – 19.9

Pool-relative percentiles

Percentiles are always calculated within the specific pool or filtered sub-pool being viewed. When a filter is applied (e.g., switching the Offensive Players page from All to Skill), the percentiles recalculate within only the filtered athletes — so an athlete's tier and rank can change even though their underlying follower count and WAER do not.

Universal standard

This methodology is the W.A.L.S.H. Pulse standard for any sport or league. Any new pool added to the product (e.g., NFL Quarterbacks, NBA Players) inherits the same ranking math, eligibility threshold, tier bands, tier colors, and framing copy from a single shared module — only the vertical guard and position filter are pool-specific.