The IFPA is pleased to announce that our Player of the Year for 2025 is 17 year old Arvid Flygare from Lund, Sweden. Arvid competed in 45 events during the 2025 season racking up an incredible 4243.41 WPPR points. Arvid currently sits as the #4 ranked player in the world.

Arvid was the IFPA Player of the Month in January and November, having won 10 of the 45 tournaments he played in during 2025, while finishing in the top 4 in 53% of them.

Arvid’s highlights during 2025 included earning three more Top 4 finishes in Major Championships, finishing 3rd place at the Pinburgh Match Play Championships, 3rd place at the 2025 European Pinball Championship, along with a 3rd place finish at the IFPA20 World Pinball Championship.

The IFPA wishes to congratulate Arvid on all of his success throughout this 2025 season!

The IFPA is pleased to announce that our Rookie of the Year for the 2025 season is James Chalki from Australia. This award is given to the player that earns the most WPPR points in their first year of active play.

James played in 36 events during the 2025 season earning a total of 376.99 WPPR points. James participated in his first IFPA sanctioned tournament on March 1st at the  Beercade 5. Since entering the World Pinball Player Rankings at that time, James has seen his rank increase to 758th in the world.

James’ greatest achievement of 2025 was finishing in 7th place at the Australian Pinball Open Main Tournament, netting himself 61.26 WPPR points from that finish. Overall, James placed in the top 4 at 58% of the 2025 events he played in, a truly remarkable achievement.

Congratulations to James, our 2025 IFPA Rookie of the Year!

The IFPA is proud to announce that Jason Zahler has finished at #1 on the World Pinball Player Rankings, thus earning IFPA’s top honor as the 2025 “World’s Greatest Pinball Player”. No single tournament victory will ever secure this title for a given year. Only consistent play at the highest level over the course of multiple years leads to players reaching the pinnacle of the World Pinball Player Rankings. This is the second time that Jason has been crowned the World’s Greatest Pinball Player and one of seven players in history to receive this award (Keith Elwin (7), Jorian Engelbrektsson (3), Raymond Davidson (3), Zach Sharpe (2), Johannes Ostermeier (1) and Escher Lefkoff (2) being the other six).

Jason played in 12 IFPA sanctioned events during the 2025 season. His greatest achievements of 2025 were winning TWO Major Championships in the same season, both the IFPA World Pinball Championship and the Pinburgh Match-Play Championship, earning him 713.64 WPPR points for just those two events. Overall, Jason won 75% of the 12 events he played in, while placing in the top 4 at 92% of his 2025 events, a truly remarkable achievement.

Congratulations to Jason, and best of luck to everyone on the upcoming 2026 season in the race for #1. Jason will receive his WGPP trophy at the IFPA21 World Pinball Championship in Wisconsin in June.

The IFPA is proud to announce that Jason Zahler has finished at #1 on the World Pinball Player Rankings, thus earning IFPA’s top honor as the 2024 “World’s Greatest Pinball Player”. No single tournament victory will ever secure this title for a given year. Only consistent play at the highest level over the course of multiple years leads to players reaching the pinnacle of the World Pinball Player Rankings. This is the first time that Jason has been crowned the World’s Greatest Pinball Player and one of seven players in history to receive this award (Keith Elwin (7), Jorian Engelbrektsson (3), Raymond Davidson (3), Zach Sharpe (2), Johannes Ostermeier (1) and Escher Lefkoff (2) being the other six).

Jason played in 21 IFPA sanctioned events during the 2024 season. His greatest achievements of 2024 were winning TWO Major Championships in the same season, both the IFPA World Pinball Championship and the Pinburgh Match-Play Championship, earning him 714.56 WPPR points for just those two events. Overall, Jason won 33% of the 21 events he played in, while placing in the top 4 at 71% of his 2024 events, a truly remarkable achievement.

We’ve seen a few two-player races develop over the past 18 years that we’ve crowned the “World’s Greatest Pinball Player” title, with the difference between Jason and Escher Lefkoff being only 10.09 WPPR points. This difference was even tighter going into the last month of the season with both players finding themselves in the #1 position. This represents the 3rd closest race in history (although you can easily argue with the current WPPR inflation values compared to previous seasons, this was the closest race of all time). The 2013 season had a 7.92 WPPR point difference with Zach Sharpe finishing just ahead of Keith Elwin. The closest race ever was in 2014 when Jorian Engelbrektsson finished ahead of Keith Elwin by 7.58 WPPR points.

Congratulations to Jason, and best of luck to everyone on the upcoming 2025 season in the race for #1. Jason will receive his WGPP trophy at the IFPA20 World Pinball Championship in Austria in June.

The IFPA is pleased to announce that our Player of the Year for 2024 is 21 year old Escher Lefkoff from Longmont, Australia. Escher competed in 42 events during the 2024 season racking up an incredible 4260.25 WPPR points. Escher currently sits as the #2 ranked player in the world.

Escher was the IFPA Player of the Month in July, August and September, having won 16 of the 42 tournaments he played in during 2024, while finishing in the top 4 in 74% of them.

Escher’s highlights during 2024 included earning his 4th Major Championship at the 2024 European Pinball Championship. He also finished in 2nd place at the PAPA World Championships, 2nd place at the Pinburgh Match Play Championships, along with a 4th place finish at the IFPA19 World Pinball Championship.

The IFPA wishes to congratulate Escher on all of his success throughout this 2024 season!

The IFPA is pleased to announce that our Rookie of the Year for the 2024 season is Jaden Rich from Louisville, OH. This award is given to the player that earns the most WPPR points in their first year of active play.

Jaden played in 88 events during the 2024 season earning a total of 640.68 WPPR points. Jaden participated in his first IFPA sanctioned tournament on January 5th at the Kidforce Friday Night Knockout. Since entering the World Pinball Player Rankings at that time, Jaden has seen his rank increase to 412th in the world.

Jaden’s greatest achievement of 2024 was finishing in 12th place at the Cleveland Pinball and Arcade Show Main Tournament (a Stern Pro Circuit event), netting himself 55.32 WPPR points from that finish. Overall, Jaden placed in the top 4 at 27% of the 2024 events he played in, a truly remarkable achievement.

Congratulations to Jaden, our 2024 IFPA Rookie of the Year!

The IFPA is proud to announce that Escher Lefkoff has finished at #1 on the World Pinball Player Rankings, thus earning IFPA’s top honor as the 2023 “World’s Greatest Pinball Player”. No single tournament victory will ever secure this title for a given year. Only consistent play at the highest level over the course of multiple years leads to players reaching the pinnacle of the World Pinball Player Rankings. This is the second time that Escher has been crowned the World’s Greatest Pinball Player and one of six players in history to receive this award (Keith Elwin (7), Jorian Engelbrektsson (3), Raymond Davidson (3), Zach Sharpe (2) and Johannes Ostermeier (1) being the other five).

Escher played in 58 IFPA sanctioned events during the 2023 season, facing 2023’s World #2 Jason Zahler 11 times (going 7-4 against Jason in those events). His greatest achievements of 2023 were winning TWO Major Championships in the same season, both The Open IFPA World Championship and the European Pinball Championship, earning him 639.86 WPPR points. Overall, Escher won 43% of the 58 events he played in, while placing in the top 4 at 64% of his 2023 events, a truly remarkable achievement.

Congratulations to Escher, and best of luck to everyone on the upcoming 2024 season in the race for #1. Escher will receive his WGPP trophy at the IFPA19 World Pinball Championship in California in June.

The IFPA is pleased to announce that our Player of the Year for 2023 is Escher Lefkoff from Colorado. Escher enjoyed the fruits of the WPPR v5.8 rules and racked up an incredible 4,102.67 WPPR points during 2023.

This is where I typically list all of the achievements from the Player of the Year, however it’s the second time in IFPA history that the Player of the Year is also the player that won the World’s Greatest Pinball Player award. We’ll just leave that fact here and move on.

The IFPA wishes to congratulate Escher on all of his success throughout 2023!

The IFPA is pleased to announce that our Rookie of the Year for the 2023 season is Casey Fowler from Glen Burnie, MD. This award is given to the player that earns the most WPPR points in their first year of active play.

Casey played in 76 events during the 2023 season earning a total of 260.79 WPPR points. Casey participated in his first IFPA sanctioned tournament on January 24th at the Crabtowne’s Tuesday!. Since entering the World Pinball Player Rankings at that time, Casey has seen his rank increase to 1166th in the world.

Casey’s greatest achievement of 2023 was winning 7 of those Crabtowne’s Tuesday! events throughout the year, netting himself 81.73 WPPR points from those victories. Overall, Casey placed in the top 4 at 43% of the 2023 events he played in, a truly remarkable achievement.

Congratulations to Casey, our 2023 IFPA Rookie of the Year!

The IFPA is pleased to announce that our Player of the Year for 2022 is 16 year old Viggo Löwgren from Furulund, Sweden. Viggo competed in 104 events during the 2022 season racking up an incredible 2293.68 WPPR points. Viggo currently sits as the #7 ranked player in the world having moved up from the #17 ranking at the start of the year.

Viggo was the IFPA Player of the Month in January, March and November, having won 28 of the 104 tournaments he played in during 2022, while finishing in the top 4 in 59% of them.

Viggo’s highlights during 2022 included victories at The Swedish Championships and Borås Pinball Open main tournaments, netting him 138.78 WPPR points for those two first place finishes.

The IFPA wishes to congratulate Viggo on all of his success throughout this 2022 season!