Deploy and Host Leaderboard on Railway

A full-stack real-time leaderboard app with live score updates via WebSockets.

Features

Real-time updates via Socket.io — scores update live for all connected users
Next.js frontend with a clean, responsive UI
Node.js + Express backend with a REST API
Redis for fast sorted-set leaderboard storage
Demo mode — auto-generates fake scores so your leaderboard is always active
Admin dashboard to manage players, toggle demo mode, and view activity
Multi-timeframe leaderboards: all-time, daily, weekly

About Hosting Leaderboard

This template deploys three services on Railway: a Node.js/Express/Socket.io API backend, a Next.js frontend, and a Redis database. The backend handles score submissions and real-time broadcasting via WebSockets. Redis stores sorted sets for fast rank lookups. The frontend connects to both the REST API and the Socket.io server to display live-updating scores. All services are pre-wired with reference variables so they connect automatically on first deploy.

Common Use Cases

Gaming leaderboards for web or mobile games
Hackathon or competition scoreboards
Employee recognition or gamification dashboards
Live event scoring (trivia, esports, contests)

Dependencies for Leaderboard Hosting

Node.js 18+
Redis 7+
Next.js 14+

Deployment Dependencies

dannysummers/leaderboard — source repository

Implementation Details

The backend uses Express with Socket.io for real-time score broadcasting. Redis sorted sets power O(log N) rank lookups. The frontend is a Next.js app that polls the REST API and subscribes to Socket.io events for live updates. CORS and Socket.io origins are automatically wired via Railway reference variables.

Why Deploy Leaderboard on Railway?

Railway is a singular platform to deploy your infrastructure stack. Railway will host your infrastructure so you don't have to deal with configuration, while allowing you to vertically and horizontally scale it.

By deploying Leaderboard on Railway, you are one step closer to supporting a complete full-stack application with minimal burden. Host your servers, databases, AI agents, and more on Railway.