From watching several servers move up the rankings, it appears somewhat arbitrary to me and also that GT 'promotes' certain servers to rank 1, to garner interest / excitement etc. then drops them to 'promote' the next server that they want.

So GT - please tell us how exactly the rankings are worked out, so us Admins have a better understanding of the process / algorithm and can use that information to assist in promoting our servers.

It's pretty obvious, but ranking is the popularity of a server in comparison to the other servers within the same game over the past week. Correct - GT does NOT allow you to buy or manually adjust ranks.

No - GT won't be able to fully detail ranking just for you to exploit it.

If you are not satisfied with your rank because you believe your server is inherently better than others, get more traffic to your server.

Most servers tend to have a change in IP every now and then as hosts "consolidate" or "upgrade" machines, which accounts for servers dropping off the top spot. There are also changes in playing style before and after a big update that account for a lot of shifts in the top 10 on DayZ. For instance American public servers tend to get a big boost in players after an update, and then drop away after a few weeks. With almost two months since any update, European servers dominate the top 20.

We had the DayZ number one spot for a while, and will no doubt have it again as our new IP is already the first to hit 50 after maintenance. At no point were we "promoted" by GameTracker in any way. Our server was not inherently better than any other, we got to number one simply because we get a lot of Asian and US players during European non-peak times, so our server maintained a high population throughout the night, where as others would see a significant drop.

Look at the charts on your servers page, and click on the 7 day view, it gives a good idea of your popularity at non-peak times for your timezone.