The leaderboards are a free, open look at what the community is actually getting done, ranked a few different ways so it is not just one number that decides who is on top. There is a board for hobby hours this month and all time, a board for the longest current painting streak, a board for people hosting group sessions, and a board for challenges completed, and you can read all of them without an account.
The hours come from the paint timer built into the app, the streaks from painting on consecutive days, so the boards reward actually sitting down and doing the hobby rather than talking about it, and the top few spots get medals with everyone else ranked below. Every row links to that person's public profile, so a name on the leaderboard is someone you can go and look up, follow, and find in the community showcase.
It is meant as a bit of friendly push, a reason to keep the streak alive or get another session in this month, not a paywalled grind, and like the rest of the hobby side it is free and stays that way. Signing in is what puts you on the boards and highlights your own row, but the rankings themselves are open for anyone to read, and they sit in the same app as the collection, the timer and the sessions that feed them, so the numbers are real rather than something you type in.
Because the boards are split across hours, streaks, hosting and challenges, there is more than one way to end up near the top, the person grinding long painting sessions and the person who just never misses a day both get their own place to stand, and hosting games for other people counts for something too. It is a quiet nudge to keep the hobby moving rather than a scoreboard you have to win, and every name on it is a real person you can go and follow.