Ranking of Kings began as a webmanga written and illustrated by Sōsuke Tōka, published since May 2017 on the user-submitted website Manga Hack of Echoes.

In April 2023 it was announced that the manga would be temporarily suspended; publication resumed in December 2024.

Many character names are puns or anagrams: Bojji is a contraction of the Japanese words 'bocchi' (lonely) and 'ōji' (prince), Kage means 'shadow', Domas comes from 'Sword Master', Hiling refers to the English word 'healing', Bosse to 'boss', and Apeas, Dorshe, Desha and Ōken are anagrams of 'spear', 'shield', the god Hades and 'sword king' respectively.

The Tokyo Federation for the Deaf supervised the sign language shown in the anime to ensure accurate representation.

The anime's music was composed by MAYUKO, with opening themes by King Gnu and Vaundy and ending themes by Yama and Milet for the first and second season parts respectively.

BookLive and translator Dragon Digital Japan apologized in November 2023 after it was revealed that the English translation of the manga (volumes 1 through 7) on BookWalker was partly plagiarized from illegal pirate translations.

By December 2021, more than 1.5 million copies of the manga had been in circulation, and the series was nominated for, among others, the Tsutaya Comic Awards 2019 and the Angoulême International Comics Festival Youth Selections in 2023.

In China the anime was enthusiastically received for its heartwarming story and the series achieved nearly 48 million views on Bilibili while only four episodes were available.