Having a system in place which displays the overall leaderboards for a game makes for good design as well as increases the re-playability of said game. Many gamers are competitive by nature and want to show off their skills in any way possible. A global leaderboards provides them an avenue to show off the hard work they have put into the game to the world. The re-playability comes into factor as players joust for the opportunity to have their name shown on the leaderboard.
Examples[]
Madden Football Franchise – The Madden football franchise has been played competitively for a long time. Players practice and play the game for hours on end in attempts to become the best madden player. Madden offers a way for the players to take the game seriously to gauge how they are doing compared to the competition. They are able to track their progress and see results in real-time via the global leaderboard.
Audio Surf 2 - In Audiosurf 2 the player can see a global score board for everysong in every playstyle. Along with this the player can play levels and see where the previous player score increased throughout the song. This makes it feel like the player is always racing against other players that have previously played the song.