How To Calculate NFT Rarity: 3 Solana NFT Rarity Tools

Collecting NFTs can be an exciting practice. Some collectors compare the feeling of minting NFTs to opening a fresh pack of collectible cards - the outcome is never certain, but there’s always an opportunity to stumble across something rare and valuable.

One way to be the first to mint new collectibles, is to sign up on desired NFT whitelists.

However, there are others who want to approach collection by using more precise methods such as calculations or using NFT rarity tools, and get their NFTs off the secondary markets.

Such approaches help you to discover opportunities where an NFT rarity (or in other words, market value) and list price are off-balance.

As rarity is one of the most important factors in determining the value of an NFT, it’s important to understand how you can figure out how rare an NFT really is. In this article, you will find some methods to calculate NFT rarity as well as find some Solana NFT rarity tools.

Traditional Methods to Understand the Rarity of an NFT

Usually, there are three methods used to understand NFT rarity, which take into consideration attributes or traits such as clothes, fur, hat, glasses, background, necklaces, etc.

Let’s take a look at the traditional rarity calculation methods in more detail.

Trait Rarity Ranking

The trait rarity ranking is basically comparing the rarest attributes of each NFT from their collection and establishing which items are more valuable than others.

When you go on an NFT marketplace such as MagicEden and select a collection and find an NFT that you like, various traits of this collectible are displayed.

On the image above, you can see some rare traits of the DeGod #5313 NFT. The rarest attribute for this specific NFT is the “Supernova” background as only 2.6% of this collection's NFT have this trait.

Now, let’s compare this NFT to another one from DeGods collection.

The rarest trait in DeGods #6076 NFT is its “Radioactive Tee”, as only 1.2% of NFTs in the collections share the same attribute.

Using the trait rarity ranking method, DeGods #6076 would be higher up in the ranks as its rarest trait is rarer than the rarest trait of DeGods #5313.

However, this method’s weakness is that it considers only the rarest attribute of each NFT and the rest of traits are overlooked.

Often when comparing several NFTs, you need to take a deeper look to determine the remaining traits too as using only the rarity ranking method the overall rarity of the NFT is left unanalyzed and you just look at a single value for every NFT.

Average Trait Rarity

Average trait rarity considers all the attributes of an NFT and compares the average rarity of all the NFTs from the collection to help you understand, which is the rarest.

Let’s assume that an NFT has only two attributes to make the example simple.

• An attribute with 50% of rarity
• An attribute with 15% of rarity

The Average Trait Rarity of this NFT would be 32.5% and calculated as follows - (50+15)/2.

So now let's take a look at DeGods NFTs #5313 and #6076 again.

• DeGods #5313 average trait rarity = (2.6 + 11 + 4.7 + 4.3 + 55 + 3 + + 54 + 7.3 + 91 + 89)/10 = 32.19%
• DeGods #6076 average trait rarity = (2 + 2.5 + 54 + 1.2 + 5.7 + 3.4 + 2.1 + 4.2 + 91 + 89) = 25.51%

By using this method, we can see that overall, DeGods #6070 would be considered rarer. And while comparing these two NFTs, we got the same result of which NFTs of this collection are the rarest, it’s not always the case.

The weakness of this method is that it ignores the value of an individual rarest trait and only shows the overall average rarity.

Statistical Rarity

Statistical rarity method multiples all the trait rarities to get the overall rarity of an NFT. Often communities put these statistics into a spreadsheet to get a good overview of what the collection has to offer.

To calculate the statistical rarity for an NFT that would have two attributes, one at 50% rarity and other at 15% rarity the calculation would be as follows.

Statistical rarity = 50% (0.5) x 15%(0.15) = 0.075%

So once again, let's take a look at the DeGods NFTs discussed above.

• Statistical rarity of DeGods #5313 = 2.6% x 11% x 4.7% x 4.3% x 55% x 3% x 54% x 7.3% x 91% x 89% = 0.000000003044838832%
• Statistical rarity of DeGods #6076 = 2% x 2.5% x 54% x 1.2% x 5.7% x 3.4% x 2.1% x 4.2% x 91% x 89% = 0.0000000000042717858%

By using the statistical rarity method, once again we can consider DeGods #6076 rarer.

This method is rather simple and straightforward, and many believe it to be more reliable than other traditional rarity calculation methods.

However, each community has its own preferences on which aspects to prioritize when ranking NFTs as the rarest.

NFT Rarity Tools

If using traditional rarity calculation methods seems too much work, the easier way to check the rarity of your NFTs on the Solana blockchain is simply using rarity rolls that collect data of all NFTs in collection and give them rarity rankings.

Here are some of the rarity tools that can help you determine your Solana NFT's rarity.

Hyperspace NFT

Hyperspace NFT (formerly known as Solanalysis) is one of the largest and most popular rarity tools on the Solana blockchain. Their platform collects data from every Solana NFT from all the Solana NFT Marketplaces helping users understand how rare their (desired) NFT is.

Moreover, their Solana NFT analysis dashboard includes a calendar with upcoming SOL mints, which easily allows users to keep an eye on new projects and potentially be part of something exciting.

HowRare

HowRare allows users to discover the data behind the NFT market that runs on Solana blockchain. Besides data visualization, they also offer a Rarity Calculator, which gives an estimate of a specific NFT’s rarity.

Rarity Sniper

Rarity Sniper lets users explore data on Solana NFTs as well as NFTs on other blockchains like Ethereum.

To find the collection you are interested in, you can browse their database and select your desired blockchain to filter the results, or simply type in the collection you are looking for information on.

Final Words

While rarity plays a big role in determining the value of NFTs, the rarity score should not come in the way of you grabbing the NFT you feel good about - the one’s whose art resonates with you and who as a team you strongly believe in.

So remember that even when rarity checking tools help you pinpoint the rarity or NFTs, it cannot be used as an investment advice as after all, other factors like aesthetics and stories also contribute to the value of an NFT.