A bump chart in Power BI: rankings over time, no RANKX needed

In short

What is a bump chart? It is a chart of rankings: each line follows an entity (a product, a team, a region) and its height gives its rank in each period, with the leader at the top. You see at a glance who climbs, who falls, who enters the ranking and who leaves it.

Mini example. In 2023, Alpha sells 400, Bravo 300, Charlie 200: Alpha is 1st, Bravo 2nd, Charlie 3rd. In 2024, Bravo rises to 350 and Alpha drops to 300: the lines of Alpha and Bravo cross.

• What the visual does. Bump Plume computes the rank of each entity in each period from a measure (no RANKX needed), puts rank 1 at the top, keeps the first N and shows entries ▲ and exits ▼, writes the names at both ends of the lines and draws the evolution period by period. As premium features (★), it also offers guided playback (▶ button, play bar), steps, a metro map, ribbons sized by value, rank changes, ranking zones and a Ranks / Values switch.
• When to use it. Sales ranking by product or store, market shares, sports standings, sales rep leaderboards, delivery lead times (fastest first).
• When to use something else. When value gaps matter more than places: Line Plume. For the composition of a total: Bar Plume with stacked bars.
• What you will learn. Prepare the data, insert the visual, choose how to rank, set the Top N, read entries and exits, replay the evolution.
• What you need: Power BI Desktop, the Bump Plume visual installed (see the common basics), a table with a period, an entity and a value. The PlumeBumpChart-Sample-EN sample report, in your "Downloads" area, shows the ranking of 12 brands (page 1), a league, market shares and lead times (page 2) and the premium designs ★ (page 3).

The data to provide

The shape. One row per period and per entity, with a value. The visual ranks the entities in each period: it needs neither a rank column nor a RANKX measure.

Year	Brand	Revenue
2023	Alpha	400,000
2023	Bravo	300,000
2023	Charlie	200,000
2024	Alpha	300,000
2024	Bravo	350,000
2024	Charlie	100,000
2025	Alpha	200,000
2025	Bravo	380,000
2025	Charlie	250,000

To try it without a file: Modeling › New table, then paste:

Sales =
DATATABLE (
    "Year", INTEGER,
    "Brand", STRING,
    "Revenue", DOUBLE,
    {
        { 2023, "Alpha", 400000 }, { 2023, "Bravo", 300000 }, { 2023, "Charlie", 200000 },
        { 2024, "Alpha", 300000 }, { 2024, "Bravo", 350000 }, { 2024, "Charlie", 100000 },
        { 2025, "Alpha", 200000 }, { 2025, "Bravo", 380000 }, { 2025, "Charlie", 250000 }
    }
)

Then the measure (right-click the Sales table › New measure):

-- Sum of revenue in the current context (one year, one brand)
Total revenue = SUM ( Sales[Revenue] )

Pitfalls.

• Periods can be a date, a year, a month, a round number or a sorted category ("2025-Q1"). A date or a number is put back in order by the visual; text follows Power BI's sort order ("R10" before "R2": prefer a number).
• A period without a value for an entity: it is not ranked in that period (the line breaks). A value of 0 is ranked.
• With the automatic date hierarchy, pick the level you want (Year, Month) or use the date column without the hierarchy.

Step by step

1. In the Visualizations pane, click the Bump Plume icon. An empty visual shows "Add fields to get started".
2. Drag Sales[Year] into Axis (time). The message names the field still missing.
3. Drag Sales[Brand] into Legend (entity).
4. Drag the Total revenue measure into Value (ranked by the visual). The lines draw themselves from 2023 to 2025: Alpha 1st in 2023, Bravo 1st in 2024 and 2025. The rank is written in each marker, the names at the start and the end.
5. Hover over Charlie's line: it comes forward and the others fade; the tooltip gives the rank, the value, the change since the previous period and the best rank.
6. Click Bravo's line: the page is filtered on Bravo. Click an empty area to go back.
7. Open Format › Ranking. Set Number of entities (Top N, 0 = all): with your own data, 10 keeps the first 10 in each period. An entity that leaves drops into the "Outside the top 10" row (▼) and comes back up when it returns (▲).
8. Still in Ranking, choose Rank 1 = Lowest value when the smallest wins (times, costs, lead times).
9. Filter the page on another set of brands (slicer or a click in another visual): the points glide to their new place; with new data, the lines redraw themselves period by period.
10. Open Format › Design › Design and try Sharp breaks or Stacked ribbons (ribbon chart); go back to S-curves.

Troubleshooting

What you see	Likely cause	Fix
"Add what is ranked… in Legend (entity)"	The Legend well is empty	Drag the entity (product, team…) into Legend (entity)
A single column of points	Only one period (filter, or date hierarchy at Year level with one year)	Change the hierarchy level or the filter
Ranks differ from RANKX	Different tie method, or ranking direction	Format › Ranking › Ties = Standard (like RANKX Skip), Rank 1 = the right direction
Some entities are missing	Top N set to 10	Number of entities = 0 for all
Periods are out of order	Text axis sorted alphabetically	Use a numeric column or sort the text column by another column (Sort by column)
"Nothing to rank"	The measure is blank for every entity	Check the measure and the filters
A "Premium preview" watermark	A ★ feature is used without a key	Go back to the free setting or paste your key in Format › Plume Studio License

Key takeaways

• One row per period and per entity, one measure: the visual computes the ranks.
• Rank 1 is at the top; ties never hide each other (they sit side by side and are marked "=2").
• The Top N keeps the lines readable and shows who enters ▲ and who leaves ▼.
• Hovering brings an entity forward, clicking filters the page.

Going further

• Bump Plume how-to recipes: ties, Top N, given rank, metro ★, ribbons ★, playback ★, zones ★.
• All fields and settings.
• Getting started with Plume visuals: installation, license, styles, dynamic formats.
• The Bump Plume page and support.