Not quite....
some people join the site lose some games and never return or close their accounts. In this way rating points migrate from dead accounts to live accounts and the average rating rises above 1200:
http://www.chess.com/echess/players.html
Players: | 75751 | Rating Distribution |
|
Average Rating: | 1384 | ||
Average Glicko RD: | 133 | ||
White Wins: | N/A | ||
Black Wins: | N/A | ||
Draws: | N/A | ||
|
As you can see the average rating for Standard (turn-based) is in fact 1384.
Our chess.com must have started with 2 players, both with rating 1200. One won, other lost. Average must have remained 1200.
Extending same logic, so even now, chess.com's average rating should be 1200 - right?