This article examines the performance trends of Chilean universities in three of the main world rankings - Academic Ranking of World Universities, Times Higher Education and QS World University Rankings - analyzing them from the perspective of the emergence of world-class universities. It is a study of exploratory nature that has taken as reference secondary sources of information, within an analytical, descriptive, and comparative perspective. There is a large gap between the institutions that lead the world and Chilean rankings; but it is also observed that the Chilean university system has a group of universities that have been consolidated and could be projected as universities of excellence, at the level of Latin America and eventually worldwide.