What's the correct number of stars?

Ok I'm on level 1350 or so and as I collect stars my numbers grow....ok but say another player is way up in levels say close to 10,ooo , their number climb way higher/faster in leaderboards? Cause along with info when you click on a player…it tells you how many levels won this week, so why does it feel like a higher player has played and won less levels then me and is very hard to catch up to?