The Hubble tension is commonly framed as a discrepancy between local, late-time measurements favoring $H_0\approx 73\mathrm{km}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}{\mathrm{Mpc}}^{-1}$ and early-time, sound-horizon-based measurements favoring $H_0\approx 67\mathrm{km}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}{\mathrm{Mpc}}^{-1}$. We challenge this viewpoint by analyzing 88 sound-horizon-free $H_0$ measurements, categorized into four classes: distance ladder measurements using local calibrators; local $\mathrm{\Lambda }$ cold dark matter ($\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{CDM}$) measurements assuming the standard expansion history; pure local measurements independent of $H(z)$ shape; and cosmic microwave background (CMB) sound-horizon-free measurements using CMB data without the sound horizon scale. Our analysis reveals that the 30 distance ladder measurements yield $H_0=72.73\pm 0.39\mathrm{km}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}{\mathrm{Mpc}}^{-1}$ (${\chi }_{\nu }^2=0.72$), while the 58 distance ladder-independent/sound horizon free measurements collectively yield $H_0=69.37\pm 0.34\mathrm{km}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}{\mathrm{Mpc}}^{-1}$ (${\chi }_{\nu }^2=0.95$). After accounting for realistic correlations between measurements, the tension between the two ensembles is $3.9-4.3\sigma$ depending on the assumed correlation strength; we adopt the conservative value of $3.9\sigma$ as our reference estimate. Under the idealized assumption of fully independent measurements it would reach $6.5\sigma$. Among categories, Local $\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{CDM}$ measurements favor the lowest value ($H_0=67.61\pm 0.96\mathrm{km}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}{\mathrm{Mpc}}^{-1}$), pure local yields an intermediate value ($H_0=71.03\pm 0.69\mathrm{km}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}{\mathrm{Mpc}}^{-1}$), and CMB sound horizon free measurements give $H_0=69.07\pm 0.44\mathrm{km}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}{\mathrm{Mpc}}^{-1}$. Within the sound-horizon-free sample considered here, the distance ladder thus sits systematically high compared with all other methodologies, a result that is stable under all tested variations of the measurement categorization. This suggests that the Hubble tension may be more accurately characterized as a discrepancy between the distance ladder and all other methodologies, rather than as a purely early- vs late-time split. We also identify an internal tension among distance ladder-independent/sound horizon free measurements, which is however sensitive to categorization choices, ranging from $1.5\sigma$ to $3.1\sigma$ ($2.9\sigma$ in our baseline analysis): analyses assuming $\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{CDM}$ systematically recover lower $H_0$ values by $\sim 3.4\mathrm{km}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}{\mathrm{Mpc}}^{-1}$ compared to cosmological-model-independent methods. This suggests either unrecognized systematics in the distance ladder or deviations from $\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{CDM}$ or both.

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• Cosmological parameters
• Dark energy
• Evolution of the Universe