Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Ranger class was born from the shadow of a fallen king and modeled directly after Aragorn, the wandering protector of the North in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. The Strategic Review volume 1, number 2 introduced this class to the tabletop, marking the first time a character could be defined not by their ability to swing a sword in a dungeon, but by their capacity to survive and hunt in the wild.
In 2016, due to criticisms of the Ranger as presented in the Player's Handbook, the Revised Ranger class was released as part of the Unearthed Arcana playtest. This playtest version made some of the Ranger's core abilities easier to use and specifically fixed how a Ranger uses its animal companion, giving a Ranger the animal at Level 3 and allowing a Ranger to attack with both its weapon and the animal on the same turn.
The Beast Master subclass is the most criticized version of the Ranger, with many current D&D fans believing that the Ranger class is the weakest in the game due to a combination of poor class-specific abilities and weak damage output. Christian Hoffer, for ComicBook, wrote that many current D&D fans believe that the Ranger class is the weakest in the game, due to a combination of poor class-specific abilities and weak damage output.
Of the 5th edition class and race combinations per 100,000 characters that players created on D&D Beyond from August 15 to the 15th of September 2017, Rangers were the 6th most created at 8,887 total. Elf Ranger was the second most created character out of all the class and race combinations, following Elf as the most common racial combination.
Xanathar's Guide to Everything added three more Ranger archetypes: the Gloom Stalker, Horizon Walker, and Monster Slayer. Tasha's Cauldron of Everything added two more archetypes: Fey Wanderer and Swarmkeeper, further diversifying the class's capabilities and allowing players to tailor their Rangers to specific campaign needs.
In September 2022, they released the Unearthed Arcana 2022 - Expert Classes playtest material for One D&D which included rules for playing a Ranger up to level 20, as well as the Hunter subclass. This ongoing evolution of the class reflects the community's desire for a more robust and flexible Ranger that can compete with other classes in terms of power and utility.