Tiered command distribution is described. In an embodiment, a pipeline architecture includes processor chains of data processors that process control events received from an application interface control. A tier assignment algorithm determines the longest path of data processors through the processor chains to determine a tier allocation for each data processor in the set of processor chains. Each tier includes a data processor from one or more of the processor chains where a first set of data processors in a first tier each receive a control event and process the control event and/or process the data according to the control event before a second set of data processors in a second tier each receive the control event.