How we score games
We read Steam reviews with a language model and score 25 indicators in 8 categories. Here is exactly how, and where it falls short.
What the number means
Every review that mentions a category gets a score from −5 to +5 for it. A game's category score is the average of the reviews that mentioned it — reviews that say nothing about sound do not drag its sound score toward zero. The overall score on game pages is that same scale mapped to 0–100.
So far: 500 games, 196,347 reviews read.
The 25 indicators
Chosen by how often players actually bring them up. Anything mentioned in under 3% of reviews was dropped or merged into a neighbour.
Where it falls short
Things to keep in mind when you read a score. We would rather tell you than have you find out.
- We read reviews, not games. This measures what players wrote, which is not the same thing as the game itself — a game with few but devoted reviewers reads differently from one with many casual ones.
- Thin categories are marked. If under 10% of a game's reviews mention a category, we grey it out and leave it off the rankings. Noise shrinks with the square root of how many reviews mention it, so a category nobody talks about cannot be scored.
- Steam decides who reviews. Reviews skew toward players with strong opinions, and toward the languages Steam's audience writes in. The language chart on each game page shows that mix.
Where the numbers next to the score come from
Review counts, rating labels, prices and discounts, release dates and update posts all come from Steam directly and are refreshed daily. We do not estimate sales — Steam does not publish them. Where you see a ranking called Trending, it is counting reviews posted in the last 90 days.