steam It's basically the epicenter of PC gaming. Whether you play games on Windows, Mac, or Linux operating systems, there's a good chance you use Steam at least a little bit. Long-running stores and launchers have challenged the throne, including free games from the Epic Games Store and other major competitors, but for now, it's safe to say that Steam is somewhat unrivaled in terms of user experience and overall popularity.
One of the reasons most PC gamers prefer Steam is its rating system, which supports its consumer-friendly and democratic philosophy. Other stores, including Microsoft and PlayStation digital stores, offer user ratings and reviews, but they are often obfuscated, nested behind other tabs, or suffer from other shortcomings. For example, while the Xbox for PC app doesn't show average review scores unless you click on a specific tab, user ratings are everything on Steam, and are shown as previews when you hover over them before going to the specific game page itself. There's also the community and culture that Steam has fostered over the years. If you look at popular games on Steam, you'll find a lot of very comprehensive and nuanced analysis as well as comedic reviews. Simply put, Steam's rating system prioritizes the voices of game viewers over those of publishers and developers, but in a slightly unusual way.
On Steam, only accounts that have played the game can leave reviews. User reviews also include how long the reviewer played and whether they received the game for free.
The best co-op games on Steam you can play right now
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How does Steam's rating system work?
The first thing to know about Steam's rating system is that it is divided into nine individual tiers.
-
overwhelmingly positive
-
very positive
-
positive
-
mostly positive
-
mix
-
mostly negative
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negatory
-
very negative
-
overwhelmingly negative
Which tier a game falls into depends on the percentage of positive reviews. Review metrics are dichotomous. Players can only “like” or “dislike” a game. For example, if 90% of a game's reviews are positive, it would typically be labeled 'very positive', while a game with 90% negative reviews would typically be labeled 'very negative'.
Rearranges covers into correct US release order.
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Rearranges covers into correct US release order.
Easy (5)Medium (7)Difficult (10)
Because Steam takes full reviews into account when labeling games in this way, confusion can arise when looking at games on both ends of the spectrum. If 100% of Steam game reviews are positive, but there are only 5 reviews, that doesn't tell you much. For all we know, there may be 5 friends or family members of the game developer. Here's the full analysis:
|
% of positive reviews |
number of reviews |
vapor rating label |
|---|---|---|
|
95–100 |
500+ |
overwhelmingly positive |
|
85–100 |
50-499 |
very positive |
|
80–100 |
1-49 |
positive |
|
70~79 |
1-49 |
mostly positive |
|
40~69 |
1-49 |
mix |
|
20~39 |
1-49 |
mostly negative |
|
0~19 |
1-49 |
negatory |
|
0~19 |
50-499 |
very negative |
|
0~19 |
500+ |
overwhelmingly negative |
As you can see, the only way for a game to receive an overwhelmingly positive label is to have at least a 95% positive rating and at least 500 diverse reviews simultaneously. The same logic applies to overwhelmingly negative labels. Just as considering the number of reviews/ratings helps protect consumers from being misled by overwhelmingly negative labels, it also helps protect smaller developers from being branded with overwhelmingly negative labels due to verbal abuse, harassment, or other non-gaming-related factors.
Recent reviews and English reviews section on Steam
Many Steam games actually have two “Total Reviews” sections. There are all reviews separated by language and “Recent Reviews” which aggregates reviews from the past 30 days. for example, War of the Three KingdomsOne of the worst reviewed games on Steam, overall English reviews are very negative (488 reviews, only 17% of which are positive), but recent reviews are overwhelmingly negative (529 reviews, only 9% of which are positive).
This distinction is helpful for a number of reasons, as it can help customers figure out whether a game is underrated for a good reason or not. If a 5-year-old game's overall reviews are very positive, but recent reviews are mostly negative, it's a good indication that bridging or review bombing is occurring. Including a separate section for recent reviews can be helpful when evaluating live service titles, which may be broadly better or worse depending on ongoing updates or expansions.
