Let’s learn about ‘Overwhelmingly Positive’ on Steam.
On Steam, users can rate a game by choosing either ‘Recommended’ or ‘Not Recommended.’ Steam reflects these ratings on the game’s store page.
How is the rating percentage calculated?
- Positive rating percentage (%) = Number of positive ratings / Total number of ratings
Rating phrases by range:
- 80–100%: Very Positive
- 70–79%: Mostly Positive
- 40–69%: Mixed
- 20–39%: Mostly Negative
- 0–19%: Very Negative
For games with more than 500 reviews, the following phrases are used:
- 95–100%: Overwhelmingly Positive
- 0–19%: Overwhelmingly Negative
For games with fewer than 50 reviews, the phrases differ:
- 80–100%, fewer than 50 reviews: Positive
- 0–19%, fewer than 50 reviews: Negative
The store page rating is displayed when there are more than 10 reviews.
How is the sorting done?
If a game has 2,350 ‘Recommended’ reviews out of 3,000 total reviews (a 78.3% recommendation rate) and another game has 15 ‘Recommended’ reviews out of 17 total reviews (an 88% recommendation rate), which one would appear higher when sorted by ‘Recommendation’? The latter would appear first because Steam’s sorting order is Overwhelmingly Positive — Very Positive — Positive — Mostly Positive — Mixed…
Of course, not many users would compare games this way, so it isn’t a significant issue.
Although the current calculation and display methods aren’t particularly unreasonable, it could be helpful to have a method that considers the overall impact instead of simply cutting off at 50 or 500 reviews. Steam is making efforts, such as showing the latest rating percentages separately, to reflect changes in game ratings due to negative review bombing or updates.
Regardless of whether Steam’s game rating display system is good or bad, achieving an ‘Overwhelmingly Positive’ rating is a challenging feat for any game that isn’t truly exceptional. It requires over 500 reviews and a positive rating percentage of at least 95%.
To view games on Steam directly sorted by ‘User Reviews,’ use the following link (redirects to Steam):
https://store.steampowered.com/search/?sort_by=Reviews_DESC&category1=1
