How It Works

Understanding our methodology, data sources, and chart views

What You Can Explore

The rules and methodology stay the same. The newer additions are extra ways to inspect the same disparity data in more detail.

Games

Browse release-by-release score gaps, latest reviews, release dates, and score breakdowns for tracked games.

Journalists

See which reviewers track closest to players, inspect their latest review activity, and open their full scoring history.

Outlets

Measure publications at the outlet level, then drill down into contributor activity and recent review coverage.

Leaderboards

Rank games, journalists, and outlets by disparity and recency to surface the strongest gaps or tightest alignment.

Compare

Stack up to four games, journalists, or outlets side by side to compare disparity, score baselines, and trend direction.

News and Reception Story

Pair score data with related coverage, milestones, and review timing so a launch story can be read in context.

What is Review Disparity?

Review disparity measures the difference between how professional game critics score a game versus how regular players rate it. A positive disparity means critics scored a game higher than players did, while a negative disparity means critics scored lower than players.

+15Positive Disparity

Critics rated the game 15 points higher than players on average. This could indicate critic bias, marketing influence, or different evaluation criteria.

-15Negative Disparity

Critics rated the game 15 points lower than players. This could mean critics were harsher, or players found unexpected value in the game.

Note: What matters most is the magnitude of the disparity (how far from users), not the direction. A disparity of +15 or -15 both indicate a significant gap between critics and players.

Understanding Our Colors

Our color system is based on the magnitude of disparity. This helps you quickly identify how aligned or divergent a critic is with players.

±0-5

Aligned- Critic is closely aligned with user opinions

±5-10

Moderate- Some divergence from user scores

±10-15

High- Significant divergence from users

±15+

Extreme- Major divergence from user opinions

The +/- sign still tells you the direction, but the color indicates magnitude. A +3 and -3 are both green because they are both closely aligned with users.

The Formula

Step 1 - Per-review disparity

Disparity = Critic Score - User Score

Calculated separately for Steam and Metacritic on every review.

Step 2 - Combined disparity

Combined = (Steam Disparity + MC Disparity) / 2

The simple average of Steam and Metacritic disparities. If only one source is available, that source is used directly as the combined score.

Steam Disparity = Critic Score - Steam User Score

MC Disparity = Critic Score - Metacritic User Score

Combined = (Steam Disparity + MC Disparity) / 2

Step 3 - Journalist and outlet averages

Avg Disparity = mean of all launch window review disparities

For journalists and outlets, we average the combined disparity across all qualifying launch window reviews. Steam and Metacritic averages are calculated independently, then the combined score is the average of those two source averages.

Review Timing Categories

We categorize reviews based on when they were published relative to a game's release date. This helps identify review patterns and ensures fair disparity calculations.

Early Review

Reviews published before the game's official release date.

Launch Window

Reviews published within 60 days of release. This is the primary disparity window shown on profiles.

Late Review

Reviews published more than 60 days after release.

Why 60 days? This window captures the period when most professional reviews are published and when user scores are most actively being submitted.

About early reviews: Early reviews are included in disparity calculations and count toward the launch window, but they are marked separately.

Primary vs. Overall Disparity

Each journalist and outlet has two disparity metrics calculated:

Launch Window Disparity (Primary)

Calculated only from reviews published within 60 days of each game's release. This is the main metric shown on profile pages and used for leaderboard rankings.

Overall Disparity (Secondary)

Calculated from all reviews, including late reviews. Used as a fallback when a journalist or outlet has no qualifying launch window reviews.

Transparency note: On profile pages, you can see how many reviews fall within the launch window versus late reviews.

Quality Thresholds

To ensure statistical reliability and prevent manipulation, we apply minimum thresholds.

Minimum Steam user reviews

Games need at least 50 Steam user reviews before Steam counts in disparity calculations.

Minimum Metacritic user reviews

Games need at least 20 Metacritic user reviews before Metacritic counts in disparity calculations.

Minimum scored reviews for journalists and outlets

Journalists and outlets need at least 10 scored reviews to qualify for leaderboard-style ranking.

Minimum critic reviews for games leaderboard

Games need at least 10 critic reviews to appear on the games leaderboard.

Minimum score spread

Journalists and outlets need a score spread of at least 10 to avoid binary or overly narrow scoring patterns distorting the rankings.

Note: Individual profiles can still exist even if they do not qualify for leaderboard inclusion.

Score Normalization

Different outlets use different scoring scales. To compare apples to apples, all scores are normalized to a 0-100 scale.

Original Format	Example	Normalized
Out of 10	8.5 / 10	85
Out of 5	4 / 5	80
Out of 100	85 / 100	85
Letter Grade	B+	87
Steam (% positive)	85% positive	85
Metacritic User	7.5 / 10	75

Data Sources

OpenCritic

Professional critic reviews, scores, outlets, and journalist profiles. This is the core review history behind the site.

Steam

Player review sentiment from Steam, normalized to the same 0-100 scale as critic scores.

Metacritic

Player ratings from Metacritic, converted from the 0-10 scale into 0-100 for direct comparison.

Three Disparity Scores

We show disparity separately for each user score source so you can see how critics compare to different player communities.

Steam Disparity

Critic Score - Steam User Score
Compares critic reviews against Steam's PC gaming audience.

Metacritic Disparity

Critic Score - Metacritic User Score
Compares critic reviews against Metacritic's broader cross-platform user audience.

Combined Disparity

(Steam Disparity + MC Disparity) / 2
Averages the two source disparities when both exist. If only one source is available, that source is used directly.

Score Spread vs. Disparity

On journalist and outlet profiles, these measure different things.

Disparity

How far the critic's scores are from user scores.

Critic Score - User Score

Score Spread

How varied the critic's own scores are.

Standard Deviation of Critic Scores

High Score Spread (10+): Uses a meaningful range of scores.

Low Score Spread (<10): Can indicate binary or overly narrow scoring patterns, which is why these reviewers are filtered from leaderboard rankings.

How to Read the Charts

These are additional views on top of the same scoring rules above.

What the lines mean

Solid colored line

Rolling average for the active series inside the selected view.

Light dotted baseline

The light dotted horizontal line is the 0 baseline. Above it means critics scored higher than users. Below it means critics scored lower.

Colored dotted connector

The colored dotted line marks the change from the first visible review to the last visible review in the selected release window for that series.

060

Vertical dashed release markers

On game Release Map views, day 0 marks launch and day 60 marks the end of the launch window.

Disparity Trend

Shows the direction and magnitude of critic-to-user gaps over time.
Sage, orange, and rust identify Steam, Metacritic, and Combined series.
Hover points and tooltips reveal the underlying review values behind the rolling averages.

Release Map / Score Map

On game pages, the x-axis is days from release and the y-axis is disparity.
On journalist and outlet pages, the x-axis becomes critic score while the y-axis stays disparity.
Each point is one review.

Review Timing

The donut splits reviews into Early, Launch Window, and Late.
Early means before release, Launch Window means within 60 days, and Late means more than 60 days after release.
The center number is the total review count represented by the chart.

Reception Story

Game detail pages combine release events, reviews, milestones, and linked news into a single timeline.
Use it to understand what happened around a launch instead of reading the disparity number in isolation.

Journalist Scoring Pattern

Each square is one review from the journalist.
Rust means the critic scored above users, sage means below users, and neutral tiles sit near parity.
You can sort chronologically or by disparity and filter to a single year.

Outlet Activity Stream

Groups an outlet's reviews by month or quarter.
Rust bands are more generous-than-users reviews, tan bands are aligned, and sage bands are more critical-than-users reviews.
You can focus on a single journalist and select a time range to filter the review stream below.

Data Coverage

Time Period

We track all available review data from OpenCritic, going back to the earliest reviews in their database.

Update Frequency

Critic reviews are synced continuously. User scores from Steam and Metacritic are updated regularly. Historical disparity data powers the trend charts and new story views.

Interpreting the Data

High disparity does not mean "wrong": critics and players often have different priorities.

Direction vs. magnitude: the sign (+/-) tells you whether the critic scored higher or lower than users, but the magnitude is what matters most.

Sample size matters: a journalist with 5 reviews will be less reliable than one with 500.

Check score spread: low spread means a reviewer may give similar scores to almost everything, which can make disparity less meaningful.

Compare sources: a journalist might be aligned with Steam users but divergent from Metacritic users, or vice versa.