ReviewDisparity Logo
ReviewDisparity

Critics, outlets, and games against player sentiment

HomeNewsGamesJournalistsOutletsLeaderboardsCompareAbout
Review Signal

Keep the data honest.

ReviewDisparity tracks how critics, outlets, and games compare with player opinion across Steam and Metacritic. The goal is simple: make disagreement visible instead of burying it in scattered scorecards.

Explore
Browse gamesBrowse journalistsBrowse outletsCompare entities
Site
Dataset & methodologyPublishing principlesFAQTerms of ServicePrivacy Policy

© 2026 ReviewDisparity. Independent review disparity tracking.

Data sourced from publicly available information on OpenCritic, Steam, and Metacritic. ReviewDisparity is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of those services.

  1. Home/
  2. Games/
  3. DayZ
DayZ

DayZ

Released: 5/30/2019

The post-soviet country of Chernarus is struck by an unknown virus, turning the majority population into frenzied infected. Fighting over resources has bred a hostile mentality among survivors, driving what’s left of humanity to collapse. You are one of the few immune to the virus - how far will you go to survive? THIS IS DAYZ, THIS IS YOUR STORY. DayZ is an unforgiving, authentic, open world sandbox online game where each one of 60 players on a server follows a single goal - to survive as long as they can, by all means necessary. There are no superficial tips, waypoints, built-in tutorials or help given to you. Every decision matters - with no save games, and no extra lives, every mistake can be lethal. If you fail, you lose everything and start over. Scavenging for supplies and roaming the open world never feels safe in DayZ, as you never know what's behind the next corner. Hostile player interactions, or simply just struggling through severe weather can easily turn into intense, nerve-racking moments where you experience very real emotions. On the other hand, meeting with another friendly survivor in DayZ can lead to a true friendship that lasts a lifetime... Your choices and your decisions create a gameplay experience that's completely unique and unequivocally personal - unmatched by any other multiplayer game out there. This is DayZ, this is your story. KEY FEATURES Detailed, authentic backdrop of Chernarus, an open world terrain featuring 230 square kilometers of hand-crafted environment based on real life locations. Real emotional experience driven by the emergent interactions of 60 players on the server, all fighting for survival by any means necessary. Environmental dangers including the infected, dynamic weather, and animal predators Wide variety of complex survival mechanics - from hunting and crafting, through sophisticated injury simulation, to transferable diseases. Persistent servers with complex loot economy, and the ability to build improvised bases. Visceral, authentic gun play and melee combat systems. Smooth and reactive character controller utilizing a detailed animation system. Rewarding and authentic experience of driving vehicles for travel and material transport. Robust technology platform featuring modules of Bohemia's new Enfusion Engine. Seamless network synchronization and significantly improved game performance. A platform fully open to user created content, offering the same tool set that we use for actual game development.

The post-soviet country of Chernarus is struck by an unknown virus, turning the majority population into frenzied infected. Fighting over resources has bred a hostile mentality among survivors, driving what’s left of humanity to collapse. You are one of the few immune to the virus - how far will you go to survive? THIS IS DAYZ, THIS IS YOUR STORY. DayZ is an unforgiving, authentic, open world sandbox online game where each one of 60 players on a server follows a single goal - to survive as long as they can, by all means necessary. There are no superficial tips, waypoints, built-in tutorials or help given to you. Every decision matters - with no save games, and no extra lives, every mistake can be lethal. If you fail, you lose everything and start over. Scavenging for supplies and roaming the open world never feels safe in DayZ, as you never know what's behind the next corner. Hostile player interactions, or simply just struggling through severe weather can easily turn into intense, nerve-racking moments where you experience very real emotions. On the other hand, meeting with another friendly survivor in DayZ can lead to a true friendship that lasts a lifetime... Your choices and your decisions create a gameplay experience that's completely unique and unequivocally personal - unmatched by any other multiplayer game out there. This is DayZ, this is your story. KEY FEATURES Detailed, authentic backdrop of Chernarus, an open world terrain featuring 230 square kilometers of hand-crafted environment based on real life locations. Real emotional experience driven by the emergent interactions of 60 players on the server, all fighting for survival by any means necessary. Environmental dangers including the infected, dynamic weather, and animal predators Wide variety of complex survival mechanics - from hunting and crafting, through sophisticated injury simulation, to transferable diseases. Persistent servers with complex loot economy, and the ability to build improvised bases. Visceral, authentic gun play and melee combat systems. Smooth and reactive character controller utilizing a detailed animation system. Rewarding and authentic experience of driving vehicles for travel and material transport. Robust technology platform featuring modules of Bohemia's new Enfusion Engine. Seamless network synchronization and significantly improved game performance. A platform fully open to user created content, offering the same tool set that we use for actual game development.

The post-soviet country of Chernarus is struck by an unknown virus, turning the majority population into frenzied infected. Fighting over resources has bred a hostile mentality among survivors, driving what’s left of humanity to collapse. You are one of the few immune to the virus - how far will you go to survive? THIS IS DAYZ, THIS IS YOUR STORY. DayZ is an unforgiving, authentic, open world sandbox online game where each one of 60 players on a server follows a single goal - to survive as long as they can, by all means necessary. There are no superficial tips, waypoints, built-in tutorials or help given to you. Every decision matters - with no save games, and no extra lives, every mistake can be lethal. If you fail, you lose everything and start over. Scavenging for supplies and roaming the open world never feels safe in DayZ, as you never know what's behind the next corner. Hostile player interactions, or simply just struggling through severe weather can easily turn into intense, nerve-racking moments where you experience very real emotions. On the other hand, meeting with another friendly survivor in DayZ can lead to a true friendship that lasts a lifetime... Your choices and your decisions create a gameplay experience that's completely unique and unequivocally personal - unmatched by any other multiplayer game out there. This is DayZ, this is your story. KEY FEATURES Detailed, authentic backdrop of Chernarus, an open world terrain featuring 230 square kilometers of hand-crafted environment based on real life locations. Real emotional experience driven by the emergent interactions of 60 players on the server, all fighting for survival by any means necessary. Environmental dangers including the infected, dynamic weather, and animal predators Wide variety of complex survival mechanics - from hunting and crafting, through sophisticated injury simulation, to transferable diseases. Persistent servers with complex loot economy, and the ability to build improvised bases. Visceral, authentic gun play and melee combat systems. Smooth and reactive character controller utilizing a detailed animation system. Rewarding and authentic experience of driving vehicles for travel and material transport. Robust technology platform featuring modules of Bohemia's new Enfusion Engine. Seamless network synchronization and significantly improved game performance. A platform fully open to user created content, offering the same tool set that we use for actual game development.

Critics
47
Steam
78
Metacritic
43

Score Breakdown

47.3

Critic Average

15 reviews

78

Steam User Score

471,777 reviews

43

Metacritic User Score

371 reviews

Disparity Breakdown

Steam Disparity
-30.6
Metacritic Disparity
+4.3
Combined Disparity
-13.1

Average of both sources

Review Timing

6 early (40%)7 launch window (47%)2 late (13%)

Review summary

Updated Oct 19, 2026

Based on 15 scored critic reviews, critics give this game an average score of 47.3/100. Critics score this game 30.6 points lower than Steam users and 4.3 points higher than Metacritic users.

How these comparisons are calculated
Sources behind this summary(5 recent of 15)+
  1. Juan Carlos OrtizviaGamesCreed
    May 25, 2022·Late review
    54/100View review
    Steam 77.9/100 · -23.9 ptsMetacritic 43/100 · +11.0 pts
  2. Kurtis SeidviaNoobFeed
    May 1, 2022·Late review
    80/100View review
    Steam 77.9/100 · +2.1 ptsMetacritic 43/100 · +37.0 pts
  3. Justin OneilviaThisGenGaming
    Jun 25, 2019·Launch window
    20/100View review
    Steam 77.9/100 · -57.9 ptsMetacritic 43/100 · -23.0 pts
  4. John-Paul JonesviaPlayStation Universe
    Jun 22, 2019·Launch window
    70/100View review
    Steam 77.9/100 · -7.9 ptsMetacritic 43/100 · +27.0 pts
  5. Dominik SchottviaGamePro
    Jun 8, 2019·Launch window
    48/100View review
    Steam 77.9/100 · -29.9 ptsMetacritic 43/100 · +5.0 pts