Review Deep Dives

What a Steam Score Can't Tell You: Why We Read and Analyzed About 500,000 Reviews

BC2S · 2026-10-30

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Short version: a popular game on Steam can have hundreds of thousands of reviews, written in many different languages. What Steam shows from all those reviews is a single number: the share that recommend the game. Since September we have analyzed about 500,000 reviews of more than 1,300 games, in more than 40 languages. Only about 44% of them were in English. Using our analysis of four games that players know well, we want to show what a recommendation rate alone cannot tell you: how reviews change depending on when they were written (Cyberpunk 2077), how they differ depending on who wrote them (Slay the Spire 2), what is behind a thumbs up (Counter-Strike 2), and what exactly players like and dislike (Skyrim).

Why one number is not enough

Steam's score is the answer to a single question: did the player recommend the game? It does not tell you when they played, what language they wrote the review in, or what they liked and what disappointed them. To find out, you have to read the reviews yourself, and for a big game that means thousands of reviews in more than ten languages.

So we read those reviews for you. For each game we collect reviews in all languages and analyze every review on 25 indicators in 8 categories. That way we can see what real players are actually talking about. How we score games.

1. When a review was written changes the verdict: Cyberpunk 2077

In its launch month, December 2020, 78% of Steam reviews recommended Cyberpunk 2077. But by March 2021 that had fallen to 59%. Today about 95% of new reviews recommend it. Read a review from 2021 and a review from this year, and you are in effect reading verdicts on two different games.

The change shows up in what reviews say, not only in the thumbs. In its early days, bugs were what players complained about most. But in the past year of reviews we analyzed, its Tech & Support score, the category that covers bugs, ranks 34th of the 1,286 games we have analyzed, near the very top. Its overall review score, which includes it, is 93.2 / 100.

That is why we analyze the most recent period of reviews. A recommendation rate summed over every year since launch cannot show accurately how players see the game today. You can read more about this in How Cyberpunk 2077 Became One of Steam's Best.

2. Different languages, different verdicts: Slay the Spire 2

As of October 30, 92% of the English reviews of Slay the Spire 2 on Steam recommend it. But only 32% of the Simplified Chinese reviews do. And since there are more Chinese reviews (101,256) than English ones (78,783), the overall rate drops to 62%. If you only read English reviews, you cannot tell why the rate is so low.

Of the 120 Chinese reviews we read, 74 complain about game balance, against 17 of the 96 English reviews. The complaints are specific. During early access, patches weakened builds that players had spent hundreds of hours on, and made bosses and enemies stronger. Many also say the developers did not listen to feedback (55 reviews). Pricing & Fairness, where balance complaints are counted, ranks 1,225th of 1,286 games, close to the very bottom. And the players making these complaints did not give up early: 56 of the 78 Chinese reviews that do not recommend it were written after more than 100 hours. They are not saying the game is bad. Their verdict is that the updates are taking it the wrong way.

Why mostly in Chinese? The Chinese community had many long time players who had beaten the top difficulty (A10) and loved "infinite combo" builds, and according to the reviews, a test patch in March and the full update in April weakened exactly those builds. Among the Chinese reviews we read, 33 recommended the game and 22 did not in March; in April it was 4 and 24. The balance complaints later also grew into a conflict between Chinese players and players from other countries. The English reviews mostly talk about something else: a sequel that improves on the first game, with runs that each feel different and co-op with friends. From the recommendation rate and English reviews alone, you would have missed this important change in the game.

3. A thumbs up can hide a complaint: Counter-Strike 2

Counter-Strike 2 has more Steam reviews than any other game, close to 10 million in total. In particular, 82% of the Steam reviews written over the past year recommended it. But its score from analyzing what reviews say is 69.9 / 100, and one measure stands out in particular: Pricing & Fairness, which ranks 1,270th of 1,286, near the very bottom.

Players keep playing it steadily and recommending it, with about 800,000 people online at the same time on average over the past 7 days. The reviews suggest the trouble is not in the game itself but around it. 167 of the 286 reviews we read complain about anti cheat, and most of them (139) say they meet cheaters match after match and even so the anti cheat does not stop them. Yet even among the reviews with an anti cheat complaint, 49 recommend the game. The thumbs up says "I play this." The text says what they put up with to play it: cheaters in every ranked match, opponents who cheat openly and are never banned, teammates who insult newcomers, and money spent opening cases without thinking.

More: we looked at ten games like this in Steam Games Where the Thumbs Up and the Review Disagree.

4. Not just good or bad, but what: Skyrim

92% of Steam reviews recommend The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition, and its overall score is 91.0 / 100. A recommendation rate and score like that tell you this is easily a "great game," but players thinking of buying it cannot tell what makes it great without reading the reviews or checking other data.

Data from the reviews shows at a glance which parts of the game stand out. Skyrim's Content Volume ranks 8th of 1,242 games and its Gameplay 17th of 1,283. 190 of the 365 reviews we read praise the freedom to go anywhere and play any way you want, and 137 the amount of content in the game. Tech & Support, on the other hand, ranks 1,076th of 1,286, in the bottom 16%. 78 reviews complain about bugs and crashes, some of them reportedly there since 2011. Yet 79 of the 95 reviews with a technical complaint say that, even so, they recommend the game.

If bugs matter to how you enjoy a game, the bottom 16% in Tech & Support may be more useful to know than the 92% recommendation rate. If you are looking for a rich world full of things to do, even the 92% may feel too low.

What this adds up to

None of these four games is "good" or "bad" in a single number:

Every game page on Steamyze shows the score in each of the 8 categories and what players praise and complain about, so you can see what a game is good at before you buy it.

Things to know

1) For each game we collect reviews in all languages, in Steam's order of helpfulness, and read and analyze them.

2) The language figures for Slay the Spire 2 are Steam's own totals as of October 30, 2026.

3) This measures what reviewers wrote, not the games themselves.

4) Scores and ranks are as of October 30, 2026, among the 1,286 games we had analyzed.

BC2S. Better Creative, Better Society. We read hundreds of thousands of reviews so you can see what people really think.

Game pages: Counter-Strike 2 · Cyberpunk 2077 · Slay the Spire 2 · The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition · How we score games