How We Actually Decide on a Rating

People ask what a 4.4 means versus a 4.1 on our site. The honest answer is that a rating is a summary of hours of play, not a formula. But there is a rough structure behind it.

We weigh four things: how the game controls on a phone, how well it holds up after the novelty fades, whether it respects your time, and whether it does its own genre well. A gorgeous game that's tedious after an hour scores lower than a plain one you keep reopening.

We deliberately don't hand out 5.0. Nothing we've played is perfect, and leaving headroom keeps the scale honest. A 4.6 from us is a strong recommendation.

Ratings can shift if a game gets a major update. When that happens we replay it and note the change in the review rather than quietly editing the number.