How it works

Linking accounts

Steam accounts are linked by signing in to Steam. Xbox accounts are linked by signing in to Microsoft through OpenXBL.

Each Steam or Xbox account can belong to one profile.

Hours on other platforms (PlayStation, Switch, GOG and so on) can be sent from the dashboard with a screenshot or a public profile link. A moderator checks each claim against its proof before it counts. Approved hours show as “Other platforms” and count in reports and credibility like synced play.

New accounts are checked by a moderator before they can publish reviews, link reviews, upload images or fill in their profile. Linking, syncing and drafts work straight away.

What we read

Steam: games, playtime (including Steam Deck), achievements with their unlock times and how rare they are, store genres, Metacritic scores, account age and cheating bans.
Steam reviews from your public profile, with the hours Steam recorded when you wrote each one. They show on your profile and count towards your reviewing habits.
Xbox: games played, achievements, gamerscore, devices and, when Xbox reports it, playtime.
Xbox games get their genres from Steam or RAWG.
Subgenres (FPS, Souls-like, City Builder and about 90 more) from the genre tags Steam players vote on most for each game, read through SteamSpy, or from RAWG. Up to three per game. The genre chart and genre experience use them, since Steam's own genres lump shooters, platformers and fighting games together as Action.

Steam profiles need game details set to public.

Reports

A report is a dated snapshot that profiles and widgets use.

Levels

10 XP per hour played, plus 100 XP per game played for at least an hour. Up to level 100.

Bronze · Lv 1+Silver · Lv 5+Gold · Lv 10+Platinum · Lv 15+Diamond · Lv 25+Master · Lv 35+Grandmaster · Lv 50+Legend · Lv 75+

A level shows how much someone plays, not how good their reviews are.

Credibility (0–100)

How much a reviewer has played the game they're reviewing:

50%: hours in the game, measured against what players typically spend in it: the median among VerifiedGamers players once 8 have an hour or more in it, otherwise the average across all players from RAWG, otherwise 40 hours. Half the typical time scores 55% of this part, the typical time 74%, and 2.5× typical full marks, so 20 hours in a 10-hour game counts for more than 20 hours in a 60-hour one. Full marks never need fewer than 10 hours or more than 200.
30%: achievements, compared with the typical player's completion. Matching the typical player is half marks and the full list is full marks. When a game has rare achievements (held by under 5% of players), a quarter of this part is how many of them they have.
20%: hours in the same genres, by subgenre where known (1,000 hours is full marks)

When achievement unlock times are known (Steam), 10% goes to how long they kept playing, from first to last unlock (a year is full marks), and hours and genre drop to 45% and 15%. Games without achievements use 70% hours and 30% genre. Hours on other platforms count. The score is locked when the review is published, and the page shows any time played since.

Steam reviews get the same score using the hours Steam recorded when the review was written. Achievements count only when every unlock in the game came before the review day, or every unlock came after it. If some came before and some after, the score uses the formula for games without achievements. Reviews written before Steam recorded hours at review time aren't scored.

Limited under 20, Familiar 20+, Experienced 40+, Seasoned 60+, Expert 80+. Unverified means no playtime found.

Archetypes

Traits generate Archetypes based on hours played across genres alongside achievement tracking.

Some traits are easier to score highly on than others, so once 50 reviewers have reports, the archetype goes to the trait where someone stands out most compared with other reviewers, not simply their highest score. A trait needs a score of 30 or more to count. Completion is measured against what typical players reach in the same games, so long lists of easy achievements don't make a Perfectionist.

Genre-based traits don't count every hour equally. Hours past about 100 in one game count for less, niche games (fewer Steam reviews) count up to 1.5× as much as hits, and games last played years ago count a little less. Steam's Adventure genre only counts as story-driven when the game isn't also Action. The hours by genre chart shows plain hours, split across each game's subgenres (or Steam's genres for games without them).

Perfectionist: Finishes games and clears the achievement list.
Specialist: Spends most of their time in a few favourite games.
Omnigamer: Plays lots of different games and genres.
Competitor: Mostly plays multiplayer and PvP.
Adventurer: Mostly plays RPGs and story-driven games.
Tactician: Mostly plays strategy and simulation games.
Hipster: Plays a lot of indie games.
Cozy Connoisseur: Mostly plays casual and cozy games.
Squad Player: Mostly plays co-op games with others.
Trophy Hunter: Earns rare achievements that most players never get.
Early Adopter: Plays a lot of games while they're still in Early Access.
Trailblazer: Jumps into new games the year they come out.
Finisher: Plays a game through in one go, then moves on.
Grinder: Keeps coming back to live-service games, season after season.

Warning labels

8 patterns, each 0–100. The strongest one at 50 or more shows next to the reviewer's name, in widgets too. Rookie only shows if nothing else applies.

⚠ Window Shopper: Half or more of started games dropped before 10 hours, with at least 5 started. A game played for half its typical playtime or more doesn't count as dropped, so short games played through are fine.
⚠ Casual: Low total playtime. Fades out around 500 hours.
⚠ Backlog Hoarder: Most of a 10+ game library unplayed. Games with no playtime data don't count.
⚠ Retired Gamer: Nothing played in 3+ months. Full strength at 18 months.
⚠ One-Trick: Over half of 50+ hours in one game. Full strength at 90%.
⚠ Idler: Steam playtime above 14 hours a day, over the busiest two weeks we've seen or the account's whole life. Shows at 19 hours a day.
⚠ Instant Achiever: Games where 10+ achievements share one exact second, or 15+ unlocked in under 30 minutes of play. Shows at 3 games.
⚠ Banned Player: A VAC or game ban on Steam in the last 2 years. Fades out by 5 years.

When a platform doesn't report playtime for much of a library (common on Xbox), the report says so, because every playtime-based signal then rests on part of the picture. Reviewers can dispute a label from their dashboard.

Reviewing habits

How someone reviews, as opposed to how they play, scored 0–100 the same way. Shown on their profile, worked out from their reviews each time it loads.

Reviews after little play: Most reviews written after under 2 hours of verified play, counting Steam reviews by Steam's hours at review time. Counts from 3 reviews.
Reviews unplayed games: Most reviews are of games with no verified playtime. Counts from 3 reviews.
Scores at the extremes: Most scores are 9/10 and up, or most are 4/10 and under. Counts from 5 scores, including other sites.
One-sided recommendations: 95%+ of Steam reviews recommend the game, or 95%+ don't. Counts from 5 Steam reviews, full weight at 10.
Far from critic consensus: Scores average 3.5+ points out of 10 away from Metacritic, or half of Steam reviews go against a clear Metacritic verdict (recommending a game under 60, or not recommending one at 85+). Each counts from 5 reviews.
Reviews key and gift copies: Half or more of Steam reviews are of games activated by key, gift or free weekend, which Steam leaves out of a game's score. Counts from 3 Steam reviews.
Plays on after panning: 40% or more of negative Steam reviews were followed by 20+ more hours in the game. Counts from 3 negative reviews.
Upheld rule violations: Reports about their content that an admin upheld. Shows at 1.

Reviews also note when the reviewer last played the game before writing, if that was over a year earlier.

Taste match

If you have a report too, reviewer pages show how closely your genre mix matches theirs.

Widgets: free and Pro

Every widget works on both plans. Free shows who the reviewer is and their credibility score. Pro adds the playtime and achievements behind it. Both carry the VerifiedGamers name and any warning label.

Sample reviewer and games, scored by the real formulas.