Metacritic score
/ˌmɛtəˈkrɪtɪk skɔːr/
Very CommonThe aggregated critic review score a game or movie receives on Metacritic, used as shorthand for a title's overall reception.
The score can be gamed, review bombed on the user side, or distorted by small sample sizes. Many gamers cite it as a shortcut while also knowing it has problems. The phrase often comes up when defending or criticizing a game's reception.
| # | Example | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | game has an 88 on Metacritic and people are still acting like it flopped | The critical reception was strong but community perception is different. | x, 2024 |
| 02 | developer bonuses tied to a 90 Metacritic score and they got an 89. that's brutal. | The team missed a contractually significant score threshold by one point. | reddit, 2022 |
| 03 | I stopped using Metacritic scores after realizing they average out to meaninglessness for niche games | Small review samples and reviewer mismatch make scores unreliable for certain types of games. | reddit, 2023 |
| 04 | it's literally a 95 on Metacritic. I don't know what more you want from a game. | A near-perfect critical aggregate is being used as evidence the game is genuinely good. | x, 2023 |
Use it when
- Citing a game or film's aggregated critical reception.
- Discussing whether a score reflects actual quality.
- Arguing that a score is inflated, deflated, or distorted.
- Noting that developer bonuses were tied to a target score.
Do not use it when
- You specifically mean user reviews rather than critic scores.Use “user score” instead.
Variations and related forms
Metacritic score vs review bombing
Metacritic score
The Metacritic score reflects aggregated critic opinions and is relatively stable.
review-bombing
Review bombing targets the user score side, flooding it with coordinated low ratings.
Origin and context
Metacritic launched in 2001 and introduced a weighted average scoring system that became the default aggregator for games, film, and music. It gained particular importance in gaming when publishers began tying marketing budgets and developer bonuses to specific score thresholds in the 2000s.
- First seen
- 2001
- Confidence
- high
Cite this page
Use this stable URL to reference the entry.
https://slang.fyi/metacritic-score