Screenshots & trailers
What players say
Why the number is what it is: aspect mentions counted across 443 sampled Steam reviews (321 positive / 122 negative), recent and most-helpful. Plain keyword counting, fully reproducible; nothing here is written by a machine.
What positive reviews talk about
- World & exploration12% mention it
- Story & writing11% mention it
- Combat7% mention it
- Difficulty & balance6% mention it
- Progression & loot4% mention it
What negative reviews complain about
- Monetization21% mention it
Satisfaction by hours played
Same score, different games: see how sentiment holds up the longer people play.
Under 5h
59%
17 reviews
5-15h
85%
34 reviews
15-40h
91%
32 reviews
40-100h
85%
75 reviews
100h+
66%
285 reviews
Review sentiment over time
Weekly positive-review rate (green) and review volume (bars). Dashed lines mark significant patches; the amber line is the start of the current scoring window. Hover the dots to see what drove a dip or a jump.
How this score was computed
The VGC Score is a weighted blend on a press-comparable 0-100 quality scale. Steam approval rates are first calibrated (95% positive on Steam ≈ 89.5 quality, since Steam approval skews high). Press and tracked creator reviews each count ~2x a player review and share one cap against player evidence (creator buy/skip calls pool into an approval rate, calibrated like Steam approval); all-time sentiment is capped and halved (it's context, not verdict); reviews of the current build carry the most weight when a fresh patch anchors the window; and a 'typical game' prior keeps small samples from pegging the scale. Because press reviews and Metacritic user aggregates describe the launch build, their weight decays as the game ages (3-year half-life after a 1-year grace). That's how a game that launched rough can outgrow its old reception once updates win players over. Reviews under 2h playtime (the refund window), non-Steam activations, and free copies are downweighted.
| Component | Positive | Quality (0-100) | Weight (pseudo-reviews) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Press reviews (OpenCritic) | – | 95 | 89 |
| Creator reviews (7 tracked) | – | 93 | 6 |
| All-time Steam reviews | 93% | 87 | 2061 |
| Metacritic user ratings | – | 88 | 333 |
| Post-patch Steam reviews (trust-weighted) | 89% | 83 | 3000 |
| Calibration prior (typical game) | – | 72 | 50 |
Scoring window: since the last significant patch (Aug 27, 2026) · 300 reviews sampled · 4586 total reviews in window · weighted 214.5 up / 39.9 down · computed 1h ago · full methodology →
Press & Creators reviews (247)
Individual verdicts from outlets we track: scored reviews first, most trusted outlets first among them. The small badge is each outlet's trust score: how well its scoring history aligns with players.
- 90
“Despite all of us playing the same game, what we experience in Elden Ring will be unique to each of us, and that is where the crux of its power lies. It is these differing experiences and its powerful emphasis on discovery that make Elden Ring a game that is worth discovering for yourself. Many will appreciate it, few will master it, but all will acknowledge it as a distinctive adventure that is as rewarding as it is dangerous.”
read full review ↗ - 100
“Elden Ring is the true triumph that FromSoftware was striving for all those years. Complete and utter triumph.”
read full review ↗ - 100
“Elden Ring is a game about which a lot of positive and very few negative things can be said. But we'll keep it short: this is easily a game of the year contender and quite probably FromSoftware's best title yet.”
read full review ↗ - 75
“The grandiose world of Elden Ring looks great, but is filled with monotonous content. FromSoftware does not even try to offer something new and just tramples on a familiar glade, where the Souls series has long settled.”
read full review ↗ - 100
“Elden Ring is FromSoftware taming the monster they created, not by filing down its teeth and claws, but by giving players the weapons and armor to endure it.”
read full review ↗ - 90
“All in all, Elden Ring is an intriguing (semi-)revolution in the Souls series that, thanks primarily to its massive open world, can truly captivate anyone, literally. However, its perfection is undermined by the same old bugs that the developers haven’t quite managed to iron out over the years, at least as far as the PC version is concerned. If you’re playing Elden Ring on consoles, where optimization is slightly better, feel free to add that extra point to your rating. I’m giving the game nine out of ten.”
read full review ↗ - 90
“Elden Ring is Dark Souls done in an accessible way and given the open world afforded to Link in Breath of the Wild. In short, it's fabulous.”
read full review ↗ - 100
“Elden Ring is the best game FromSoftware has made to date.”
read full review ↗ - 100
“Elden Ring is a masterclass in world design. It improves almost all of the bases of FromSoftware’s previous titles and adds upon them many new ones, with its verticality, astonishing world and great combat and story. It is a penultimate soulslike title, and one that will be surely played and remembered for years to come, putting a high bar for action RPGs and firmly sitting as one of the best video games ever.”
read full review ↗ - 95
“Elden Ring is a true soulslike that does some wonderful things with the concept of an open world, and its hands-off exploration. I haven't had so much fun with an open world since Red Dead Redemption 2. A difficult, satisfying, and otherwise excellent game! ”
read full review ↗ - 90
“While clearly a continuation of the Dark Souls games, Elden Ring is a natural evolution of that style but delivered in a package that is bigger and more breathtaking than anything the company has done before.”
read full review ↗ - 60
Gamepressure
GameMAG
INDIANTVCZ
3DNews
Slant Magazine
Gaming Professors
Jump Dash Roll
eXputer
PLAY Zine
GRYOnline.pl
RPGamer
FourFaceButtons…and 235 more tracked reviews.
Patch history
- Patch Notes Version 1.17Aug 27, 2026significant · resets scoring window
- Release Note for 2025/12/16Dec 16, 2025
- ELDEN RING - Patch Notes Version 1.16.1Aug 21, 2025
- Patch Notes Version 1.16Oct 17, 2024significant · resets scoring window
- Patch Notes Version 1.15Oct 2, 2024significant · resets scoring window
- Patch Notes Version 1.14Sep 11, 2024significant · resets scoring window
- Patch Notes Version 1.13.2Aug 8, 2024significant · resets scoring window
- Patch Notes Version 1.13Jul 30, 2024significant · resets scoring window
- Patch Notes Version 1.12.3Jul 4, 2024significant · resets scoring window
- Patch Notes Version 1.12.2Jun 26, 2024significant · resets scoring window
- Patch Notes Version 1.12Jun 20, 2024significant · resets scoring window
- Shadow of the Erdtree Language UpdateMay 22, 2024
- Patch Notes Version 1.10.1Jan 11, 2024
- Patch Notes Version 1.10Jul 27, 2023significant · resets scoring window
- Patch Notes Version 1.09.1Apr 18, 2023significant · resets scoring window
- Patch Notes Version 1.09Mar 23, 2023significant · resets scoring window
- Patch Notes Version 1.08.1Dec 15, 2022significant · resets scoring window
- Patch Notes Version 1.08Dec 7, 2022significant · resets scoring window
- Patch Notes Version 1.07Oct 13, 2022significant · resets scoring window
- Patch Notes Version 1.06Aug 9, 2022significant · resets scoring window
- Patch Notes Version 1.05Jun 13, 2022significant · resets scoring window
- Patch Notes Version 1.04.1Apr 27, 2022significant · resets scoring window
- Patch Notes Version 1.04Apr 19, 2022significant · resets scoring window
- Patch Notes Version 1.03.3Apr 4, 2022significant · resets scoring window
- Patch Notes Version 1.03.2Mar 23, 2022
- Patch Notes Version 1.03Mar 17, 2022significant · resets scoring window
- Issue Report: Steam Cloud SavesMar 4, 2022significant · resets scoring window
- Patch Notes Version 1.02.3Mar 4, 2022
- Patch Notes Version 1.02.2Mar 3, 2022
- Patch Notes Version 1.02.1Feb 26, 2022significant · resets scoring window
- A message about some performance issuesFeb 25, 2022significant · resets scoring window
- Patch Notes Version 1.02Feb 24, 2022significant · resets scoring window