Screenshots & trailers
What players say
Why the number is what it is: aspect mentions counted across 427 sampled Steam reviews (346 positive / 81 negative), recent and most-helpful. Plain keyword counting, fully reproducible; nothing here is written by a machine.
What positive reviews talk about
- Story & writing11% mention it
- Multiplayer & servers9% mention it
- Combat7% mention it
- Progression & loot4% mention it
What negative reviews complain about
- Multiplayer & servers16% mention it
- Bugs & crashes15% mention it
- Performance11% mention it
Satisfaction by hours played
Same score, different games: see how sentiment holds up the longer people play.
Under 5h
48%
21 reviews
5-15h
84%
49 reviews
15-40h
77%
84 reviews
40-100h
82%
109 reviews
100h+
86%
164 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) | – | 80 | 188 |
| Creator reviews (1 tracked) | – | 75 | 2 |
| All-time Steam reviews | 82% | 76 | 1279 |
| Metacritic user ratings | – | 70 | 649 |
| Post-patch Steam reviews (trust-weighted) | 79% | 73 | 3000 |
| Calibration prior (typical game) | – | 72 | 50 |
Scoring window: since the last significant patch (Jan 16, 2026) · 300 reviews sampled · 12718 total reviews in window · weighted 180.8 up / 54.1 down · computed 2h ago · full methodology →
Press & Creators reviews (212)
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
“Elden Ring Nightreign is not for everyone. It’s a brutal, atmospheric, deeply demanding experience that rewards patience, persistence, and curiosity. But if you’re the kind of player who grinned every time you saw “YOU DIED” flash across your screen in past Souls titles… this is your next obsession. Nightreign doesn’t just offer a new challenge, it rethinks what challenge means. It takes the bones of a beloved classic and rebuilds them into something darker, sharper, and even more punishing. If you’re ready to suffer beautifully once more, step into the dark.”
read full review ↗ - 85
“Elden Ring: Nightreign offers a fast-paced gameplay and a return to the kind of raw challenge I’ve come to love in soulslikes. And that’s exactly what I wanted, the more time I spent with Nightreign, the more I found myself enjoying it.”
read full review ↗ - 75
“Elden Ring Nightreign is worth taking out for a few runs, but the incentives to keep on running aren't quite there yet. The prospect of ending another forty minute expedition empty handed after an anticlimactic wipeout isn't quite coaxing enough.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“Provided you have a couple of friends to play with, Nightreign can easily become the perfect trap - a fun gauntlet of trials where you endlessly chase that ideal winning run right before going to bed. And then you do it again. And again. And again. But if you lack the necessary company, perhaps there are better ways to spend your time - maybe even with the original Elden Ring. After all, that game had plenty of great boss battles too.”
read full review ↗ - 60
“Elden Ring Nighreign utilizes the popular IP to deliver an experimental game that, at first glance, appears to be a bizarre mash-up of genres. The reality is that this mix of souls-like, rogue-lite, battle royale, and "hero shooters" works surprisingly well. The main flaw, however, is the amount of content. There's very little that's completely new, making the game feel more like a recycled or perhaps even fan-made modification. Moreover, it lacks deeper systems to engage beyond a maximum of a dozen hours for die-hard fans. For everyone else, though, it probably won't be a compelling reason to return to the world of Elden Ring, and it won't convince them otherwise.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“Elden Ring Nightreign left a mixed impression. The intense gameplay cycle, combat system and diverse classes - all this is wonderfully combined, completely immersing you in the project. You want to play Nightreign again and again! But the abundance of technical problems and the lack of basic functions that almost all current multiplayer projects have had for a long time, periodically ruin all the fun, make you want to quit the game and wait for a couple of patches.”
read full review ↗ - 90
“The compellingly unresolved ending caps a run that, like even a half-decent crack at Nightreign’s challenges, is a story unique to itself: a journey of close calls and triumphs too fortuitous to be replicated.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“For those who enjoyed the base version of Elden Ring and understand the unique proposition of this title, closer to a Roguelike than a traditional Souls, Elden Ring Nightreign is an excellent experience. With friends, Nightreign becomes a great place to dive headfirst into the land of Limveld. However, the future of Elden Ring Nightreign is still uncertain, especially due to the lack of crossplay and the limited communication between players within the game. We can only wait for future updates that bring technical, performance and content improvements, areas in which there is a vast terrain to be explored, considering FromSoftware's history of expanding its worlds with creativity and consistency.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“If you were hoping for a full-fledged sequel packed with new features, Nightreign will disappoint you. The game retains the same world, existing characters, and multiplayer elements, as well as the high difficulty level of the base game. Most of the content is simply a reworking of familiar locations and assets from the original game. That doesn’t mean you won’t have a blast during the first few hours, but unfortunately, the game falls back into a rut all too quickly.”
read full review ↗ - 80
“Soulsborne meets Fortnite with the weight and heft of bosses and combat expected from a relation of Elden Ring. Just beware the dichotomy.”
read full review ↗ - 85
““Elden Ring Nightreign”, really shakes up the formula From Software has been honing the past decade. It’s intense, and full of ups and downs and some areas that really require more polish, like proper communication systems and less obtuse mechanics for this kind of subgenre. The lows are incredibly low and frustrating. But once you beat a Night Lord? Ah, there’s no better feeling than that. Especially with friends.”
read full review ↗ - 78
“Nightreign is an asset flip done right. It may lack new content in comparison to its predecessor, but it compensates with fast paced gameplay and a very fun multiplayer experience that many fans will return to.”
read full review ↗
TheBigBois
Gamepressure
The Jimquisition
GameMAG
INDIANTVCZ
3DNews
Slant Magazine
GameFM
Gaming Professors
Jump Dash Roll
Hu3br
PLAY Zine…and 200 more tracked reviews.
Patch history
- ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN – PATCH NOTES VERSION 1.03.2Jan 16, 2026significant · resets scoring window
- Release Note for 2025/12/16Dec 16, 2025
- ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN - Patch Notes 1.03Dec 3, 2025significant · resets scoring window
- ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN – Patch Notes Version 1.02.4Oct 9, 2025significant · resets scoring window
- ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN - Patch Notes 1.02.2Sep 10, 2025significant · resets scoring window
- ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN - Patch Notes 1.02Jul 31, 2025significant · resets scoring window
- ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN - Patch Notes 1.01.5Jul 16, 2025significant · resets scoring window
- ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN - Patch Notes 1.01.4Jul 2, 2025significant · resets scoring window
- ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN - Patch Notes 1.01.3Jun 18, 2025significant · resets scoring window
- ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN - Patch Notes 1.01.2Jun 10, 2025significant · resets scoring window
- ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN – Patch Notes Version 1.01.1Jun 2, 2025significant · resets scoring window
- ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN - Upcoming Patch 1.01.1May 30, 2025significant · resets scoring window
- ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN - Patch Notes 1.01May 29, 2025