Analytics: The share of negative reviews on Steam is growing, with Asian players being the most critical
Will McCahill, Business Development Director at the American studio World’s Edge, analyzed the positivity level of user reviews on Steam from 2014 to 2024. According to his observations, reviews have become more negative over time, and this trend is visible in all languages.
Positivity Level of User Reviews on Steam from 2014-2024
- According to McCahill, in 2014, 89% of all player reviews submitted on Steam throughout the year were positive. The figure then began to decline, falling to 83% by 2018.
- In 2019, the positivity level of reviews surged back to 89%. As expert Simon Carless from GameDiscoverCo suggests, this was because Steam began asking users if they wanted to alter their negative review if they had spent a significant amount of time in the game after writing it.
- Starting in 2021, the positivity level of reviews began to decline annually once more. Of all the reviews left on Steam in 2024, "only" 84.2% were positive.
- In 2024, the kindest Steam users were those who spoke Romanian, praising games in 92% of their reviews. In second place were players writing in the Brazilian version of Portuguese, with 91% positive reviews. For comparison, in 2014, their review positivity levels were 97% and 94%, respectively.
- The top five languages with the lowest share of positive reviews for 2024 were Japanese (73%), Traditional Chinese (76%), Simplified Chinese (80%), Korean (81%), and German (83%).
- Notably, 30% of all positive reviews in Simplified Chinese for 2024 were for Black Myth: Wukong. Excluding these, the annual positivity level for this language would drop from 80% to 74%. For Traditional Chinese, it would drop to 75%.
- Russian remains the third most popular language on Steam after English and Simplified Chinese. In 2024, 85% of all reviews written in Russian were positive.
The Most Popular Languages on Steam from 2012-2024