So I have noticed some people mentioning that game reviewers are doing a bad job scoring exclusives this gen. I wanted to look at the numbers and see if this was actually true. I compared the critic scores for the major xb1 and ps4 retail console exclusives to amazon and metacritic user reviews. They had to be retail games so that I could get user reviews from amazon as well. I think this gave me a good sample size for user reviews to hopefully negate all the trolls that plague metacritc. Hopefully I didn't miss any retail games but please let me know if I did and I will add them to the list at some point.
The review scores are very close to each other. While there are a few outliers, on average there is less than a 3% difference in critic scores versus user scores for both XB1 and PS4. I didn't expect the scores to be so close but there you have it.
PS4
Killzone: Shadowfall
Meta | 73 | 0.7% higher than user scores |
User | 69 | 5.4% lower than meta |
Amazon User | 76 | 4.1% higher than meta |
Meta score is about the same as the average user score.
Knack
Meta | 54 | 36.15% lower than user scores |
User | 65 | 20.4% higher than meta |
Amazon User | 82 | 51.9% higher than meta |
Meta score is lower than average user score
Infamous: Second Son
Meta | 80 | 4.4% lower than user scores |
User | 79 | 1.3% lower than meta |
Amazon User | 88 | 10% higher than meta |
Meta score is about the same as average review score
The Order: 1866
Meta | 65 | 8.5% higher than user scores |
User | 57 | 12.3% lower than meta |
Amazon User | 62 | 4.6% lower than meta |
Meta score is higher than average user score
Last of Us
Meta | 95 | 3.7% higher than user scores |
User | 87 | 8.4% lower than meta |
Amazon User | 96 | 1.1% higher than meta |
Meta score is about the same as the average user score
DriveClub
Meta | 71 | 13.1% higher than user scores |
User | 57 | 19.7% lower than meta |
Amazon User | 66 | 7.0% lower than meta |
Meta score is higher than average user score
For 2 ps4 games the critic score is higher than the average user score
For 3 ps4 games the critic score is the same as the average user score (less than 5% difference)
For 1 ps4 games the critic score is lower than the average user score.
On average critic score is 2.4% lower than user score.
XB1
Titanfall
Meta | 86 | 18% higher than user scores |
User | 63 | 26.7% lower than meta |
Amazon User | 78 | 9.3% lower than meta |
Meta score is higher than average user score
Sunset Overdrive
Meta | 81 | 5.6% lower than user scores |
User | 77 | 4.9% lower than meta |
Amazon User | 94 | 16% higher than meta |
Meta score is lower than average user score
Forza Horizon 2
Meta | 86 | 2.9% lower than user scores |
User | 81 | 5.8% lower than meta |
Amazon User | 96 | 11.6% higher than meta |
Meta score is about the same as the average user score.
Halo: Master Chief Collection
Meta | 85 | 22.35% higher than user scores |
User | 72 | 15.3% lower than meta |
Amazon User | 60 | 29.4% lower than meta |
Meta score is higher than average user score
Dead Rising 3
Meta | 78 | 1.3% higher than user scores |
User | 67 | 14.1% lower than meta |
Amazon User | 88 | 12.8% higher than meta |
Meta score is about the same as the average user score.
Ryse: Son of Rome
Meta | 60 | 15.8% lower than user scores |
User | 59 | 1.7% lower than meta |
Amazon User | 80 | 33.3% higher than meta |
Meta score is lower than average user score
For 2 XB1 games the critic score is higher than the average user score
For 2 XB1 game the critic score is the same as the average user score (less than 5% difference)
For 2 XB1 games the critic score is lower than the average user score.
On average critic score is 2.9% higher than user score.