Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc Doyle, and Julie Doyle Roberts in 1999, and is owned by Fandom, Inc. as of 2023.
Type of site | Review aggregator |
|---|---|
| Owner | Fandom, Inc. |
| URL | www |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Free/subscription |
| Launched | January 2001 |
| Current status | Active |
| OCLC number | 911795326 |
Metacritic's scoring converts each review into a percentage, either mathematically from the mark given, or what the site decides subjectively from a qualitative review. Before being averaged, the scores are weighted according to a critic's popularity, stature, and volume of reviews. The site provides an excerpt from each review and hyperlinks to its source where a color of green, yellow, or red summarizes the critics' reviews.
Metacritic won two Webby Awards for excellence as an aggregation website. It is regarded as the foremost online review aggregation site for the video game industry. Criticism of the site has focused on the assessment system, the assignment of scores to reviews that do not include ratings, third-party attempts to influence the scores, and the reported lack of staff oversight for user reviews.