How we score
Every game we rate gets one number out of 10, built from five things we can check. The score sits on each game's page with all five components beside it, so you can see what it is made of rather than taking the number on trust.
What goes into it
- Return25%
- What the game pays back over time. Taken from the provider's published RTP, banded — above 96.5% scores well, below 95% does not.
- Originality25%
- Whether you have played this before. Judged against the games in our own catalogue that share its mechanic, its theme or its name, so a fiftieth clone of a format scores below the game that invented it. Every mark carries a written reason on the game's page.
- Popularity20%
- How much play a game actually gets across the site, as a position against the rest of the catalogue rather than a raw count. Evidence, not a verdict — which is why it is floored, and why it can never sink a good game on its own.
- Win potential15%
- How big the ceiling is, from the provider's published maximum win. A large number is a real possibility and a rare one; it is not a promise.
- Transparency15%
- How much a provider actually publishes about its own game — RTP, its range, volatility, maximum win, hit frequency, paylines, the grid, the release date. Counted only against the facts that can apply: a roulette wheel has no reels, and is not marked down for it.
What a number means
- Exceptional9+
- Rare. Strong on nearly every count we measure.
- Very good8 to 9
- Clearly above the catalogue, with no weak side.
- Good7 to 8
- Worth your time. Most of what we like sits here.
- Fair6 to 7
- Fine to play, without much that stands out.
- Modest0 to 6
- Thin on most counts. Play it for the theme, if at all.
The band is the part worth taking away. We show one decimal because the components carry one, but 7.4 and 7.6 are not different games.
When we can't judge something
Not every component can be scored for every game. When one can't be, its weight is shared out across the rest rather than counted as a zero — a game is never marked down for a judgement we were unable to make. The scorecard on each game page shows the weights we actually used, so they always add up to 100% in front of you.
Some games we don't rate at all. Where a provider publishes neither a return figure nor a maximum win, there isn't enough to build a score worth printing, so those games simply don't carry one. The review still tells you what the game is like to play.
What it isn't
It isn't a prediction. Every game here is a free demo played with play money, and nothing about a score changes what happens on a spin. A high mark means a game is well made, well documented and worth the next ten minutes — not that it is due.
We also don't take payment to move a number. The score is built from the figures a provider publishes, how much the game gets played here, and our own written judgement of how original it is — which you can read on the game's page and disagree with.