After experiencing long download times for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, which is an incredible 91 GB in size, angry gamers began to review bomb the game on Steam. It's just the latest in a growing problem for sites like Steam and Metacritic, where games like The Last of Us Part 2 and Animal Crossing: New Horizons are being review bombed for various reasons. It may be a way for gamers to exercise their frustrations, but for those looking to actually hurt the sales of a game, evidence suggests that it doesn't work — and here's why.
In early August, Horizon: Zero Dawn released on PC. Not long after, Horizon: Zero Dawn was repeatedly review bombed amid widespread technical issues. People can complain when a game is affected by such a large problem, but that's not the issue here. Developers at Guerrilla Games prioritized fixing those problems immediately, but the review bombing had already started. Yes, the title had launch issues — but did the review bombs actually impact sales in a negative way? The evidence says no. Horizon: Zero Dawn had already made it to the top of Steam's best-seller list before it launched, and Steam reported tens of thousands of people playing the game in the days after its PC release.
Both Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and Horizon: Zero Dawn are fairly new releases, so people could argue that over time sales will be negatively affected. So, let's take a look at Animal Crossing: New Horizons, a game that was review bombed because gamers were upset at the limits of its local multiplayer. It's been almost six months since the game released, and review bombs haven't noticeably impacted sales. In fact, Animal Crossing has sold 22 million copies already, becoming the second best-selling Switch game ever and the second best-selling game of all time in Japan. If people were trying to hurt the game's success, it clearly didn't work.
Why Video Game Review Bombing Doesn't Work
Then there's The Last of Us: Part 2, another game that was repeatedly review bombed because fans reacted so poorly to its plot and the heart-wrenching ways it affected the game's characters. Three days after it released, The Last of Us: Part 2 had almost 40,000 negative reviews on Metacritic, dropping the user score as low as 3.4/10. Again, this isn't to say that fan frustrations aren't valid, but did these dogpile tactics hurt the game's success? Probably not, since The Last of Us: Part 2 sold over four million copies at release and has since become the third highest-grossing PlayStation game of all time in the United States.
This begs the question as to why people review bomb games in the first place. Sure, if enough negative reviews appear for The Last of Us: Part 2 or Animal Crossing on Metacritic, the developers may notice. But it's the internet equivalent of screaming down a well — and historically, it doesn't work. Most gamers will buy a game they already planned to purchase whether the reviews are bad or not. If anything, review bombing titles like Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 provides a cathartic experience to people who wish to voice their frustrations online and en masse. But for people hoping to hurt a video game's sales, the numbers show that it doesn't work.