For years at IGN we have asked you to give the games you’re playing a thumbs up or down to help others find their next favorite experience. Recently we overhauled this to go much further, swapping the thumbs system for a complete 10-point scale, the results of which are aggregated alongside our own review scores on our game pages. Now, we’re partnering with Pringles to take this even further.
We’ve pulled together all the highest community-rated games and inducted them into an exclusive hall of fame - the Pringles Icons. Pringles Icons aims to pull together the best of the best in the world of video games.
How does it work? Well, IGN has partnered with Pringles to make Pringles Icons a reality. The games with the highest community-rated scores will be awarded a bronze, silver, or gold Pringles Icon that will instantly signify they are something special. As for how a game earns a medal, the breakdown is as follows;
Bronze: A very good game, in the top 1% of all games ever published. 51% of its ratings are 8s, 9s, or 10s.
Silver: An excellent game, a must-play for fans of the genre. 51% of its ratings are 9s or 10s
Gold: Exceptional across the board, a masterpiece, not only a must play, but the pinnacle of what video games can achieve. This is the top 10% of the top 1% of all games. 51% of its ratings are 10s.
- Bronze: A very good game, in the top 1% of all games ever published.
- 51% of its ratings are 8s, 9s, or 10s.
- Silver: An excellent game, a must-play for fans of the genre.
- 51% of its ratings are 9s or 10s.
- Gold: Exceptional across the board, a masterpiece, not only a must play, but the pinnacle of what video games can achieve. This is the top 10% of the top 1% of all games.
- 51% of its ratings are 10s.
So yes, there is a very good chance that AAA games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, The Last of Us, and Grand Theft Auto 5 will earn Pringles Icon status with the coveted gold medal, but smaller indie games like Undertale, Stardew Valley, and Hades will get a shot to make it into the Mt. Rushmore of gaming history, even if they haven’t been played by or voted on by as many people. To accomplish this goal, we’ve decided the metric for success will be based on percentage of total votes as opposed to overall votes.
How Do I Vote For My Favorite Games for Pringles Icons?
To participate in curating this exclusive list of the best games of all time, sign up for a free IGN account at IGN.com. Once you have an account, go to your favorite game’s page on IGN.com or onIGN’s Playlist app and give it the score you think it deserves. You can go to the “My Games” section on your profile to rate games for the first time or change your previous thumbs up or thumbs down review to a cool numerical score.
Each account can review each game once, but you can change your score at any time, and we’ll continue to count it towards whether a specific game gets a Pringles Icon(and which type!) or not.
Need help deciding what score to give a particular game? Check out IGN’s official review scale, which gives a detailed breakdown of each score and examples of games that have earned them. Need a TL:DR? Here’s the short version:
- 10 - Masterpiece (The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, God of War Ragnarok, Grand Theft Auto V)
- 9 - Amazing (Resident Evil 2, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Forza Horizon 4)
- 8 - Great (The Outer Worlds, The Division 2, Kingdom Hearts 3)
- 7 - Good (FIFA 20, Yoshi’s Crafted World, Far Cry New Dawn)
- 6 - Okay (Wolfenstein: Youngblood, Mario Party 10, MediEvil)
- 5 - Mediocre (Crackdown 3, Beyond Eyes, Fallout 76)
- 4 - Bad (WWE 2K20, The Legend of Korra, Aliens: Colonial Marines)
- 3 - Awful (Devil’s Third, Raven’s Cry, Left Alive)
- 2 - Painful (The Culling 2, Fast & Furious: Showdown, Quantum Theory)
- 1 - Unbearable (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Step Up, Self-Defense Training Camp)
Think any of the examples above deserves a higher score? Change its fate by voting on IGN.com and the IGN Playlist App and tell the world why they should give it another look!
Where Will We See These IGN Icon Awards and Their Ratings?
Pringles Icons will appear in a variety of places, including on every game page on IGN.com (for example, the hub page for a game like God of War Ragnarok), game pages on the Playlist app, the Pringles Icons Awards Hub, and on our social media accounts like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
For a better visual, we thought we’d share how these ratings will look on IGN. As you can see in the image below from God of War: Ragnarok’s page, there will be four numbers under the info of a game, and they are, from right to left, IGN’s review score, your review score, the average review score from all IGN users, and finally, what that games Icon status is (This will either be gold, silver, bronze, or grayed out to indicate it has not reached the Icon threshold).
This is only the beginning for Pringles Icons and we’d love to help make this the best user review system on the internet with your help. We’ll constantly be listening to our community!
Pringles Icons is a way for you to set the record straight and show us what games you think are the greatest of all time. And who knows? Your recommendation might just help others find their new favorite game too.
So head to IGN.com or the IGN Playlist App, get to rating, and check the leaderboard to see just how your favorite titles stack up!
Happy Voting!
