We gather the reviews
We collect published reviews from established professional outlets — the people who test products for a living. Drafts, unpublished scores, and user ratings don't count toward the Storm Score.
How We Score
The Storm Score, explained.
Every product on CriticStorm gets a single number from 0 to 100 — the Storm Score. It's not our opinion. It's what the professional critics, taken together, actually said.
34,044reviews normalized
23,476products scored
15outlets tracked
We put every score on one scale
Critics grade in wildly different ways — 5 stars, 10-point scales, letter grades, percentages. We map each one onto a common 0–100 scale so a “4 out of 5” and a “9 out of 10” can finally be compared head-to-head.
4 / 5 stars→809 / 10→90A−→923.5 / 5→708.5 / 10→85
We average the verdicts
The Storm Score is the average of every published, normalized review for that product. More reviews from more outlets means a more reliable number — which is why we always show the review count and how many outlets weighed in, and why products with fewer than 3 reviews get a score but no verdict.
What the bands mean
90–100
Universal Acclaim The critics are in near-unanimous agreement. A standout in its class.
70–89
Critically Acclaimed Strong reviews with broad approval — recommended, with minor reservations.
Below 70
Mixed Reception Critics are divided or underwhelmed. Worth a closer read before buying.
Under 3 reviews
Not Yet Rated A band is a claim about consensus, and one or two reviews can't establish one — in either direction. Until a product has at least 3 published reviews we show its Storm Score but hold back the verdict, rather than calling something acclaimed (or panning it) on a single critic's word.
The outlets behind the score
Every Storm Score is built from these 15 publications. See each outlet →
Into the Storm
The User Voice sits beside the critics — never mixed in.
Anyone can rate
Own it or used it? Slide Your Score on any product page — no account needed. One rating per person per product; change or remove it any time.
We wait for a crowd
A product's User Voice is the average of every rating, shown with its share of positive (70+) ratings — but only once 5 people have weighed in. Below that, we show the count, not a verdict.
Two numbers, never one
The Storm Score is critics only; the User Voice is people only. We show them side by side so you can see where they agree — and where they don't.
To stop ballot-stuffing we keep a one-way hash of your browser's rating token and a salted hash of your network address — never the address itself — and cap how many ratings one network can add an hour.
What the Storm Score is not
- Not our review. We don't test products or hand out our own opinions — we aggregate the critics who do.
- Not user ratings. The Storm Score reflects professional critics only. What people think gets its own number — the Into the Storm User Voice — shown beside it, never blended in.
- Not a fixed number. As new reviews publish, the Storm Score updates to reflect the latest consensus.