NBA 2K25
analyzed 2026-10-16 · sample of 418 English reviews across the whole review history
Across 418 sampled reviews, the loudest complaints cluster around monetization, which drew 40 mentions and almost no positive ones, alongside performance and stability. Players describe being "dragged through 10 minutes of unskippable gambling promotion" and say "the optimization is pretty horrible"; others report that they "get stuck on the loading screen before it crashes". Price value, bugs, and developer conduct also skew negative, with one reviewer calling it "Ridiculous to expect $70 for a game with all the mentioned issues and more". Servers and netcode, controls, and balance draw smaller but similarly one-sided criticism, and the grind recurs as a theme. Gameplay is where opinion actually splits, and it leans favorable: 15 of 26 mentions are positive, with players saying it "plays a lot better than last years game" and that "overall the game feels nice". Content amount, realism, graphics, and animation are mostly praised in their smaller samples, including "solid basketball simulation" and "a lot of fun to be had in the 'offline' modes". Multiplayer, cheating, and customization are more mixed. The picture is a game whose on-court feel lands for many while its business model and technical state do not.
numbers checked against this report's stored data · quotes copied verbatim from reviews · plain text is the language model's own wording
Aspects
share of sample, axis to 10% · ± is the sampling uncertainty around each share
- positive
- mixed / neutral
- negative
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monetization
0 positive · 39 negative · 1 mixed · 0 neutral
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Accidentally clicked on myteam and was dragged through 10 minutes of unskippable gambling promotion.
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Also a bit heavy on the micro transactions but thats every 2k.
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Same exact game that has been copy pasted for years, lots of bugs, lots of glitches, hackers still an issue, Ridiculous to expect $70 for a game with all the mentioned issues and more, especially knowing they are also banking on in game purchases and product/brand placement.
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performance
3 positive · 29 negative · 1 mixed · 1 neutral
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I but my one big gripe is the optimization is pretty horrible with most all 2K releases.
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The servers don't work and it hasn't been optimized for pc at all.
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whats with the frame stuttering?
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stability
3 positive · 25 negative · 0 mixed · 1 neutral
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I havent been able to get into the game for days at this point and get stuck on the loading screen before it crashes.
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Now have a bug where the game crashes a minute after launch, so I can't even play offline modes.
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After the Anti-Cheat update kicked in, game just quits after playing for like 20mins every time.
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price value
4 positive · 21 negative · 3 mixed · 0 neutral
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Same exact game that has been copy pasted for years, lots of bugs, lots of glitches, hackers still an issue, Ridiculous to expect $70 for a game with all the mentioned issues and more, especially knowing they are also banking on in game purchases and product/brand placement.
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thanks steam for providing the option to refund this garbage-lazy-cashgrab-of-a-game.
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EVEN WITH IT ON SALE...SAVE YOUR MONEY AND BUY SOMETHING ELSE!
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gameplay
15 positive · 10 negative · 1 mixed · 0 neutral
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… much, quite a frustrating grind until you get to at least 80 overall, though GOAT skills help out a lot with making it easier, but overall the game feels nice, pro-play animations are nice, the street ball challenges are also a good addition for branching the activities out.
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The game looks good and plays a lot better than last years game.
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Gameplay feels great! I suggest people to use Rhythm shooting with the right stick, it feels way more natural than using the button.
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bugs
0 positive · 18 negative · 1 mixed · 0 neutral
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Same exact game that has been copy pasted for years, lots of bugs, lots of glitches, hackers still an issue, Ridiculous to expect $70 for a game with all the mentioned issues and more, especially knowing they are also banking on in game purchases and product/brand placement.
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Newest update let me get stuck in menus.
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If you want this for the Go don’t bother, the optimisation is terrible, constant crashes, freezes, frame drops, game crashing glitches it’s a horrible experience.
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developer conduct
0 positive · 16 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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great job 2k winning made you guys weak.
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keep getting banned for no reason
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If your thinking of getting this game it is so ass dont get this terrible of a game f**k ronnie F**k mike wang cant make a good basketball game even if there life was on the line this game isnt even worth it even if was free
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multiplayer
5 positive · 9 negative · 0 mixed · 2 neutral
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I avoid all of the online stuff like the cancer it is, but at its core it's a solid basketball simulation with a lot of fun to be had in the 'offline' modes.
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One thing trying to find people to run it up with lol.
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wont let me cross play with my friends
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balance
0 positive · 11 negative · 1 mixed · 1 neutral
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everything and they made AI shooting Gods everything in this game screams buy VC or suffer.
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theres people pulling up from past half court and swishing it yet my 90 3pt build bricks greens
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GAMEPLAY ON MC IS UNFAIR, WHENEVER I SCORE, THE OPPONENTS SCORED TWICE AND MY TEAMMATES DONT KNOW HOW TO PLAY D!
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controls
1 positive · 11 negative · 1 mixed · 0 neutral
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Meh, this game laggy, I don't recommend it, and the player movement feels off, the shot meter is weird asf, 2k24 is not that good but you can play the game smoothly.
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The movement is so sluggish and needs to be more fluid/smooth for a game in 2024.
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it doesnt feel satisfying making jump shots or layups because the bar is too difficult to understand for an average player and is overall not a good change to 2k.
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see more
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content amount
9 positive · 3 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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… help out a lot with making it easier, but overall the game feels nice, pro-play animations are nice, the street ball challenges are also a good addition for branching the activities out.
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I avoid all of the online stuff like the cancer it is, but at its core it's a solid basketball simulation with a lot of fun to be had in the 'offline' modes.
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We now have all of the modes that PS5 and Xbox have.
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servers netcode
0 positive · 11 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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Yes but they need to fix the lag
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The servers don't work and it hasn't been optimized for pc at all.
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Game doesn't connect online so I can't play Park or my career.
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realism
5 positive · 4 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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I avoid all of the online stuff like the cancer it is, but at its core it's a solid basketball simulation with a lot of fun to be had in the 'offline' modes.
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The Realism in My career is outstanding to the fact that nobody will like NBA2K23 my career.
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Fun game and pretty realistic.
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graphics
5 positive · 3 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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The game looks good and plays a lot better than last years game.
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crazy good and well made along with some nice graphics.
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The attention to detail, graphics, and gameplay mechanics make you feel like you're right in the middle of the action.
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updates
1 positive · 5 negative · 1 mixed · 0 neutral
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However every year 2K studios puts out an incomplete game, that basically is unplayable for months at a time.
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with each update the game gets worse.
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It's shocking how little changes in 5 entire years of taking a break from this "franchise".
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ai behavior
1 positive · 5 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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not really feeling the A.I but my one big gripe is the optimization is pretty horrible with most all 2K releases.
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GAMEPLAY ON MC IS UNFAIR, WHENEVER I SCORE, THE OPPONENTS SCORED TWICE AND MY TEAMMATES DONT KNOW HOW TO PLAY D!
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AI in this game is awful, both for your players and for the CPU.
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cheating
2 positive · 4 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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Same exact game that has been copy pasted for years, lots of bugs, lots of glitches, hackers still an issue, Ridiculous to expect $70 for a game with all the mentioned issues and more, especially knowing they are also banking on in game purchases and product/brand placement.
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2k has lost touch with reality and encourage people to hack their gaming making such a pay to win.
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fun as hell besides cheaters!
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platform access
2 positive · 3 negative · 1 mixed · 0 neutral
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1 you need WiFi for my career. No wifi no vc no playing.
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Asked for a refund because the game doesnt run on my PC, but was refused cause they said I had played over 2 hours or something.
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Requires a 2K account. Why???
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progression
1 positive · 5 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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Even the grind is a psychological funnel — slow progress, inconsistent calls, random cold streaks — all tuned to make you believe you’re the problem.
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I bopught this game just only for my carrer mode but that mode is fckn garbage because of very slow progress and dumb quests.
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Just create a player in the player creator, import them into the roster, and load that roster into the MyEra mode, then, player lock yourself as that player, you will have so much more fun doing this instead of "trying" to grind to level up your mycareer player.
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animation
3 positive · 2 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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… grind until you get to at least 80 overall, though GOAT skills help out a lot with making it easier, but overall the game feels nice, pro-play animations are nice, the street ball challenges are also a good addition for branching the activities out.
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very cool game cool animations very good quality the best bb game ever for every hooper out there.
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There are some good things like animation, attack schemes, tutorial, commentary.
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customization
2 positive · 3 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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… to get drafted, also when drafted not being able to decide what team drafts you and every AI generated rookie looks the same so when you reach the 2030 season every teams players have the same face pretty much
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even with the vc included in the tournement edition you can't make a remotely useable roleplayer.
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Can't name your character.
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Emergent themes unvalidated
topics reviewers bring up that are not on the validated list; raw counts only, no error bars
- grind 5
Review timeline
monthly peak 4,593 reviews · all languages
monthly share rated positive · 50% reference · months with <5 reviews faded
the timeline as a table
| month | reviews | up | down | positive | note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 2024 | 4,593 | 2,597 | 1,996 | 57% | |
| Oct 2024 | 1,807 | 988 | 819 | 55% | |
| Nov 2024 | 2,139 | 1,370 | 769 | 64% | |
| Dec 2024 | 2,417 | 1,433 | 984 | 59% | |
| Jan 2025 | 1,842 | 1,117 | 725 | 61% | |
| Feb 2025 | 2,542 | 1,541 | 1,001 | 61% | |
| Mar 2025 | 2,116 | 1,252 | 864 | 59% | |
| Apr 2025 | 1,764 | 1,095 | 669 | 62% | |
| May 2025 | 3,757 | 2,198 | 1,559 | 59% | |
| Jun 2025 | 2,273 | 1,357 | 916 | 60% | |
| Jul 2025 | 2,587 | 1,492 | 1,095 | 58% | |
| Aug 2025 | 1,137 | 730 | 407 | 64% | |
| Sep 2025 | 521 | 341 | 180 | 65% | |
| Oct 2025 | 405 | 263 | 142 | 65% | |
| Nov 2025 | 545 | 425 | 120 | 78% | |
| Dec 2025 | 343 | 246 | 97 | 72% | |
| Jan 2026 | 263 | 166 | 97 | 63% | |
| Feb 2026 | 191 | 129 | 62 | 68% | |
| Mar 2026 | 159 | 112 | 47 | 70% | |
| Apr 2026 | 138 | 94 | 44 | 68% | |
| May 2026 | 127 | 85 | 42 | 67% | |
| Jun 2026 | 114 | 76 | 38 | 67% | |
| Jul 2026 | 116 | 64 | 52 | 55% | |
| Aug 2026 | 72 | 43 | 29 | 60% | |
| Sep 2026 | 52 | 30 | 22 | 58% | |
| Oct 2026 | 24 | 10 | 14 | 42% |
How this report was made
- Population
- all Steam reviews of the game (every language, purchase type, and verdict), walked newest-first per window; only English-language reviews are analyzed
- Sample
- 418 English reviews, time-proportional draw over 26 windows (newest-first within each), taken from an all-language walk and kept English-only — where English is a minority the sample runs smaller than the draw, and every margin of error is computed at 418
- Aspect yield
- 172 of 418 analyzed reviews carry at least one aspect (41.1%); every share on this page divides by all 418
- Interval regime
- calm: standard margins of error for a share of a sample (Wilson interval), no widening needed
- Fetch paths
- 26 time windows fetched directly (windowed)
- Language mix
- 1,000 fetched: english 422 · schinese 329 · brazilian 44 · 20 more
- Steam-marked windows
- none flagged by Steam (Valve's off-topic flagging began March 2019)
- Marked share
- 0.0% of sample inside marked windows, under the 2% floor
- Narrative
- passed the grounding gate first try
- Evidence floor
- aspects and emergent themes appear only with 5+ supporting reviews; smaller counts sit at the classifier's false-positive floor
- Instrument readings
- measured once on the study corpus for this model and prompt: frozen calibration, not properties of this run
- · aspect tagging vs. human labels
- 0.801 [0.752–0.844] (F1 against a human-labeled test set; 1.0 is best)
- · quotes filed under the wrong aspect
- 11.6% [6.6–19.6] of quotes, measured by hand on a sample; lower is better — measured on the prior model (2026-08-05); re-measurement pending
- · independent model vs. production labels
- 0.791 [0.772–0.810] (F1 of the production labeler against an independent judge model) — measured on the prior model (2026-07-25); re-measurement pending
- Versions
- deepseek-flash · prompt classify-v1 · ontology v2
- Run
- serve-20261016T005440Z-db52bef5 · code 798e06c
full methodology in the milestone write-ups