Cities: Skylines II
analyzed 2026-08-08 · sample of 544 English reviews across the whole review history
Players most often talk about the core gameplay, with 31.1% of sampled reviews mentioning it, and the tone there is largely positive. They praise the road tools, the progression system, and the way the game can be "challenging and fun". A smaller group finds it relaxing and addictive, describing it as a "Good game to sit back and relax on" and noting you can "spend dozens of hours in without realizing how much time has passed". The dominant criticism is technical. Performance appears in 29.8% of reviews, and the vast majority of those are negative, with complaints about "lousy graphical performance" and the game feeling "completely unoptimized for larger cities". Bugs and stability are also heavily negative, with players reporting crashes and issues like "Deliveries do not make it to commercial destinations". Content amount, balance, and AI behavior are similarly criticized, with some calling the base game "more like an early access title" and others pointing to broken traffic and economic systems. Opinion splits on graphics, updates, and mods. Graphics are nearly evenly divided between positive and negative, and updates draw both anticipation and frustration. Mod support is a recurring sore point, with players asking to "bring back the workshop" and criticizing the platform access restrictions. Developer conduct, DLC, and price value are also frequent negative themes, with some players advising others to "Save your money and wait for this game to go on sale".
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 40% · ± is the sampling uncertainty around each share
- positive
- mixed / neutral
- negative
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gameplay
98 positive · 57 negative · 14 mixed · 0 neutral
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Very easy to get into, and fun to play.
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first the graphics and the game play are amazing for a city builder
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CS 2 is a fun game but the launch was terrible.
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performance
31 positive · 116 negative · 11 mixed · 4 neutral
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Gameplay feels like it's completely unoptimized for larger cities.
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This game is unfinished and broken, and that’s while ignoring the lousy graphical performance.
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On viel paljon bugeja ja peli on optimoitu huonosti, se pyörii itellä suurimman osan ajasta 25fps.
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bugs
4 positive · 84 negative · 1 mixed · 1 neutral
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Some bugs, but overall I enjoy this game
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clipping needs fixing.
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On viel paljon bugeja ja peli on optimoitu huonosti, se pyörii itellä suurimman osan ajasta 25fps.
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stability
4 positive · 80 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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The game keeps crashing even after playing for 20 hours, stability is a real issue
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Ohh buy my new building pack but tdont expect to play it because the game KEEPS ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ CRASHING!
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game sometimes crashes.
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mods
28 positive · 44 negative · 3 mixed · 0 neutral
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All they need to do is bring back the workshop, literally.
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the intersection tool should be more comperhensive should offer similar fuction to tm:pe.
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If you install a mod with some bugs you can't unistall it.
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developer conduct
12 positive · 58 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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CO really did us dirty. Promising things that are not even close to implemented.
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I'm really looking forward to the issues getting fixed, but yet another game being released too early has put a sour taste in my mouth.
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My point being, I waited for cities skylines 2 to release, and was genuinely 100% excited for the release, however, they released it too early, not enough time in the oven so to speak.
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content amount
7 positive · 53 negative · 1 mixed · 0 neutral
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Like many others have said, this game feels unfinished, more like an early access title.
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as a base version offers alot less than skylines 1 i have with dlc-s.
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Early Access and undercooked - worth a buy with a big 50% sale.
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graphics
28 positive · 25 negative · 2 mixed · 0 neutral
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Amazing graphic when close up, runs fine plenty of FPS all on high detail.
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first the graphics and the game play are amazing for a city builder
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The buildings and services look awesome and the size of them really make you consider city layouts more.
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updates
26 positive · 21 negative · 0 mixed · 2 neutral
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it has its issues but i think theres gonna be a lot of updates in the future but i think they should have the game go out in the next year it feels unfineshed and im dissapoinded that i bougth this game for a 89.
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Great Game Awesome graphics smooth performance and overall a lot of fun a lot better than the first game cant wait for more future updates.
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With consistent updates I can see this getting better and better reviews from people, so in the long run, it's a great pick.
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price value
6 positive · 26 negative · 2 mixed · 5 neutral
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it has its issues but i think theres gonna be a lot of updates in the future but i think they should have the game go out in the next year it feels unfineshed and im dissapoinded that i bougth this game for a 89.99 euro so yea
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Save your money and wait for this game to go on sale.
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Highly regret buying this, if i had known how long it would take them to actually finish the game i would have waited 2 years for them to actually finish it and then bought it for half the price.
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see more
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dlc
9 positive · 23 negative · 0 mixed · 1 neutral
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2/10 for me - hope it get fixed soon - However knowing the way paradox work, it will require 16 DLC's costing £200.
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Now the buildings are boring, very little diversity, they gutted nearly all previous dlc content and essentially re-released cs1 vanilla, so be ready to buy all those same dlc's again.
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Genuinely an insult to release this and endless DLC in addition to a STILL broken game.
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balance
3 positive · 28 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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At first, the demand for small residential seemingly had no end, but at some point that flipped and all I had demand for was office and commercial, even though I couldn't zone more commercial without businesses struggling to get customers and going out of business.
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2 cities have been ruined by the industrial tax where in 1 game concrete went to 300mil monthly where it will fluctuate at being +300mil to -300mil.
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Dams don't work properly, the economy is bugged, cargo terminals are bugged.
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ai behavior
3 positive · 26 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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I built a passenger train station in this small town, but it got completely congested with traffic because people started commuting out of the large city, BY CAR, to catch a train, so they could go back to THE CITY... by TRAIN.
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The traffic AI are pathetic MODs cant even fix them 100% the cars doing whatever they want.
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Strategy changes nothing, and the residents complain about things that aren't even problems. They leave for no reason. They die despite having good health care.
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ui
6 positive · 16 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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upgrading roads can be a nightmare.
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The problems for me are the poor quality of the simulation, the bugs, and a number of interface decisions by the devs that make parts of the game unpleasant to experience.
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It also lacks the character that SC1 did have and once winter hits, you won't be able to find your pointer.
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physics
3 positive · 18 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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In Cities skylines 2, Dams do not work, they do not control the water levels, pumps do not work, they do not suck up water from sources, they feel very static.
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The colors are depressing, the gameplay is frustrating, the simulation is broken, not to mention the performance.
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*I filled in water to only find the game said anything I was building over that filled land as still water.
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level design
12 positive · 8 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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I'd say the best things about the game are the new road tools, which are far more flexible than the first game.
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The buildings and services look awesome and the size of them really make you consider city layouts more.
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- Roads/Tracks are more flexible than ever, and can be seamlessly placed however the player desires.
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realism
9 positive · 7 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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Also, the asset designs are more realistic to an extent.
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You can play this game very casually, or get into the nitty-gritty with traffic simulations and supply chains.
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- realistically sized service buildings, and upgrades that change the physical appearance of the buildings.
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learning curve
4 positive · 7 negative · 0 mixed · 2 neutral
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Need an engineering degree to connect transportation venues.
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Refund requested - the game is not playable, it's laggy and not user friendly.
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- Learning curve for those lacking brain function.
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progression
6 positive · 5 negative · 0 mixed · 1 neutral
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- progression system makes it feel more game-y than just a city builder.
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I love the new progression system and the road tools are amazing!
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I love the progression system and especially the water and electricity being included with roads!
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platform access
0 positive · 9 negative · 2 mixed · 0 neutral
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especially with huge core sacrifices in the way of its own mod store, for xbox and ps support, when we are fast approaching 2 years without even a date for the console release of the game.
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ESPECIALLY without the option of having steam workshop? I understand you want to integrate with other platforms, but why degrade the overall experience?
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UPD: Just figured out, that this game won't support mods if you play via GeForceNow (like i do, because this game is melting my computer).
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difficulty
5 positive · 5 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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You literally cannot fail at this game and there's little to do other than laying roads down and zoning and trying to make your city look good with what little you have in the base game.
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I'm finding this game far too difficult.
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The game is ridiculously easy now and does not feature the challenges that the original game had.
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addictiveness
9 positive · 0 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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Another paradox game that you will spend dozens of hours in without realizing how much time has passed.
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hours and hours of time suck ahead.
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New tools and features makes it more addicting that the first.
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relaxation
8 positive · 0 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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You can play this game very casually, or get into the nitty-gritty with traffic simulations and supply chains.
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Good game to sit back and relax on, shame it always crashes.
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One of my favorite games to relax and play it
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monetization
0 positive · 7 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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I feel like they have no intention to improve the core of the game and add core features and everything they add in DLCs will be glorified asset packs.
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Fall 2025- and they continue, continue, to release cosmetic DLC/season passes for a game that is fundamentally broken at its core.
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From blaming the community, to working on paid DLC before fixing fundamental game-breaking problems, it's clear they have completely given up on their player-base in favor of squeezing out every last penny from them.
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world
3 positive · 4 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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In Cities skylines 2, your cims don't act like cims, they act like 3d models T posing until you zoom into them, their lives have no meaning, they are counted as another statistic, a number.
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The game does not feel alive like the first version. Traffic does not really represent the city at all.
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[b]What's Missing:[/b] Life is missing.
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controls
3 positive · 3 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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as for the game, runs nicely in Geforce now, runs like gamecube on my native pc, also im on a potato, but with geforce, i was playing from my ipad with my xbox controller and it felt AWESOME!
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- intuitive road building (making pretty interchanges is easy now), and just overall large improvement of the road tool.
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Road tools feel amazing to use.
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art style
2 positive · 3 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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The colors are depressing, the gameplay is frustrating, the simulation is broken, not to mention the performance.
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I'm not a huge fan of the blazing white background and highlighter green colours that blind you when you're in certain build modes, but I'm sure that can be improved either by the devs or mods.
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Roads have a glitch where they create vertical cliffs that vehicles still drive on; ultimately taking away from the aesthetics of the game.
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sound design
1 positive · 4 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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The music is good, but the ads and breaks are annoying.
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*Radio repeating itself about electricity or water issues when paused makes me question my sanity
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- Radios have a few repeating tracks and repeating announcements, so every 5 minutes or so ou hear the same dialogue, AD or same song.
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Emergent themes unvalidated
topics reviewers bring up that are not on the validated list; raw counts only, no error bars
- economy 7
Review timeline
monthly peak 19,472 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 2023 | 19,472 | 10,646 | 8,826 | 55% | |
| Nov 2023 | 9,540 | 6,379 | 3,161 | 67% | |
| Dec 2023 | 2,500 | 1,465 | 1,035 | 59% | |
| Jan 2024 | 1,929 | 1,010 | 919 | 52% | |
| Feb 2024 | 1,700 | 554 | 1,146 | 33% | |
| Mar 2024 | 2,442 | 691 | 1,751 | 28% | |
| Apr 2024 | 1,723 | 529 | 1,194 | 31% | |
| May 2024 | 1,078 | 439 | 639 | 41% | |
| Jun 2024 | 1,042 | 491 | 551 | 47% | |
| Jul 2024 | 1,304 | 774 | 530 | 59% | |
| Aug 2024 | 905 | 517 | 388 | 57% | |
| Sep 2024 | 818 | 437 | 381 | 53% | |
| Oct 2024 | 817 | 424 | 393 | 52% | |
| Nov 2024 | 1,050 | 545 | 505 | 52% | |
| Dec 2024 | 1,663 | 807 | 856 | 49% | |
| Jan 2025 | 1,148 | 577 | 571 | 50% | |
| Feb 2025 | 925 | 407 | 518 | 44% | |
| Mar 2025 | 1,363 | 683 | 680 | 50% | |
| Apr 2025 | 817 | 436 | 381 | 53% | |
| May 2025 | 851 | 437 | 414 | 51% | |
| Jun 2025 | 957 | 461 | 496 | 48% | |
| Jul 2025 | 873 | 486 | 387 | 56% | |
| Aug 2025 | 718 | 407 | 311 | 57% | |
| Sep 2025 | 652 | 342 | 310 | 52% | |
| Oct 2025 | 997 | 539 | 458 | 54% | |
| Nov 2025 | 1,245 | 682 | 563 | 55% | |
| Dec 2025 | 1,060 | 591 | 469 | 56% | |
| Jan 2026 | 825 | 531 | 294 | 64% | |
| Feb 2026 | 913 | 618 | 295 | 68% | |
| Mar 2026 | 1,086 | 792 | 294 | 73% | |
| Apr 2026 | 847 | 608 | 239 | 72% | |
| May 2026 | 936 | 668 | 268 | 71% | |
| Jun 2026 | 929 | 679 | 250 | 73% | |
| Jul 2026 | 906 | 685 | 221 | 76% | |
| Aug 2026 | 170 | 115 | 55 | 68% |
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
- 544 English reviews, time-proportional draw over 35 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 544
- Aspect yield
- 414 of 544 analyzed reviews carry at least one aspect (76.1%); every share on this page divides by all 544
- Interval regime
- calm: standard margins of error for a share of a sample (Wilson interval), no widening needed
- Fetch paths
- 35 time windows fetched directly (windowed)
- Language mix
- 1,000 fetched: english 546 · german 108 · schinese 60 · 23 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 after one corrective retry
- 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
- 0.766 [0.713–0.811] (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
- · independent model vs. production labels
- 0.791 [0.772–0.810] (F1 of the production labeler against an independent judge model)
- Versions
- deepseek-v4-flash · prompt classify-v1 · ontology v2
- Run
- serve-20260808T104906Z-fecedcb4 · code 2c921c8+dirty
full methodology in the milestone write-ups