Seven gamesBombs, problems, and the ones that were both
Each card shows the week or month of the event as Steam counts it: reviews, the share of thumbs down, and the ratio to the game's median. Steam buckets older games by month, so a weekend wave reads as the month that held it. Every dated sentence links where it came from.
On May 3, 2024 Sony said PC players would have to link a PlayStation Network account, which does not exist in many countries. Steam reviews turned 95 to 98 percent negative over that weekend, and Sony dropped the plan on May 6.
343,328reviews in May 2024, against a median month of 8,156
67%thumbs down that month, after 12% the month before
42xthe median month: flagged by the 5x rule
HELLDIVERS™ 2: 1,182,456 reviews in all, 26% thumbs down, Mostly Positive on Steam, counted by Steam on 2026-11-05.
Sources: Dark Horizons, May 2024, TweakTown, May 6, 2024
Three waves in three months of Early Access. The week of March 19, 2026 answered a beta balance patch that reworked infinite combos; the week of April 16 answered Major Update 1, with most reviews from accounts in China; the week of May 7 was about a consultant credit, not the game.
28,704reviews in the week of March 19, 2026, against a median week of 1,585
55%thumbs down that week, after 5% the week before
18xthe median week: flagged by the 5x rule
Slay the Spire 2: 207,569 reviews in all, 38% thumbs down, Mixed on Steam, counted by Steam on 2026-11-05.
Sources: Kotaku, March 2026, Kotaku, April 2026, Kotaku, May 2026, OneStar report, Slay the Spire 2
At its July 23, 2025 launch the thumbs down came mostly from reviews written in one language, over performance and over the story's reading of history, and the game got a patch that changed the plot. It is the case most often cited for Valve's move to per language scores.
Steam's history for this game starts after this date.
Sources: ITC.ua on Valve's per language scores
The PC launch in July 2024 required an Epic Games account that the store page had not mentioned. The rating fell to Mostly Negative within a day on about 1,300 reviews, nearly all about the account and not the game.
3,434reviews in July 2024, against a median month of 54
48%thumbs down that month
64xthe median month: flagged by the 5x rule
EARTH DEFENSE FORCE 6: 7,317 reviews in all, 30% thumbs down, Mostly Positive on Steam, counted by Steam on 2026-11-05.
Sources: PC Gamer, July 2024
The Steam release on August 10, 2023 opened at about 9 to 15 percent positive and became the lowest rated game on Steam at the time. The reviews named the free to play switch, the cancelled PvE mode and paywalled heroes, and more than two thirds were written in Chinese after the game lost its servers in China that January.
178,422reviews in August 2023, against a median month of 7,144
90%thumbs down that month
25xthe median month: flagged by the 5x rule
Overwatch®: 429,987 reviews in all, 68% thumbs down, Mostly Negative on Steam, counted by Steam on 2026-11-05.
Sources: Shacknews, August 2023, TechSpot, August 2023
The counterexample. Borderlands 4 launched on September 12, 2025 to complaints about PC performance, and performance is still the leading complaint theme in its OneStar report a year later, through two performance patches. That is a problem, not a bomb.
28,003reviews in the week of September 11, 2025, against a median week of 213
37%thumbs down that week
131xthe median week: flagged by the 5x rule
Borderlands 4: 87,611 reviews in all, 43% thumbs down, Mixed on Steam, counted by Steam on 2026-11-05.
Sources: OneStar report, Borderlands 4 on PC
A sustained complaint rather than a wave. Cheating is the top complaint theme in Counter-Strike 2's OneStar report across the last year, through Valve's September 2025 anti cheat update, with no single week standing out against the median.
70,576reviews in September 2025, against a median month of 59,701
18%thumbs down that month, after 20% the month before
1.2xthe median month: under the 5x rule, so no flag
Counter-Strike 2: 9,963,792 reviews in all, 14% thumbs down, Very Positive on Steam, counted by Steam on 2026-11-05.
Sources: OneStar report, Counter-Strike 2