From the data I can see that there is a clear correlation between the game having a higher score and being remembered fondly.
That is a fair conclusion. If a game is good, it will always leave a longer-lasting impression. This is also often independent of how popular the game is, or how many players actually played the game.
We have games in all the sides of the axis popularity-quality that get ranked just as they deserve, without popularity playing a significant role.
Example of high popularity but bad score: Fallout76. A game many played, and whether it was a financial success or not, which is not in the discussion and nobody cares in the end but the company itself, this was a game that many rather had never existed, as it is reflected by its 56 score.
Example of high popularity but good score; Why, the one and only, Divinity Original Sin 2. Even today it gets played and reviewed ten times more than, for example, PF:KM, and still gets a 93 average rating. That's when a game is so good that doesn't matter how many people play it, the vast majority will find it to be really good.
Example of low popularity but good score; Disco Elysium. This is where stats can get skewed. Sometimes a game can be so niche that only a handful play it, and they usually love it and overpraise it because they are so thankful that this company made the one type of perfect game they love to see and have zero criticism to offer, in a blind exercise of adoration. Without a neutral point of view to give a fair critique, some games in this end of the spectrum tend to get a little inflated score. Still, if it gets the high score, it's for a reason. If anyone disagrees, they can play it and say why they disagree.
Example of low popularity and bad score; A ton. Don't need to name and shame. Any game that doesn't look worth playing doesn't get played, and the few that do, will leave a bad review. This case is too common, and unfortunately it visits the RPG genre a tad too often.
So when popularity doesn't play a role, the only factor that really matters is how good the game is as perceived by the players. We can agree that the more players that play the game, the more accurate and fine-tuned the score gets, but in the end, it is always objective, irrefutable data. When 95% of people who played a game like it, then it is a great game. When 70% players that play the game like it, then it was okay. It could have been better, and definitely there will be better alternatives in its same genre.
This also does not tell us that Gran Turismo with a 95 score is better than Pathfinder:Kingmaker with a 73 score. That's absurd. The games don't compare.
What it does tell us however, is that Gran Turismo is better than Need for Speed that got a 83 score, and that Pathfinder is worse than PoE, DAO and DOS games that all got 88-95 scores. This is true in the short, mid or long term. Some games may decay faster in popularity, but the quality perceived by those who play it will vary very little in general. As we already agreed, popularity and quality are not related. And we are not judging success, only how good the game is, according to the people who play it. From Bethesda's point of view, Fallout76 was a success, as it created significant revenue. It was still an awful game.
As a curiosity, I learned today that the absolute worst quest that there is in Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous, the absolute most detrimental experience any player will have in the game is there because of feedback given by RPG Codex.
This also teaches us a lesson - niche audiences are self-entitled and dangerous to the quality of a game. They do not represent anyone and do not add any value to anything.
To close, I'm just going to commend you for the nice work with the graphs, I found interesting some of the discrepancies between large pools of RPG players and the tiny niche ones, and there is data that I could find valuable there, especially if I worked in the videogame industry! (or do I?
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If you give me permission, I would love to show those graphs around to some buddies come Monday. Of course, if you don't I will respect that.
Either way, have a nice weekend!