The first game in the Madden franchise released all the way back in 1988, with John Madden Football. Since then the series has seen a release every single year, going through five different generations of consoles, as well as PC, mobile and handheld systems.
This look at Madden’s Metacritic history starts with Madden NFL 2001, the first to have review scores on the site. It will only look at the main games in the series, so no handheld/mobile only games or spinoffs will be accounted for. It will also only factor in console/PC scores and not those for handheld/mobile.
Madden’s Metacritic history
17 out of the 19 (89.47%) games in the Madden franchise on Metacritic have an average score over 80. However, only 3/19 (15.78%) have a score over 90. The last time a Madden game reach those heights among reviewers was Madden 05. Since then the series has consistently gotten about the same aggregate scores with each installment.
The graph below shows the total number of combined reviews for all non-handheld/mobile systems that each Madden game has been on.
To calculate the average critic score for a game I weighed the number of reviews. As an example, for Madden 17 I took the 30 Xbox One reviews and multiplied it by there average score of 83. I then did the same for the PlayStation 4. I then took both those numbers, added them together and divided it by the total number of critic scores to get the average Metacritic score.
| Game | Year | Systems | Metacritic Score | # of Critics | Avg Critic Score |
| Madden 01 | 2000 | PS2, N64, PC, PS1 | 91, 89, 78, 90 | 25+6+13+14 = 58 | 87.63 |
| Madden 02 | 2001 | PS2, Xbox, GC, N64, PC, PS1 | 94, 90, 89, 78, 71, 88 | 23+16+12+5+10+9 = 75 | 87.49 |
| Madden 03 | 2002 | PS2, Xbox, GC, PC, PS1 | 95, 92, 92, 89, 84.5 | 25+16+13+12+2 = 68 | 92.35 |
| Madden 04 | 2003 | PS2, Xbox, GC, PC, PS1 | 94, 92, 94, 91, 80 | 29+27+19+13+1 = 89 | 92.79 |
| Madden 05* | 2004 | PS2, Xbox, GC, PC | 91, 91, 90, 85 | 30+39+26+12 = 107 | 90.08 |
| Madden 06 | 2005 | 360, PS2, Xbox, GC, PC | 74, 88, 86, 86, 78 | 48+29+39+21+16 = 153 | 81.77 |
| Madden 07 | 2006 | 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, Xbox, GC, PC | 80, 76, 81, 84, 83, 82, 80 | 54+25+35+29+27+14+15 = 199 | 80.80 |
| Madden 08 | 2007 | 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, Xbox, GC, PC | 85, 81, 76, 78, 76, 75, 75 | 46+31+29+11+6+4+6 = 133 | 80.36 |
| Madden 09 | 2008 | 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, Xbox | 83, 85, 82, 67, 80 | 50+38+19+4+1 = 112 | 82.91 |
| Madden 10 | 2009 | 360, PS3, Wii, PS2 | 85, 85, 77, 67.66 | 58+41+23+3 = 125 | 83.11 |
| Madden 11* | 2010 | 360, PS3, Wii | 84, 83, 75 | 47+36+6 = 89 | 82.98 |
| Madden 12* | 2011 | 360, PS3, Wii | 78, 79, 75 | 55+31+3 = 89 | 78.24 |
| Madden 13 | 2012 | 360, PS3, WiiU, Wii | 81, 83. 75, 72.5 | 36+22+9+2 = 69 | 80.6 |
| Madden 25 | 2013 | One, PS4, 360, PS3 | 73, 74, 80, 76 | 18+13+32+19 = 82 | 76.58 |
| Madden 15* | 2014 | One, PS4 | 80, 81 | 19+37 = 56 | 80.66 |
| Madden 16* | 2015 | One, PS4 | 84, 83 | 23+37 = 60 | 83.38 |
| Madden 17* | 2016 | One, PS4 | 83, 82 | 30+35 = 65 | 82.46 |
| Madden 18 | 2017 | One, PS4 | 82, 82 | 22+40 = 62 | 82 |
| Madden 19 | 2018 | One, PS4, PC | 82, 80, 80 | 19+26+6 = 51 | 80.74 |
*Madden 05 is on the PS1 but has no Metacritic reviews on the site.
*Madden 11 and 12 are on the PS2 but has no Metacritic reviews on the site.
*Madden 15, 16 and 17 is on the PS3 and 360 but has no Metacritic reviews on the site.
Despite not factoring in the handheld or mobile scores into the above graphs for the mainline Madden games, I did take separate note of them to share in the table below for anyone interested.
| Game | Year | Systems | Critic Score | # of Critics | Highest Score | Lowest Score |
| Madden 02 | 2001 | GBA | 76 | 3 | 80 | 70 |
| Madden 03 | 2002 | GBA | 75 | 5 | 82 | 60 |
| Madden 04 | 2003 | GBA | 70 | 9 | 90 | 50 |
| Madden 05 | 2004 | GBA, DS | 79, 68 | 9+25 = 34 | 85 (2) | 40 |
| Madden 06 | 2005 | GBA, DS, PSP | 71, 66, 75 | 7+9+23 = 39 | 90 | 40 |
| Madden 07 | 2006 | GBA, DS, PSP | 68, 70, 78 | 4+9+18 = 31 | 90 | 56 |
| Madden 08 | 2007 | DS, PSP | 71, 75 | 11+10 = 21 | 80 (4) | 50 (2) |
| Madden 09 | 2008 | DS, PSP | 66.33, 68 | 3+8 = 11 | 80 | 60 (3) |
| Madden 10 | 2009* | PSP | 79.5 | 2 | 80 | 79 |
| Madden 11 | 2010 | PSP, iOS, iPad | 66, 78, 77 | 1+8+4 = 13 | 100 | 50 |
| Madden 12 | 2011* | iOS | 71 | 6 | 100 | 50 |
| Madden 13 | 2012 | Vita | 63 | 6 | 70 (2) | 55 |
| Madden 25 | 2013 | iOS | 39 | 8 | 70 | 20 |
*Madden 10 is on the iOS but has no Metacritic reviews on the site.
*Madden 12 is on the PSP but has no Metacritic reviews on the site.
Finally, let’s take a look at the highest and lowest scores that each Madden game has received, as well as what percentage of reviews gave a game a perfect score of 100. Oddly enough, since Madden 10 every game in the series with the exception of Madden 17 has not gotten a lower score than 60 from any Metacritic review.
| Game | Highest Score | Lowest Score | % of 100s |
| Madden 01 | 100 (9) | 67 | 15.51% |
| Madden 02 | 100 (11) | 40 | 14.66% |
| Madden 03 | 100 (20) | 74 (2) | 29.41% |
| Madden 04 | 100 (25) | 60 | 28.08% |
| Madden 05 | 100 (9) | 56 | 8.41% |
| Madden 06 | 100 (6) | 40 | 3.92% |
| Madden 07 | 100 (2) | 30 | 0.10% |
| Madden 08 | 100 (1) | 45 | 0.75% |
| Madden 09 | 100 (4) | 58 | 3.57% |
| Madden 10 | 95 | 60 (4) | 0% |
| Madden 11 | 100 (1) | 60 | 1.12% |
| Madden 12 | 100 (1) | 60 (10) | 1.12% |
| Madden 13 | 100 (1) | 60 (3) | 1.44% |
| Madden 25 | 95 | 60 (11) | 0% |
| Madden 15 | 91 | 60 (2) | 0% |
| Madden 16 | 95 | 60 | 0% |
| Madden 17 | 91 | 70 (5) | 0% |
| Madden 18 | 95 | 60 (2) | 0% |
| Madden 19 | 92 | 60 (2) | 0% |
Sources and info:
Featured Image: “First Madden NFL 16 Screenshots Released” by BagoGames is licensed under CC BY-2.0
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madden_NFL
http://www.metacritic.com/ (used to find the games, critic reviews, and scores)
All tables and graphs made using Google Spreadsheets
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