NBA 2K24 launched last week, and players have already made it the second-worst-rated Steam game of all time.
The latest entry in the NBA 2K series launched without any reviews from major gaming outlets, but the fan response to all versions of the game has been overwhelmingly negative. Broadly, fans are saying that the on-court gameplay is as sharp as ever, but discussion of 2K24's high points are being absolutely choked out by long-standing criticism of the series' aggressive microtransactions, and it seems the new badge system is only aggravating issues with how grindy the whole game feels.
But the PC version has been singled out for particular criticism, as it appears to be based on the last-gen PS4 and Xbox One versions. That means that PC players do not get to enjoy any of the graphical features available in the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions - despite the fact that those consoles are nearing three years old and are firmly current-gen platforms.
NBA 2K24 currently has 2,857 negative reviews on Steam, compared against just 315 positive reviews. According to tracking site Steam250, that makes it the second-worst-rated Steam game of all time, just ahead of Overwatch 2. The poor ratings for Overwatch 2 are partially driven by a campaign from Chinese players complaining about Blizzard's poor infrastructure in the region, and while there are also loads of Chinese-language reviews for 2K24, they mostly seem to be centered on issues with the game itself.
User reviews aren't necessarily the best way of determining what the worst games on Steam actually are, since review sections serve as an outlet for users to vent their frustrations as much as anything else - you won't get much of that 'hey, 2K24 seems fine if you're playing offline' sentiment here. But landing this near the bottom of Steam's very deep barrel is still a pretty notable accomplishment.
You know what game isn't at the bottom of the Steam rating list? The widely maligned Gollum.
