Video Game Greed Index
What are you really buying, and how much will it cost you?
Independent. We take no money from game companies, run no ads and use no affiliate links. We're an independent developer ourselves, making games that try to be as ethical as possible, so we have a point of view.
Money health
Every game gets one of four ratings
Fair
Pay clearly, know the ceiling
You know what you are paying for before you pay, and there is a limit to what the game can take.
15 games →
WatchFine if you understand it
Reasonable on its own, but it can tip into overspending or overplaying if nobody is paying attention.
5 games →
CautionBuilt to push spending
Commonly designed to make you spend or play more than you would choose: pressure, friction you can pay to remove, or prices you can't easily see.
17 games →
HarmfulChance, compulsion or exploitation
Built around chance, compulsion or exploiting players: paid randomness, gambling-like loops, or money that can leave the game.
19 games →
In the guide
All 56 games
The badges
Four kinds of badge
Pay once
Price tags show how you pay — the business model, from pay-once to gacha.
Daily pressure
Hooks show the techniques used to keep you paying or playing — timers, streaks, limited-time pressure.
Violencemild
Square labels show what's in it — violence, language, gambling themes — read from the official age ratings. They don't affect the money rating.
Child safety
Hexagons show who makes it — the company's track record, from regulator fines and court cases to good practice. They're never part of a game's money verdict.
How you pay
Pay onceTry then buyExpansionPaid DLCEditionsEarly accessSubscriptionOnline subGame libraryCloud streamLicence onlyPay per playCosmeticsBy the hourFree-to-playBattle passAd-fundedCreator coinsCash tradingLoot boxesGachaPlay-to-earnGambling
Techniques
Daily pressureStarter packRewarded adsCollect allHeld backGame currencyWait or payFOMO timersMade scarceTuned to spendPay to winPity timerWhale designSocial nudgesOne-tap buysKids' spendingForced adsNever-endingAlways onlineData harvestCreator labourSlot-machineSkin betting
What's in it
Who makes it
Why this exists
A game's price tag tells you how it treats you
For most of their history, games charged you the way most things do: you paid, and you got the game. Coin-op machines charged per go, cartridges and discs charged once, and later expansions and subscriptions were priced up front. You could see the deal.
Then, around 2009, mobile app stores let free games sell things inside themselves. A new model took over: give the game away, then manufacture a problem — waiting, weakness, scarcity, a lucky draw — and sell the cure. Those games are tuned around the small share of players who spend the most, and the design choices that get them to spend are rarely mentioned in a review.
A full-price game that ships complete isn't expensive for no reason: it's the whole deal, priced up front. A free game isn't free for no reason either. The YKYMF Greed Index puts the business model next to the reviews so you can see both.
Our Video Games & Money series tells the full history, from 1950s mainframes to play-to-earn.