How the score is built.
The aggregate is plain math, applied transparently. Five steps. No editorial thumb on the scale.
Normalize
Every source's native scale (5-star, 10-point, percentage) is mapped to 0–100. A 4.5/5 on Hardcover and a 9/10 on IMDb both land at 90.
Filter
Sources with fewer than 25 ratings are excluded — they're noise, not signal. Critic-only sources require at least 10 reviews.
Weight
Audience scores get weight 1.0. Critic-only sources get 0.8 unless they substantially agree with audiences. Score recency boosts long-running properties.
Average
We take the weighted mean across remaining sources, rounded to the nearest integer. That's your WorthTheWatch score.
Verdict
≥85 universal acclaim · 70–84 favorable · 50–69 mixed · 30–49 unfavorable · <30 panned. Color-coded everywhere it appears.
Refresh cadence
Movie, TV, and game scores re-pull every 15 minutes during the first 30 days after release, then hourly. Book scores refresh once a day since those ratings move slowly.