How we rate games

Two kinds of data. 103 games are hand-tagged by an editor: whether they end and roughly how long that takes, how idle or active they are (0 is fully active, 100 plays itself), offline progress, prestige layers, save export, mobile support and price. These are existing editorial estimates, labelled as such, and anyone can submit a correction. Anything we don't know is shown as a question mark rather than a guess. A hand-maintained estimate is not a controlled measurement or a claim that an editor has completed the game.

Another 1441 games are tagged from the developer's own description on galaxy.click or itch.io: we only record what the developer states, and say so on the page. The remaining 30,376 form the wider index: every incremental, idle and clicker game we can find on Steam (games whose top tags include Incremental, Idler or Clicker), itch.io, galaxy.click, the App Store, CrazyGames, Kongregate, Armor Games, Poki and open-source GitHub projects, including games that haven't come out yet. A game listed in several places is merged into one entry with every link. These pages are searchable and linked but stay out of search engines until they're tagged, because an empty page helps nobody. Thumbnails for the wider index load from the store or site where each game is published.

Player ratings. Anyone can rate a game once (a re-vote replaces the old one). We store a salted hash, never your IP address. Ratings appear once a game has three or more.

Live signals. On every sync we pull Steam review totals, galaxy.click ratings, favourites and play hours, GitHub repository activity, and itch.io update dates. The last sync was Nov 14, 2026.

Ranking. We combine Steam's positive share and Galaxy's rating with a Bayesian average, so a game with a dozen perfect reviews doesn't outrank one with forty thousand very good ones. Hand-maintained records get a small catalog boost. Featured placements do not alter catalog scores or similar-game relevance.

Status. Updated means a code push or store update in the last twelve months. Complete means the game is finished by design and needs no updates. Dormant means no activity for over a year, which isn't a verdict on quality: many great incrementals are done.

Playing here. Some games can be played right on IncrementalGames.org: open-source games whose license allows it, and games whose developers opted in. They always load from the developer's own site, never a copy, with the author, license and source credited. A daily check hides the button if a game stops allowing it, and any developer can opt out through the claim form.

What we don't do. We do not re-host other people's game files. Artwork may come from a developer or store; it is not evidence of a playtest. We use Vercel Web Analytics for aggregate page views and selected discovery actions. Read our privacy page for the data saved by ratings, submissions, and your local shelf.

Who maintains the site

Maxwell Prehoda maintains IncrementalGames.org and also develops Mushies!. Its promotional placement is disclosed. Independent guide shortlists exclude the creator’s own game.

Editorial policy and source standards →
Privacy and saved data →
Research snapshots →