ESRB Ratings

The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) ratings provide guidance about video games and apps so that consumers, especially parents, can make informed choices about the ones they deem suitable for their family.

ESRB ratings have three parts:

• Rating Categories suggest age appropriateness
• Content Descriptors indicate content that may have triggered a particular rating and/or may be of interest or concern
• Interactive Elements highlight interactive or online features of a product, including users' ability to interact with each other, the sharing of users' location with other users, if purchases of digital goods or services are offered, and/or if unrestricted internet access is provided.

Rating Categories

Content Descriptors

Where to Find ESRB Rating Info on Physical (e.g., boxed) games

Physical (e.g., boxed) video games available for retail sale in the United States and Canada display the Rating Category on the front of the package and Content Descriptors on the back when assigned. They may also display Interactive Elements like In-Game Purchases for games that include offers to purchase digital goods or premiums, and Users Interact for games that enable users to interact and share user-generated content with each other.

Digitally Delivered Games and Apps

Many downloadable games carry ESRB ratings, including all those available through digital marketplaces like Microsoft's Xbox Live store, the Windows Store, Nintendo^® eShop and the PlayStation^® Store. Parents and other interested consumers can also check the ESRB age rating for mobile games and apps in the Google Play store, which just like the ratings for console downloadable games, are displayed prior to download.

ESRB Website & Mobile App

Complete rating information for all ESRB-rated video games and console downloadable games is available by searching at ESRB.org or using the free ESRB Rating Search App for iPhone^®, Android^™ and Windows^® Phone.

Rating Summaries

Rating Summaries are a supplementary source of information that give parents a detailed and straightforward description of exactly the kind of content they would want to know about when choosing a video game for their child, including specific examples of material that factored into a game's rating. Although Rating Summaries don't appear on game packages, they are available via the rating search on this website or right from the store by using the free ESRB Rating Search App. Rating Summaries are not available for mobile apps or games that are available solely as a download from a PC, console or handheld device.