What the Game Status Markers Mean on Acclaimed Video Games

Updated

Acclaimed Video Games uses three personal status markers — Untracked (☆), Want (★+), and Played (★) — to let you tag each game in the 1,400-title ranking with your own relationship to it. They are personal labels, not part of the site's critical ranking: marking a game as Played or Want does not change its rank, which is built from 913 critic lists across 142 publications. Their practical value is that they feed the Game Status filter, so you can narrow the list to just the games you've played or just the ones you intend to play.

The three markers

Marker Label What it means Typical use
☆ Untracked The default state — you haven't assigned the game any status Games you've never touched or don't care to track
★+ Want You intend to play it A personal backlog inside the ranking
★ Played You've played it Separating finished games from the rest

The star symbols are the site's own shorthand: a plain star for Played, a star with a plus for Want, and an open star for Untracked.

Why they're useful

The ranking is a single ordered list of the most recommended games ever, so on its own it doesn't tell you anything about your history with those games. Status markers add that layer:

  • Track a backlog. Marking a game as Want turns the ranking into a to-play list ordered by critical acclaim, so the highest-ranked games you haven't played sit at the top.
  • See what you've covered. Marking games as Played lets you filter down to your own history and compare it against the critics' consensus.
  • Filter by status. The Game Status filter has options for Untracked, Want, and Played, and a Clear All control to reset the selection.

How status interacts with other filters

Status is one filter among several on the page. The others include:

  • Release Year — a decade picker, a year range, and quick presets for the last 5 or last 10 years
  • Platform
  • Genre
  • Series
  • Playtime (HowLongToBeat) — presets for Short, Medium, and Long, plus a completion range in hours
  • Sorting — by Rank, Year, A–Z, or Playtime

Because these combine, the most useful pattern is usually status + one or two others. For example, filtering to Want plus a Short playtime preset surfaces acclaimed games you can actually finish soon, while Played plus a decade shows how much of a given era's canon you've covered.

Things to keep in mind

  • Status is a personal tracking tool, not a rating. It has no effect on a game's position in the ranking.
  • The page shows 100 of 1,400 games at a time, so a status filter is often the fastest way to find a specific title rather than scrolling.
  • If your filtered view looks empty, check whether a previous status selection is still active — use Clear All Filters to start over.