ESRB, PEGI and USK age ratings for indie games

This guide helps you prepare. It is not a rating from ESRB, PEGI, USK, IARC, or anyone else, and only the rating bodies and stores can give an official rating. Questionnaires and rules change, so check each one at the source.

An age rating tells players and parents who a game is for. For a developer it is also a gate: stores use ratings to decide where a game is shown and who can buy it, and some will not list a game without one. This guide explains how the main systems work and how to prepare before you open a questionnaire. The age rating helper walks you through the same questions and gives an estimate.

The main systems

• ESRB covers the United States and Canada. Its categories are E (Everyone), E10+ (Everyone 10 and up), T (Teen, 13 and up), M (Mature, 17 and up), and AO (Adults Only, 18 and up).
• PEGI covers most of Europe. Its ages are 3, 7, 12, 16, and 18.
• USK is the German system, with ages 0, 6, 12, 16, and 18. Germany treats ratings as law, so they matter if you sell there.

Other countries have their own boards. Some stores and platforms use the IARC system, which lets you answer one questionnaire and receive ratings from several regional bodies at once. Which stores take part, and what each one requires, changes over time, so check the current rules for every store you publish on. Steam, for example, has its own content survey in Steamworks that you fill in as part of setting up your page.

What decides the rating

The questionnaires differ in wording, but they ask about the same handful of things:

• Violence. Cartoon slapstick, fantasy combat, fighting with blood, realistic violence, and graphic gore sit at very different levels.
• Sexual content and nudity. Romance, suggestive themes or fanservice, partial nudity, and explicit content. This is the most common reason for a higher rating than developers expect, especially for games with anime-style art.
• Language. Mild words, strong profanity, and slurs count separately.
• Fear and horror. Spooky but cute, jump scares, and sustained dread are different.
• Alcohol, tobacco, and drugs. Mentions count as well as use.
• Gambling. Simulated gambling with fake chips is treated differently from anything involving real money.
• Discrimination and hate. Whether hateful content is shown critically, in context, or played straight.

Boards also show separate notices for things that are not about content: that players can interact online, that the game has in-game purchases, whether those include random items such as loot boxes, and whether it shares the player's location. These do not usually raise the age category by themselves, but they matter for parents, for privacy law, and for our content policy.

How to prepare

1. Describe the most intense thing, not the average. Questionnaires ask about the strongest content a player can see or cause. A single boss fight with blood counts, even if the rest of the game is gentle.
2. Include everything players can see or hear. That means text, voice acting, item descriptions, cutscenes, and mods or user content if your game allows them.
3. Use the same words the form uses. Write down your answers to each category before opening the form. It is quicker, and it makes you think about each one.
4. Be honest about your art style. If your characters are suggestive or the outfits are revealing, say so. A questionnaire that does not match the game can lead to a changed rating, a page that is restricted, or a game that is removed.
5. Re-answer when the game changes. A new mode, a DLC, or a patch that adds blood can change the answers. Keep your answers with your release notes.

Games for children

A low age rating does not make a game safe from children's privacy law. If young children are your audience, COPPA, GDPR, and similar rules apply however clean the content is. Paid random items, pressure tactics around purchases, and open chat with strangers get extra scrutiny when children are involved. Read the COPPA and GDPR guide and use the checklist.

Ratings and indiedev.games

indiedev.games is a family-friendly home for indie games, and we apply our own content policy on top of any official rating. The age rating helper also shows how your answers fit it: some content fits with no extra label, some fits with a label, some needs a human review, and some, such as sexual content involving characters who are or look like minors, is never allowed here whatever the rest of your answers.

A quick way to start

Open the age rating helper, answer the questions about your game, and note the categories and content notices it suggests. Then fill in the real questionnaire with the same answers, and treat any difference between its result and the estimate as a reason to look at your answers again.