Summary

• Google now prioritizes audience scores over critic scores for Rotten Tomatoes reviews in searches.
• Critics' scores were showcased in Google search before, but now audience scores are displayed first.
• Divides between critics and audiences along with review bombing could make Rotten Tomatoes scores on Google unreliable.

Google has changed the way Rotten Tomatoes scores appear in the search engine, no longer prioritizing critic scores when looking up reviews for movies. The website focuses on rounding up reviews from major online sources, presenting them as a percentage score to inform consumers of the overall reaction to new releases. This included showcasing critic's scores via Google search, making it easy for audiences to know what reactions to new films are like.

Now, Google has changed the way in which Rotten Tomatoes review scores appear in searches, with the audience score now being prioritized over critic's scores. As noticed by wyattyhalpert and billiemelissa_, searching a movie through Google now brings up the audience scores as the first number consumers will see when looking for a movie's rating on the site. Screen Rant has reached out to Rotten Tomatoes for commet. Check out how the change has been reflected via Challengers and Rebel Moon - Part Two: The Scargiver reviews below:

Google’s Rotten Tomatoes Scores Will Make Finding Critic Movie Reception More Difficult

Rotten Tomatoes' new search results come alongside a new design for the website, which now require users to click a link for critic reviews, while audience reviews appear on every movie's page. Both the Google appearance change and the website redesign are prioritizing audience reviews, making it so critics who see movies are less likely to have their scores viewed by the general public. This means finding critic scores in general for upcoming movies is going to be less obvious for those searching for reception of upcoming films.

While some recent movies like Challengers have positive reviews for both critics and audiences, others like Rebel Moon - Part Two have a fairly distinct divide when it comes to how many positive and negative reviews each party has. Because of this, it becomes less clear to those searching up movie reviews how their critical reception actually was, since audience scores are the first number they see. With critical scores less prioritized, means viewers aren't getting the full scope of information they can about how a movie is perceived.

Audience scores are also more susceptible to negative review bombing, as seen over the years with releases like Captain Marvel and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. This means it's less likely for the score to be as reliable, since it can easily be tampered with by online groups with particular agendas. With this change comes a lack of reliability in Rotten Tomatoes on Google's search results, as it becomes unclear if the reviews posted for a film are accurate to the movie's true quality.

Google already shows user scores for movies through IMDb.

Source: wyattyhalpert/Twitter; billiemelissa_/Twitter