The Entertainment Software Rating Board rates games on five levels — E for Everyone, E10+ for Everyone 10 and up, T for Teen, M for Mature 17 and up, and A for Adults Only — with content descriptors that name the specific reasons for the rating, per the ESRB's published ratings guide. The letter tells you the age floor; the descriptors tell you why it sits there. A T rating with 'Fantasy Violence' is a very different evening from an M rating with 'Intense Violence,' and the descriptors are where the real information lives.
This guide walks through each level with examples of what you'll actually see, plus one privacy note most rating guides skip. All ratings cited are from the ESRB's published materials as of 2025.
What does E for Everyone actually include?
E means the content is suitable for ages 6 and up, per the ESRB's guide — mild or minimal cartoon or fantasy violence is possible, along with language at the mildest level. Sports titles, puzzle games, and most all-ages platformers sit here: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, rated E, is the standard example families know. The rating floor is 6, which is why a title can be 'for Everyone' and still be too tricky for a five-year-old to actually play.
What changes at E10+ and T?
E10+, added by the ESRB in 2005, admits more cartoon, fantasy, or mild violence — the level where action games with swordplay but no blood typically land, Minecraft's E10+ being the household example. T raises the ceiling to ages 13 and up, with violence, language, and suggestive themes permitted at moderate levels; most major shooter and adventure franchises that avoid gore sit at T.
The E10+ band is the widest in family households, and it deserves a descriptor read every time: two E10+ games can differ more from each other than an E game differs from a T game, depending on which descriptors appear on the box.
What does M actually mean for a household?
M means 17 and up, and the descriptors usually name intense violence, blood, strong language, or mature themes — most headline action franchises of recent years carry it. The ESRB's guide is explicit that M is not intended for children, and the practical parent question is not whether a teenager can handle a specific title but whether the household wants the specific content the descriptors list. Reading the descriptors together, on the ESRB's own listing page for the game, answers in two minutes what arguments answer in two weeks.
What's the privacy note parents should know?
Parent note: online-enabled games can carry voice and text chat the rating letter doesn't measure — the ESRB flags the online-interaction possibility, but the live experience depends on the game's chat settings, so check the parental controls for the console or platform before handoff. For games and apps that collect data from children under 13, US law applies separate rules: the Federal Trade Commission enforces the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, which requires parental consent before collecting personal information from under-13s, per the FTC's COPPA guidance.
How do you check a rating before you buy?
Four steps, fastest first:
- Search the title on the ESRB's ratings site for the full descriptor list and rating summary — the summary describes specific scenes.
- Check the platform's store listing, which carries the same rating and often the chat and in-game purchase flags.
- Set the parental controls on the console or handheld so purchases and content above a chosen rating require your passcode.
- For online play, decide the chat settings before the first session rather than after.
The system is designed to be read quickly and taken seriously at the descriptor level. The letter starts the conversation; the descriptors finish it.
For more context, read How ESRB Video Game Ratings Actually Work.