Just five percent of all games rated by the ESRB and published in 2010 were classified as M, a marginal decline from 2009 when they accounted for 6 percent, the board said in a news release today.
The smallest portion of the 1,638 ratings the ESRB doled out last year belongs to EC which, safe to say, few reading this site ever play. Early Childhood got 1 percent of the ratings. E accounts for 55 percent, followed by T at 21 percent and E10+ at 18 percent.
Not in this tally, of course, is the dreaded AO, which renders a title effectively unpublishable in North America. Just 24 games have been rated AO in the 17 year history of the classification, one of the original five ratings. The most recent AO-rated game was Manhunt 2 for the PC. Just two console games, one for the obscure CD-i, have gotten the mark.
5% of games in 2010 rated M - ESRB [GameSpot. Chart via Gamespot]