John Robertson's The Dark Room was the best reviewed show of this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, according to new analysis.

The  interactive show  is a Fringe institution which has been running for 13 years, in which the Australian comedian plays the sadistic dungeon master of an old-school text-based adventure game,

It  scored six five-star reviews and one four-star review this year giving it an average rating of 4.86 stars – the highest the study conducted by the British Comedy Guide.The site crunched the numbers on 4,187 star-rated reviews from 128 publications covering comedy at this year's festival, ranging from national newspapers to micro-blogs. To qualify a show had to have at least six reviews with star ratings.

Broadway Baby was the most high-profile site to have reviewed The Dark Room, giving it four stars, with fives from Clownster, Bruce On The Fringe, Get The Chance, One4Review, North West End UK and Entertainment Now – the site Chortle last month revealed was secretly owned by a leading comedy publicist.  

British Comedy Guide’s analysis did not confine itself to the comedy section of the Fringe programme, and  second in its list was Hole!, a comedy musical about a religious sect in Nebraska from US company American Sing-Song

The second highest rated show from the comedy section was Sam Lake’s You're Joking!? Not Another One – though again that flew under the radar of mainstream Fringe reviewers.

The site’s full top ten was

1. John Robertson's The Dark Room
2. Hole! 
3. Pear: Phobia 
4. Bill Bailey: Thoughtifier
5. Michelle Brasier:  It's a Shame We Won't Be Friends Next Year
6. Pat Rascal: Space Gravy
7. Paul Sinha: 2 Sinha Lifetime
8. Cat Cohen: Broad Strokes
9. Garry Starr: Classic Penguins (a revival of his 2024 show)
10. Murder She Didn't Write (another Fringe stalwart)

Of the top ten, only Sinha and Cohen received national newspaper reviews, which traditionally have a more exacting star-rating system than blogs

The British Comedy Guide found 94 shows which averaged more than four stars. Its full list is here.