True Overall and Meta Overall Explained; Recent Updates to Algorithms

What Are True Overall™ and Meta Overall?

If you’re a fan of MLB The Show’s Diamond Dynasty mode, you’re probably familiar with the standard Overall rating — a number out of 99 that reflects a player’s general ability. But anyone who’s played the game knows: not all 99s are created equal.

That’s why ShowZone built two proprietary rating systems to help you better evaluate cards: True Overall™ and Meta Overall.

True Overall™

True Overall™ is ShowZone’s attempt to replicate SDS’s card rating system — but without the 99 cap. Originally created in 2020 using simple regression models, True Overall has evolved over time into a deep neural network (DNN) that predicts SDS ratings with high precision.

With our 2025 update, True Overall is now more accurate than ever — within 0.5 points of SDS’s own calculations. It also accounts for changes SDS made to how they rate cards (such as hiding elite attributes behind low-importance stats like Plate Discipline).

💡 Note: If a card shows as a 92 but has 125s in key hitting attributes, True Overall will recognize it as an elite card — even if SDS doesn’t display it that way.

👉 Learn more about our 2025 updates

Meta Overall

Meta Overall, introduced in 2022, answers a different question: How good is this card in-game right now? It adjusts attribute weights based on how the game is actually played.

Meta Overall favors what truly wins games:

• Power and speed for hitters
• Effective pitch mix for pitchers
• Quirks, pitch speed gaps, and switch hitting
• Pitchers who can hit (Ohtani effect)
• Tunneling pitch combos (e.g. sinker/cutter)

2025 Meta Overall Upgrades

The Meta Overall formula was significantly enhanced for MLB The Show 25 to match what truly defines elite cards in the current meta:

• Swings now matter (community-sourced input)
• Pitchers who dominate get boosted, those who get shelled drop
• Fielding and Clutch are more heavily weighted
• Pitch quality now matters — not just quantity
• Meta+ introduced: a new stat showing how far above average a card is at its position
  (Meta+ will appear on player pages soon)

🔍 See full breakdown of all recent updates

TL;DR:

• Use True Overall™ when you want to understand how SDS is rating a card (beyond the 99 cap)
• Use Meta Overall when you want to build the best lineup for competitive play

These tools work together to help you find not just the best-rated cards — but the best-performing cards.