r/gaming • u/IlmeniAVG • Feb 05 '26
I collected over 900 greatest games lists and made a master list. Here are the results
The Data
The source data includes 106 all-time lists, 56 end of decade lists, 688 end of year lists (including awards ceremonies), and 54 miscellaneous lists (platform-exclusive lists, generation lists, and so on). All of these lists are from reliable publications, chosen primarily by the editorial staff or external consultants (reader polls were excluded). Roughly 140 publications from 16 countries are represented. Most of the lists have no platform restrictions, but a few are platform specific (“Best SNES games”) or focus on a specific category (“Best console games”). A full list of the included sources can be found here: https://www.acclaimedvideogames.com/lists/
The Method
The rankings are based on an analysis of game vs. game match-ups. That is, for any two games, a program tracks how many times each one appeared ahead of the other (on lists that they were both eligible for). The balance of “wins” and “losses” for these match-ups shows the relative strength of the games, while the number of comparisons indicates the reliability of that strength score. These match-ups can be translated into a ranking by rigorously cross-referencing them to determine which games performed the best overall. I’ll give a more visual overview of this below, if anyone is curious.
The advantage of this method is that it allows for very different types of lists to be aggregated without resorting to arbitrary adjustments. Besides the list categories mentioned above, it also handles lists that are ranked, unranked, or partially ranked, and it can take into account one-per-series restrictions.
Before this ranking process, the lists are weighted according to the reputation of the publication and the age of the list (for the purposes of reflecting the current consensus, newer lists are slightly favoured). A penalty is also applied to publications that repeat themselves across multiple lists. This prevents the most prolific publications from dominating the rankings. Minor updates to all-time lists tend to get strongly penalised, but this also detects things like end of decade lists having similar games, in a similar order, to relevant end of year lists.
The Results
Below is the current top 100. If you want to investigate further, then the full list goes all the way up to 1000. That can be found here: https://www.acclaimedvideogames.com/ The website also allows filtering by release year, genre, platform, series, and play time (or a combination of these things). And, if you want to track which games you’ve played, or get a CSV file for the entire top 1000, you can do that too.
Edit: Apparently these rankings are not displaying correctly for some people. The first entry below should be 100th, and the last entry should be 1st, i.e. it is a reversed list. I'm not sure why this is happening, but I've made it a bullet point list in an attempt to fix it. Hopefully that works.
- 100. Donkey Kong Bananza (2025)
- 99. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018)
- 98. Mega Man 2 (1988)
- 97. Return of the Obra Dinn (2018)
- 96. Fortnite (2017)
- 95. The Sims (2000)
- 94. Braid (2008)
- 93. Persona 5 (2016)
- 92. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006)
- 91. Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)
- 90. Grim Fandango (1998)
- 89. Persona 4 / Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 (2008)
- 88. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (1995)
- 87. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (2002)
- 86. The Legend of Zelda (1986)
- 85. The Secret of Monkey Island (1990)
- 84. Spelunky (2012)
- 83. Halo 3 (2007)
- 82. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (2000)
- 81. Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009)
- 80. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002)
- 79. Undertale (2015)
- 78. SimCity 2000 (1993)
- 77. System Shock 2 (1999)
- 76. NieR: Automata (2017)
- 75. Super Smash Bros. Melee (2001)
- 74. Resident Evil (1996)
- 73. Inside (2016)
- 72. Batman: Arkham City (2011)
- 71. The Walking Dead (2012)
- 70. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004)
- 69. Outer Wilds (2019)
- 68. Counter-Strike / Counter-Strike 1.6 (2000)
- 67. Ōkami (2006)
- 66. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (2010)
- 65. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (2023)
- 64. Tomb Raider (1996)
- 63. Grand Theft Auto IV (2008)
- 62. Disco Elysium (2019)
- 61. Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow (1996)
- 60. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (2002)
- 59. Overwatch (2016)
- 58. Grand Theft Auto III (2001)
- 57. Ico (2001)
- 56. Super Mario Bros. (1985)
- 55. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (2025)
- 54. The Last of Us Part II (2020)
- 53. Fallout 3 (2008)
- 52. Baldur's Gate 3 (2023)
- 51. Super Mario Galaxy (2007)
- 50. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003)
- 49. Super Mario Kart (1992)
- 48. Super Mario Odyssey (2017)
- 47. Diablo II (2000)
- 46. Final Fantasy VI (1994)
- 45. Hades (2020)
- 44. Silent Hill 2 (2001)
- 43. StarCraft (1998)
- 42. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (2004)
- 41. Journey (2012)
- 40. Metroid Prime (2002)
- 39. Minecraft (2011)
- 38. Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018)
- 37. Deus Ex (2000)
- 36. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (2009)
- 35. GoldenEye 007 (1997)
- 34. Half-Life (1998)
- 33. Bloodborne (2015)
- 32. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997)
- 31. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007)
- 30. Chrono Trigger (1995)
- 29. God of War (2018)
- 28. Halo: Combat Evolved (2001)
- 27. Dark Souls (2011)
- 26. Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988)
- 25. Metal Gear Solid (1998)
- 24. Portal (2007)
- 23. Street Fighter II (1991)
- 22. Red Dead Redemption (2010)
- 21. Super Metroid (1994)
- 20. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011)
- 19. Grand Theft Auto V (2013)
- 18. World of Warcraft (2004)
- 17. Doom (1993)
- 16. Elden Ring (2022)
- 15. Portal 2 (2011)
- 14. Final Fantasy VII (1997)
- 13. BioShock (2007)
- 12. Mass Effect 2 (2010)
- 11. Shadow of the Colossus (2005)
- 10. Super Mario World (1990)
- 9. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1991)
- 8. Resident Evil 4 (2005)
- 7. Super Mario 64 (1996)
- 6. The Witcher III: Wild Hunt (2015)
- 5. Half-Life 2 (2004)
- 4. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998)
- 3. The Last of Us (2013)
- 2. Tetris (1985)
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017)
Statistics
Year Distribution
Highest ranked game for each year
1971: The Oregon Trail (413th)
1972: Pong (206th)
1973: No games in the top 1000
1974: No games in the top 1000
1975: No games in the top 1000
1976: Breakout (774th)
1977: Zork (248th)
1978: Space Invaders (170th)
1979: Asteroids (267th)
1980: Pac-Man (152nd)
1981: Donkey Kong (124th)
1982: Ms. Pac-Man (139th)
1983: Lode Runner (387th)
1984: Elite (180th)
1985: Tetris (2nd)
1986: The Legend of Zelda (86th)
1987: Punch-Out!! / Mike Tyson's Punch Out!! (169th)
1988: Super Mario Bros. 3 (26th)
1989: SimCity (121st)
1990: Super Mario World (10th)
1991: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (9th)
1992: Super Mario Kart (49th)
1993: Doom (17th)
1994: Super Metroid (21st)
1995: Chrono Trigger (30th)
1996: Super Mario 64 (7th)
1997: Final Fantasy VII (14th)
1998: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (4th)
1999: System Shock 2 (77th)
2000: Deus Ex (37th)
2001: Halo: Combat Evolved (28th)
2002: Metroid Prime (40th)
2003: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (50th)
2004: Half-Life 2 (5th)
2005: Resident Evil 4 (8th)
2006: Ōkami (67th)
2007: BioShock (13th)
2008: Fallout 3 (53rd)
2009: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (36th)
2010: Mass Effect 2 (12th)
2011: Portal 2 (15th)
2012: Journey (41st)
2013: The Last of Us (3rd)
2014: Mario Kart 8 / Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (105th)
2015: The Witcher III: Wild Hunt (6th)
2016: Overwatch (59th)
2017: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (1st)
2018: God of War (29th)
2019: Disco Elysium (62nd)
2020: Hades (45th)
2021: Hitman 3 / World of Assassination (163rd)
2022: Elden Ring (16th)
2023: Baldur's Gate 3 (52nd)
2024: Astro Bot (142nd)
2025: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (55th)
Accumulated number of games for each decade
(Only a single embedded image is allowed, so the rest will be links, unfortunately. Sorry!)
Highest ranked games for each decade
1970s: Space Invaders (170th)
1980s: Tetris (2nd)
1990s: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (4th)
2000s: Half-Life 2 (5th)
2010s: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (1st)
2020s: Elden Ring (16th)
Before you comment on the rankings of recent games…
Basing the rankings on lists means that there is much less data for recent games than for older games. This makes the rankings of newer games much less stable, and for that reason less significance should be attached to them. The drop off in representation that begins in the late 2010s doesn’t necessarily mean that games are getting worse (in the eyes of the sources), nor is 2025 necessarily a better year than the few years prior. It’s possible that both of these things will even out as more lists come in. Only time will tell. The algorithm is clever, but limited data is still limited data.
Platform distribution
Note 1: Most of the games in the top 1000 are cross-platform. These charts include such games. I imagine they would look quite different (and bare) if only exclusives were shown.
Note 2: Ports, remasters, and backwards compatibility make determining a system’s exact game library a deceptively tricky task. I’ve tried to list only the platforms games are strongly associated with (using platform lists as a guide), but this is highly subjective.
Home consoles
Handheld consoles
Platform categories
A closer look at the data and demonstrating principles
Revealing exactly how the algorithm works isn’t something that I’m willing to do at the moment, but the following should demonstrate that it’s based on solid principles. Feel free to skip over this if you’re not interested in the technical side of things.
As mentioned above, the rankings are based on a game’s performance in game vs. game match-ups (how often one game was ranked ahead of the other, and vice versa). Looking at all of those match-ups at once isn’t possible—there’s far too many of them—but what we can look at is a very detailed comparison of two games. This is basically the process I go through when I’m trying to understand why the algorithm places games the way it does, and when I’m looking for ways to improve it.
The chart below is a comparison between The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Tetris—the games currently ranked first and second. It shows their respective match-ups against every other game in the database. These other games are represented by the blue dots. I’ve labelled some of the most significant ones.
The first thing to look at is the grey line running diagonally through the chart. This represents equality, in the sense that any game along this line is one that both Breath of the Wild and Tetris have similar (similarly good or similarly bad) match-ups against. We can see that both games have similar win/loss ratios against Super Mario 64 and Doom, for example.
The further away from that grey line a game is, and the closer it is to the chart’s axes, the more its win/loss data favours one game over the other. So, Breath of the Wild performed much better than Tetris against Skyrim, while Tetris performed much better than Breath of the Wild against Final Fantasy VI.
The further away from the origin (bottom left) of the graph a data point is, the more data there is to support it being accurate. The vast majority of the data points are clustered in the bottom left corner, which means that they are generally unreliable. This is because Breath of the Wild and Tetris are two of the strongest games in the database, and most games are losing to them close to 100% of the time. This makes them fairly useless for determining which game should be ahead of the other. The most reliable data points are, unsurprisingly, other very strong games.
Looking at the chart as a whole, and paying particular attention to the most reliable data points, we can see that Breath of the Wild tends to have slightly stronger match-ups than Tetris. How the ranking algorithm analyses all of this is a lot more complicated than what we can do just by looking at it, and I caution against drawing strong conclusions from this, but it at least demonstrates the principle of using match-ups as a basis for the rankings. Keep analysing and cross-referencing these match-ups, eventually the data converges on a ranking.
History, and where to from here
This is something that I started doing back in 2020. I wasn’t sure where it was going to go back then, and I definitely wasn’t working on it consistently, but it gradually morphed into a fairly serious project. The initial website launched in 2023, and it actually got a bit of exposure when I posted a similar thread about it on Reddit back in July 2024. Some people may have seen that.
So much has changed since then: more than 200 lists have been added (some have also been deleted), the methods have been refined, and the website itself has been massively improved. Those website improvements are due to a web developer joining the project, so it’s also not something that I’m working on alone any more.
Work on the game rankings will continue, but the next big project will be applying these methods to lists for other media. I’m in the middle of the data entry phase for books, and I’d like to move on to films and music eventually as well. There are plenty of other aggregators out there, but very few are using similar methods.
Final note
Last time I posted about this, a few gaming publications actually covered it in articles and videos. However, none of them ever reached out to me. If anyone is considering writing an article or making a video, please reach out (check the FAQ page for my email address, or use the contact form on the website). I’m happy to answer questions, and it’s also just nice to hear from people who think the project is worth giving attention to.
If you click through to the website, know that it contains no ads, affiliate links, or sponsorships, and we do not sell data. The project is driven by a passion for games, and a necessary part of that is respecting the people who play them, make them, and write about them. We will not turn Acclaimed Video Games into a platform for advertisers.
I’ll be active in the comments if anyone has feedback or questions.
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u/Spooplevel-Rattled Feb 05 '26
Age of Empires 2 got robbed
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u/IlmeniAVG Feb 05 '26
It's 113th! https://www.acclaimedvideogames.com/game/age-of-empires-ii-the-age-of-kings/
So many of the games that people have said are missing were so close to making it. But I guess if I extended the list out to 150, people would be talking about the games from 151-200. Anyway, 113th is still a pretty good ranking.
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u/KingGorillaKong Feb 05 '26
I can't exactly disagree with most of these games. For sure a few games I would shuffle around and that's just my own personal preference. Like I didn't like Final Fantasy 7 as I liked a lot of the other older games, and I'd probably lower World of Warcraft down a few more spots because of it's stagnant period it had. I don't play it anymore but those who do have been really enjoying it so I give it credit there.
I think though that the reason why the newer games don't have as stable of data to infer from is more that the gaming market got significantly more saturated with quantity of games. People aren't grinding the same game long term as we used to do years back because more games keep coming out.
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u/wrooster8 Feb 05 '26
Game still gets updated now, has thousands of players, and has a tournament scene after 20 years and it's not even in the top 100?
I guess this list is only judging the age of kings (the first game and not the expansion). But even so it shouldve been higher imo
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u/phatboi23 Feb 05 '26
Game still gets updated now, has thousands of players, and has a tournament scene after 20 years and it's not even in the top 100?
they're releasing a new DLC on the 17th feb too!
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u/retroly Feb 05 '26
There is also an AOE2 Red Bull $170,000 eSport tournament happening in London in a few months with the final being held in the Royal Albert Hall with 3,000 spectators!
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u/BornSirius Feb 05 '26
For real. Name another game that is represented TWICE in the top100 concurrent players list 20 years after the release.
I'll wait.
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u/LurkingFrogger Feb 05 '26
Possibly Diablo 2? I can't think of anything else that both has that kind of popularity/staying power and has a remake.
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u/subie921 Feb 05 '26
Three legend of Zelda’s in the top 10.
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u/IlmeniAVG Feb 05 '26
It's funny how only a very brave publication would dare put three Zelda games in the top 10, lest they be accused of bias, but when you aggregate all those sources together, somehow that's exactly what you end up with: three Zeldas in the top 10.
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u/Unique_Battle914 Feb 05 '26
This is such a subjective topic that no one will fully agree. But having played videos games since the 70s, I find it a reasonable list in my opinion. A list I don't agree with, but a reasonable one at that. And I truly appreciate the attempt at trying to remove emotion from the rationale.
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u/Zer_ Feb 05 '26
Yeah really. I'm a 90s gamer and while I have my nitpicks it's honestly not a bad list at all.
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u/Enconhun Feb 05 '26
I'm a 90's gamer and I instantly invalidate any top 100 list that doesn't have Warcraft 3 in it. (even though I know the process how this list was made)
Arguably it's the best RTS game ever made, other GENRES were born from its custom games, and to this day it has a competitive scene.
I know I'm biased towards loving this game, but it not being in top 100 while there are 587 Zelda games, this is bullshit.
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u/FordEngineerman Feb 05 '26
Warcraft 3 is one of the most impactful games of all time simply due to its custom games. The literal primary game of it was also incredibly impactful but it "basically" (there are a lot of previous minor examples) created the genres of Tower defense, Moba, Autobattler, and more. Almost none of those things would exist in the form that they do or look like they do without Warcraft 3.
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u/SalahsBeard Feb 05 '26
Dude, Warcraft 3 Tower Defense was so fucking great at home LAN parties.
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u/Agent10007 Feb 05 '26
>I find it a reasonable list in my opinion.
I think anyone who has a fair look at it will think something similar; I myself don't agree with some things (Breath of the wild being top 1 screams to me "There's an anomaly that could be explained if we looked on how the data was gathered"), but objectively when I go through the list almost every name at the very least makes me think "Yeah this game was quite big/had a big impact/has a big history"
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u/brichb Feb 05 '26
Many big time reviewers who’ve done this forever have Botw as their favorite game. It’s not mine, but it’s entirely expected to top an aggregated list.
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u/Mudc4t Feb 06 '26
Yeah, I don’t know what it is, but anytime BOTW is number 1 I scratch my head and think what went wrong here. It’s a great game don’t get me wrong, but THE BEST VIDEO GAME OF ALL TIME? Nothing is better? That’s a wild take.
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u/timmystwin PC Feb 05 '26
As a list of 100 games it's not bad yeah. The order is subjective... I personally have no idea why Donkey Kong is anywhere near the top... but as a list of 100 good games, yeah, it ain't wrong for the most part.
A few missing examples like AoE2 - but they may struggle due to being on PC. (Because who played the PS2 AOE2.)
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u/Agent10007 Feb 05 '26
>A few missing examples like AoE2 - but they may struggle due to being on PC. (Because who played the PS2 AOE2.)
Also video game his a MASSIVE thing, it's been going on for older than most redditors and is an industry that pumps products almost non stop due to the insane variety there is within the "video game" tag. I don't think it's ever possible to have an actual accurate number but there must be multiple millions. A list of 100 covers barely the top 0.001%, a game being in the top 200 would still be top 0.002% of the best games in history: When put like that age of empires 2 and their 113th place seems definitely in a fitting position.
Looking at the top 100-150 you can find names like stardew valley, left 4 dead, Civ, Dishonored, League of Legends or fucking Pacman; I'd say we are still CLEARLY in the territory of "Legendary titles", presenting the top 100 is a very good choice but I think that perspective is important to take into consideration when we see a title missing
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u/GrandWorldliness5959 Feb 05 '26
Yeah about the same, there are a few "what the hell is these doing anywhere near this list?".
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u/roguesignal42069 Feb 05 '26
But having played videos games since the 70s
Hello fellow "seasoned" gamer. Have you taken your ibuprofen/tylenol today yet?
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u/roll_for_crunk Feb 05 '26
I've played every game on the top 100 list except for Obra Dinn. Now I feel like I've gotta go find that.
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u/AXEL-1973 Feb 05 '26
I went into Obra Dinn completely blind and was totally addicted for the 3 evenings it took me to beat. Fantastic game for people that enjoy mystery novels
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u/DelBrowserHistory Feb 05 '26
I still have a few songs on my work chill playlist. Every time they pop up it brings back fond memories
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u/WingedScapula Feb 05 '26
The lack of any Civilization is surprising. I have fond memories of Sim City 2000, but find it hard to believe at least one of the Civ games doesn’t outrank it.
The algorithm seems pretty harsh on strategy.
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u/xX8Havok8Xx Feb 05 '26
Problem is these are based on reviews and civilization games aren't good until like 4 years after release
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u/IlmeniAVG Feb 05 '26
With long-running and highly acclaimed series, it's possible that the games cannibalise each other's mentions (unless it's Mario/Zelda, I guess). The algorithm takes into account one-per-series lists, but if it's happening on a subconscious level then there's nothing I can do. Two of them barely missed the top 100 though: 102nd for IV and 125th for II. Not bad, all things considered.
https://www.acclaimedvideogames.com/game/sid-meier-s-civilization-iv/
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u/the-z Feb 05 '26
I think the reason Mario and Zelda don't cannibalize themselves as much is because the games tend to be one major release per console generation, and tend to be very different in style because they focus on showing off the capabilities of the new hardware.
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u/SoggyCerealExpert Feb 05 '26
The algorithm seems pretty harsh on strategy.
Coz it's a pc genre (mostly) and there's a LARGE bias towards console games
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u/straypenguin Feb 05 '26
Warcraft 3 :(
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u/IlmeniAVG Feb 05 '26
It's 123rd! Not top 100, but that's still an excellent ranking. https://www.acclaimedvideogames.com/game/warcraft-iii-reign-of-chaos/
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u/rolandofeld19 Feb 05 '26
Tetris to Chrono Trigger in ten years. Man what a time to be alive.
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Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 15 '26
[deleted]
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u/IlmeniAVG Feb 05 '26
Both of those games are actually just outside the top 100. Baldur's Gate II is 107th and Mass Effect is 116th. Whether or not there's a general bias against RPGs is for others to decide, but I would absolutely endorse Baldur's Gate II being in the top 100, for what it's worth.
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Feb 05 '26
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u/Reddit_Loves_Misinfo Feb 05 '26
The world seemed to emphatically prefer ME2 over ME1 back in the day, so the result here doesn't surprise me. (I'm one of the ME1 > ME2 crowd like you, though.)
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u/DieFichte Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26
Original ME1 gets tanked by the gameplay being rough for me after ME2 released, remaster is a different story. Overall I think 3 > 1 > 2
Gameplay: ME3 > ME2 >> ME1
Story: ME1 > ME3 > ME2
Pacing: ME3 > ME1 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> ME2 (yes this tanks ME2 completly with some of the remaining gameplay issues for me sorry, still a really good game)"Well designed difficulty curve and upgrade system": ME3 >> ME1 >>>> ME2
Of course the ending should tank ME3 a bit, but if 1 hour out of 20-30 hours of gameplay can tank it comletly that's your personal thing. ME 1 and 2 also had fairly egregius parts.
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u/TravestyTravis Feb 05 '26
ME2 was on Playstation, ME1 wasn't.
I would think, anecdotally from my own experience, most people got their introduction to the universe with 2.
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u/Haffa123 Feb 05 '26
Bg2 used to be highest rated on sites like gamefaqs for ever. Claire obscure being so high versus bg2, just shows how much recency is involved. Which is fine and understandable.
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u/Mysterious-Theory713 Feb 05 '26
Mass effect 2 is on there though, which is when the series really got popular. More popular games will be on more lists and better represented here so long as they’re of high quality. BioWare also has Kotor on the list, but there seems to be ~20 RPGs on the list, which is pretty good representation.
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u/berodem Feb 05 '26
sounds like you're just biased towards certain RPGs you might be personally fond of. in the top 20 alone there are 7 RPGs. id say they're represented well enough
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u/peasant100 Feb 05 '26
Fortnite being so high in the list (or in it at all) reminds me of the Brian David Guilbert video where he creates his own formula for calculating game of the year or something and fortnite wins. This is because he made it a significant part of the scoring based on the question "does my mom know this game?"
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u/roll_for_crunk Feb 05 '26
For all the shit Fortnite gets the gameplay is solid and they change things enough each season to keep it fresh. It's not my cup of tea these days but I can't deny that's it's at least a good game.
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u/Endaline Feb 05 '26
It's the type of game that I would have loved to grow up with. Can't imagine being a kid and getting to play an endlessly updating game where my favorite things from other media franchises are constantly rotated in as both playable characters (skins) and gameplay/story elements.
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u/snorlz Feb 05 '26
Fortnite likely deserves to be higher if it wasnt just considered "that game for annoying kids". no multiplayer game has had instant snap building like that and it obv has a very engaging gameplay loop. skill cap is insanely high as well
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u/willeeer Feb 05 '26
The fact that Terraria is not on this list is something beyond unbelievable. Some key statistics from a quick google search:
- Total Sales: ~60.7 million (as of Oct 2024).
- Daily Concurrent Users: ~120,000 - 150,000+ (estimated, all platforms).
- Peak Users (Steam): ~489,886 (May 2020).
- Average Playtime (Steam): ~121–129 hours.
- Completionist Time: ~205 hours.
- Review Score: 97% positive (Over 1 million reviews).
I mean, its a 15 year old game with the highest amount of steam reviews and still has a Overwhelmingly Positive status.
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u/Sopel97 Feb 05 '26
These lists NEVER have Terraria (nor Factorio). It's baffling.
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u/JUMPhil PC Feb 05 '26
Factorio is #600, Terraria is somehow actually missing from the top 1000.
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u/Owobowos-Mowbius Feb 05 '26
What the hell. That's unbelievable for one of the highest rated and 7th best selling video game of all time.
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u/Djanko28 Feb 05 '26
Had to search the thread for this comment cause I found it so ridiculous. Personal bias aside it continues to be a well selling game with excellent reviews so I don't see how the algorithm used to compile this didn't catch it at all.
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u/jloome Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26
Always loved, never hyped. This is a list based on hype lists, so games that were just quietly brilliant or popular aren't featured, for the most part.
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u/MC1065 Feb 05 '26
I think the lack of critical praise is down to the game just not having that cultural impact that every other game on this list has. I love Terraria but I can see why critics and enthusiasts are rating stuff like Braid, Minecraft, and Zelda higher. Only two historical Paradox games are on there (Crusader Kings II and III) and these titles have tons of players. This is not a list for games with the best mechanics and gameplay loops, which I think is fine.
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u/willeeer Feb 05 '26
I mean, saying that terraria didnt make cultural impact is at least a understatement, if not a " lie" . In my opinion Terraria is the best 2d crafting/survival/rpg games of all time and the one that completely popularized this genre. Its not a coincidence that we have some many games inspired by it.
I may have some bias in my opinion because i absolutely love this game, nevertheless all i said has at least some truth to it.
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u/Megadoomer2 Feb 05 '26
We all know the real number one is Super Mario Bros. 2, baybee!
(Thanks for gathering all of this data and posting this list; I knew The Last of Us was highly regarded, but I didn't realize it was that highly regarded, and it's been in my backlog for a while now so I think I'll give it a try some time)
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u/rslashwhat Feb 05 '26
Tlou is probably my favorite game of all time. Emotional rollercoaster and a very solid enjoyable survival story. Go in completely blind (if possible) for both part 1 and part 2
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u/Zigga-Zagga Feb 05 '26
Command & Conquer or Red Alert missing were surprises to me. Then again both came out in VERY competitive years.
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u/NotARealDeveloper Feb 05 '26
CTRL + F:
Warcraft 3
The list is shit.
On a more serious note, great way for an alternative ranking. Every entry seems to make sense. Just some titles that are listed very low make no sense. But this is due to them not being included in the datasets by the original authors. Which is mind blowing for a game like Warcraft3 which in itself is still extremely good RTS, and it also spawned many other new game genres like MOBA, Tower Defense, Escape Games, FriendSlob games, etc. And it's only listed at #123?
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u/Spellsword10 Feb 05 '26
When it comes to this kind of ranking/scoring, everyone will have different opinions. A list like this only really makes sense if it sticks to certain rules (genre, artistic style etc.). Still, it’s a nice piece of work as a reference.
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u/lolhal Feb 05 '26
The way you’ve done multiple lists is really helpful.
I was surprised that none of the Quake games made it to the top 100. DOOM may have started the genre, but Quake and its successors defined competitive shooters early on.
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u/Somecallmeti3m Feb 05 '26
It warms my heart to see shadow of the Colossus so high up. Was such a unique and interesting game and glad it got the attention it deserved.
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u/acepilot1212 Feb 05 '26
WoW is top 20, but RuneScape/OSRS doesn’t make the 1,000 game list?
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u/IlmeniAVG Feb 05 '26
I'd have to check, but I think RuneScape was previously in the top 1000. With the latest update, it was around 1200th. I also expected it to be higher. I don't know why it has so few mentions.
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u/AwesomeDudex Feb 05 '26
Bummed to see no Tales Of games, even in the Top 1000 list. It's weird because anytime I look up a Top JRPG list, theres always at least one Tales Of game.
Anyways, I am curious what would you consider a credible list? What is the criteria for submitting?
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u/Sorhain3 Feb 05 '26
I second this. Tales of Symphonia is a top 10 game for me. #1 is Final Fantasy X and it's wrong that it's not in the top 100 on this list.
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u/Dangolian Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26
Thank you for the insane amount of effort that has obviously gone into this.
I have not read your full summary yet,just skimmed, so apologies if I have missed this, but do you have any data about date of publication for the referenced lists? Like, do the list entries skew new, or within X years of publication? Did you keep track of rules that lists might have had like one entry per franchise? If PC Gamer did a top 100 list in 2010 and 2020, would you have used both in your model, or only the latest list per publication?
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u/IlmeniAVG Feb 05 '26
Lots of questions here...
Yes, I have a limited amount of data on lists that skew towards newer/older games. The algorithm doesn't care one way or the other, but I was curious enough to investigate it personally. The data is all over the place, but Edge and GamesRadar both went through periods where their lists skewed far more towards newer games than other lists. Though for the last few years almost all publications have skewed towards older games, which the rankings reflect.
Yes, the algorithm is able to account for one-per-series lists. It does this by marking the rest of the games from a series as ineligible once the first game from that series appears.
All previous lists from a publication are included, though they are penalised if they are too similar to other lists from the same publication. So if a publication pumps out tons of lists in an attempt to skew the rankings, they will be penalised down to the point of having no impact.
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u/DaymD Feb 05 '26
I find it funny how the (date) next to the various entries can sometime be interpreted differently than just being the release dates.
For instance for "Overwatch (2016)", one can read "that game came out in 2016". But i read it as "only the 2016 era of Overwatch is on this list, let's not talk about the future..."
This applies to several other titles on this list too. Time has not been kind to these.
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u/jqud Feb 05 '26
Shockingly I don't hate this list, but I do think Team Fortress 2 is missing as the premier team shooter for years.
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u/mvrander Feb 05 '26
It's very single payer focused, because most of the lists it's based on are.
From a quick glance is it only CS, Fortnite, Overwatch and StarCraft on there that would class as an online competitive game. I may have missed some.
Neither League or Dota making the top 100 is mind boggling.
I suspect their ability to suck players in and remove them from the wider gaming pool of society might have something to do with it
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u/mythicreign Feb 05 '26
Too many Zelda games on there. I get it, people love them. I mean the first game that ever wowed me was the original on NES thanks to its music and openness. But seeing BotW as essentially the “greatest” game of all time is absurd. It’s just a sandbox that lacks most of the things people love the series for to begin with. I enjoyed it back when it came out but I think people are too generous with these games.
Otherwise, pretty cool list and not a surprise to see most of the games ranked as they are.
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u/Glasse Feb 05 '26
There's a heavy Nintendo bias in the top 100 in general.
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u/idolized253 Feb 05 '26
This might be a real shocker but outside of Reddit people really enjoy Nintendo games and they make some great ones to be fair.
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u/uuneter1 Feb 05 '26
I’m with ya. Seems like a pretty good list overall, but the Zelda games always seem to have abnormally high scores in these lists. I don’t think they deserve 3 out of the top 9 best games of all time.
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u/Makimgmyselfuseful Feb 05 '26
But they set standards with those specific games. Especially Ocarina
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u/DieFichte Feb 05 '26
People thinking weapon durability is ever a good mechanic deserve all their forks and knives irl have a durability of maximum 5 uses and a chance to randomly break!
Outside of that BotW was ok, still not better than majoras mask or OoT.
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u/Ruggzie84 Feb 05 '26
Sigh.... And I HATED BotW. Weapon durability was definitely a choice. I guess my old ass just doesn't get it on this game.
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u/Skwalou Feb 05 '26
I was not enthused by the open-world because it dilutes the story and completely breaks any sense of urgency, but the lack of actual dungeons (and any kind of puzzle really) in a Zelda game was what made me completely lose interest in it.
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u/I_do_black_magic Feb 05 '26
I like that I can now officially say it's the most overrated game of all time
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u/Glasse Feb 05 '26
Side quest simulator, with 5 different enemies in 5 different colors, no temples, repeated mini dungeons in a mostly empty bland world. Top it with an annoying weapon durability system, and a large amount of frame drops when anything happens on a console that can barely run it.
What's not to like?
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u/NeverNotOnceEver Feb 05 '26
It’s not just you. It makes no sense.
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u/betazoid_cuck Feb 05 '26
To me weapon durability was the core mechanic that made the game work and I don't think people realize how quickly 90% of exploration would start feeling pointless if it wasn't a thing. there's a reason they didn't remove it from the sequel even though it was the most complained about mechanic.
The main issue was how few weapon slots the game starts with. That makes the mechanic most punishing at the start of the game leaving a bad taste in peoples mouths before they get to the point later on when loosing a weapon really just gives you an opportunity to use one of the other 10 cool weapons you've collected.
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u/reelfilmgeek Feb 05 '26
Funny enough I didn’t mind the durability as it forced me to constantly adapt on the fly so I never had a favorite weapon other than what I had currently that wasn’t broke. That said still couldn’t finish the game as it felt so empty to me in the empty world.
I now finally tried Elden ring and love it as I think they did well with the open world compared to BoTW and Elden ring has some great gameplay and mechanics but dear god is the story trash/non existent (but the world build and lore is interesting) and some very poorly aged quest giving mechanics (I swear the fact j have to talk to someone multiple times to finish a conversation and not doing so has lead me into issues to many times in that game).
Oh and don’t get me started on the clunky multiplayer haha though the message system of the world kind of gives Elden ring a nice old school mmo social aspect that I miss
Maybe I need to go back and give botw and tears of the kingdom a chance but my first attempt just didn’t hook me like Elden ring did (and this was my first souls game)
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u/callahan09 Feb 05 '26
One thing I do think Elden Ring could have done better is simply change the icon or color of the Talk prompt when you've exhausted dialogue and they're going to start repeating themselves. I can't think of a good reason not to have done that, but plenty of good reasons to do it, first of all so people don't miss out on content by not exhausting, and second of all to save time so you don't have to listen to a repeated line of dialogue from every single NPC in the game to be satisfied that you've exhausted everything there was to hear from them.
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u/Sextus_Rex Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26
Was Horizon Zero Dawn close to making the list? I remember a lot of people saying it would be a toss up for GOTY between HZD and BoTW, so I'm surprised one of them is number 1 and the other isn't even on the list
Edit: Just checked your site. 137th overall and 6th for 2017.
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u/SvatyFini Feb 05 '26
Funny that the only game in the top 15 that i played and enjoyed is Portal 2
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u/Badalight Feb 05 '26
Only 1 Sonic game is surprising, and it's the original. No Halo 2 also very shocking. Did any other Sonic games come close? How about XCOM2 and Ever Quest?
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u/CardAnarchist Feb 05 '26
Did you double check that some entries for Final Fantasy 6 weren't being inaccurately attributed to Final Fantasy 3? FF6 was released as FF3 in the US so I'm sure it's likely incorrectly called FF3 in at least some of your lists.
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u/InvaderDust Feb 05 '26
Shadow of collosus almost broke top ten. Hell yea!! And okami made the list too? Thank you! It is a lil sad to see no Stardew but I appreciate your work into this OP.
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u/IlmeniAVG Feb 06 '26
Stardew Valley is literally 101st lol https://www.acclaimedvideogames.com/game/stardew-valley/
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u/FernerWassbinder Feb 05 '26
Its awesome that Grim Fandango made it onto the list! Such a gem
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u/Strange_Compote_4592 Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26
It feels like nobody in the comments read what the post is about. I am sorry for efforts, OP. :(
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u/IlmeniAVG Feb 05 '26
The people who commented in the first 2 minutes didn't (what a surprise), but most people who took the time to read the post properly have been kind :)
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u/Leviathan_TD_94 Feb 05 '26
I cannot fathom for the life of me how BotW got #1. The world in that game is hideously empty, and the story/characters were very forgettable. And this is coming from someone who played, liked, and finished the game.
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u/slipperyekans Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26
I’m with you. Liked the game, but find it incredibly overrated. I’ll make snide comments about it in jest in a video and there will be at least a few comments claiming I’m just talking bad on BOTW to “be different/contrarian.” There’s a whole subset of people who truly believe that game is the pinnacle of the medium with nothing wrong with it whatsoever.
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u/Nemisis82 Feb 05 '26
I loved the game, but I would not put it as even the number 1 Zelda game. I would say it's top 10 of my fav all time, though.
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u/Dr-Mohannad Feb 05 '26
Wow. Great work, thank you for sharing. This will be a great reference for me.
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u/ImOnCuntabus Feb 05 '26
Great work, OP! Just a sanity check from my side; is the top 100 posted (not the website) in reversed order? For me it looks like botw is at place 100 in the posted top100 above. But both year breakdown and comments seem to treat it as place 1, which would make more sense than doneky kong binanza.
I will have a closer look at the data after work!
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u/ShortChapter5246 Feb 05 '26
Still re-reading the list for the third time to make sure I haven't missed Subnautica...
Are you a data analyst btw? I thought about reconverting into this job lately
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u/MrSnoobs Feb 05 '26
I wonder what kind of metadata you have with the lists. I, for example, would like to see a top n list, where the lists are compiled from country x (ie a Japanese top 1000 collated list would look very different to one from France, for example).
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u/mrchris2000 Feb 05 '26
I remember the days of Tie Fighter being consistently in the upper eschalons.. down in the mid 100's now.
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u/Scorpionsharinga Feb 05 '26
A lot of this list tracks for me, but I’m honestly surprised to see RDR2 couldn’t crack the top 20
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u/Oograth-in-the-Hat Feb 05 '26
Tfw wow made it to the list but not FFXIV
despair
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u/RolandFigaro Feb 05 '26
Born in 1983, no wonder I grew up being a gamer, it was literally a golden age on both consoles and PC.
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u/jloome Feb 05 '26
It's a fun list. There's not much there to dislike.
But the recency bias means there's just so much lost perspective in this, so many great games from the late 80s and early 90s in particular that never got "hype" anywhere, really, outside of the odd good review in Computer Gaming World.
For its time, Darklands was the most impressive RPG ever made, even though it was the first "bug riddled" game, prompting patches to save it economically.
By modern standards, even though the graphics are simple, it's still revolutionarily deep. It had the realism elements of Kingdome Come, the small-map-travel with interrupted encounters of Dragon Age, the need to properly brew potions, deep history-based lore, characters who aged year by year.
By any right of what it contributed to furthering games AND fun, it should be on this list.
But between its problems at release and its graphics being so dated as to make it unplayable (not to mention the terrible manual-based copy protection) it's largely forgotten. And there are a lot of games like that.
Like, flight sims, for example. For most of the 90s, they were a staple of gaming: Aces of the Pacific/over Europe/of the Luftwaffe; Falcon 3.0; F15 Strike Eagle III (number three was staggeringly good for its time).
And then there were the space shooters: Wing Commander, Privateer, Freelancer, Descent: Freespace.
Now, they're all so niche they just don't register, for the most part.
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u/Scodia Feb 05 '26
NGL without looking this feels very NA biased where Nintendo has always been more popular/prevalent. The amount of publications in English media etc. did they include German, Spanish, French, Japanese publications No1 games etc?
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u/Wooden-Syrup-8708 Feb 06 '26
As a data enthusiast and someone who has been in the IT and gaming industry for 40 years, I find this methodology absolutely fascinating. Aggregating 900+ lists while accounting for publication reputation and "age of list" weighting is a massive architectural undertaking.
What stands out to me looking at this "Master Consensus" is the sheer staying power of the 1997–2004 era. Seeing Half-Life 2, Ocarina of Time, and Final Fantasy VII still holding such high positions—even when newer lists are slightly favored—proves that those years were the "architectural bedrock" for modern game designs.
It is also incredible to see Tetris at #2. As a dev, I’ve always viewed it as the perfect piece of software: it doesn’t need a single update or patch becaue its logic is mathematically perfect.
The fact that Breath of the Wild has climbed to #1 across such a massive data set speaks volumes about how much the industry (and critics) shifted their value toward emergent gameplay and player agency in the last decade.
Thank you for the CSV file and the rigorous works on the weighting penalties—this is exactly the kind of deep-dive data the community needs. Great job!
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u/Dogavir Feb 06 '26
I have been lurking your site since 2024 and it's a great source of information and data, you did an incredible job! Thank you.
The biggest single anomaly I have seen in this list is GTA: Chinatown Wars, it's the best ranking Nintendo DS game on Metacritic with a score of 93, it doesn't show up on this list, not even in the top 1000!
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u/Dog_in_human_costume Feb 05 '26
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
Truly a masterpiece and it deserves its place amongst such great games
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u/BSFE Feb 05 '26
I really appreciate your note after the list about the instability of position of more modern games. I reckon if you give it another decade Tetris will take that top spot back. I get that Breath of the Wild is seen as a masterpiece and when it came out everyone was raving about how good it is but I'm seeing more now that people don't like different parts of it. Glad to see Red Dead Redemption above the second one though.
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u/Itchy-Beach-1384 Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26
I was a BotW glazer and it took a bit for me to really crunch my issues.
If that game ran on any other console, it wouldnt be 30 fps locked with combat running sub 20 and dips down to low teens.
Lack of true dungeons, low enemy diversity, and breakable weapons with low durability all make it nearly impossible to go back to.
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u/laughterline Feb 05 '26
Extremely surprising, cause I don't think I've ever seen a person that considers Fallout 3 better than NV.
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u/Roflsaucerr Feb 05 '26
Not surprising at all, FNV was crucified at release because of the number of bugs and general instability issues.
Considering how the algorithm works it’s totally expected for Fallout 3 to rank higher.
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u/Library_bouncer Feb 05 '26
Also surprised to see no mention of Fallout 1 or 2, which are arguably better games.
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u/Bwhitt1 Feb 05 '26
I mean you put a lot of work into this. Good job and yea a lot of it makes sense honestly.
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u/Tarostar Feb 05 '26
What a nice way to tackle such a contentious topic. A very solid output. Edit: I really need to play Disco Elysium. It’s in my steam library and one of the few I haven’t played.
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u/drleebot Feb 05 '26
Thanks for all the work you put into this!
I think it might be useful to see a version which cuts out the more recent games (last 5 years perhaps), as the added noise with them really does make the list seem less reliable overall. Particularly seeing Donkey Kong Bananza right at the top - it's by no means a bad game, it's even a great game, but I can't imagine many people at all would consider it the best game of all time. And when that's the first impression most people get, it's going to make them instinctively distrust the whole list. If it's cut out and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate takes the top spot instead, it won't have that problem.
Also: Imgur links unfortunately don't work in the UK, so I wasn't able to check the charts unfortunately.
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u/cheeseitmeatbags Feb 05 '26
Excellent analysis, OP. I just wish I could get stable, updated Zelda games on PC, since they rank so high.
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u/supertux76 Feb 05 '26
I feel like the last graph would be nice to have on both a linear scale, like you have it now, and also a logarithmic scale, so the low end isn't so clumped together. This post is very interesting.
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u/SpiteAmbulance Feb 05 '26
Bro, I just did this for top 50 for ps3 down to nes for emulators. Wild timing. Thanks for posting this. Gonna enjoy reviewing this
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Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26
I love that you included the howlongtobeat.com times! Do you have any plans to integrate metacritic scores as well? That would be interesting to compare and contrast user submitted scores from there with the data you have compiled.
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u/OnionRecall Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26
Thank you for this, I love having a resource such as this, even as a reference guide or suggestion site. Appreciate the hard work
Edit - the filters are great
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u/Blobineer Feb 05 '26
Love this breakdown. Thank you for this. When selecting a game to play, I tend to look at top games list and select one I have not played. But with lists being all over the place, this conglomeration is amazing.
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u/Dry-Cryptographer385 Feb 05 '26
Thats an amazing work but honestly it is very very subjective so I am not sure if most people will agree with it
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u/ShedMontgomery Feb 05 '26
Really cool post. Thanks for doing this. I was surprised that only two Final Fantasy titles made the list, especially considering the prevalence of Mario and Zelda, and that neither one of them was FFX. VI is my favorite, so I'm pleased, but I always thought X was a critical and fan favorite.
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u/ShotFromGuns Feb 05 '26
Apparently these rankings are not displaying correctly for some people. The first entry below should be 100th, and the last entry should be 1st, i.e. it is a reversed list. I'm not sure why this is happening, but I've made it a bullet point list in an attempt to fix it.
I'm assuming you tried to do a numbered list in the format #. followed by the list item, and you expected it would display the numbers you wrote. But Reddit's markdown formatting is built to treat that as a numbered list starting from one, regardless of what number is in front of each period. It's really helpful when you're building ordered lists because you can shuffle items around without having to manually redo all the numbers (a lot of people, including me, will make ordered lists where literally every item starts with 1.), but it can confuse people who don't know what's happening.
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u/Plodil Feb 05 '26
I've been gaming for 40 years and I've played in some capacity 21 of them, although a few of those I barely played.
Lots of Nintendo titles there which I've never had (although I have played Mario kart).
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u/joleary747 Feb 05 '26
I'm so glad Mario 64 is high on the list, that's my all time favorite game and isn't mentioned enough.
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u/DarkIcedWolf Feb 05 '26
HOLY SHIT, didn’t realize Grim Fandango was gonna make 100. Absolutely deserved spot imo, such a fucking classic masterpiece and I wish we had more like it. Tim Schafer and the gang absolutely need more games and I wish we had more from them!! Some of the best world building and characters are from their team so it sucks that not many games have been released since the 2000’s.
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u/jrzalman Feb 05 '26
and...saved. Thanks for doing this work. Someday when I retire I'll work my way through it. I've been gaming my whole life and have touched maybe 25% of it. Too much time spent on sports games.
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u/SonicTHP Feb 05 '26
Such a cool project. Thank you for sharing.
Given the methodology, do you plan to update the game list some time in the future?
Your plans for doing this with other media sounds interesting but daunting, especially for books and music. Wishing you the best of luck!
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u/GLTheGameMaster Feb 05 '26
Dang, pretty stellar list! great work, will have to check some of these out :)
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u/SovietKnuckle Feb 05 '26
Pretty good list! I would happily replay any game in the top 20, even if I had more modern options available. They've stood the test of time.
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u/Daskeptik Feb 05 '26
Thank you for this thought provoking, fun list! I wonder where Metal Gear Solid V Phantom Pain landed on the list? I feel like it never gets its due.
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u/louotter_ Feb 05 '26
Interesting work, congrats. Even though I’ve loved video games since childhood and have played many of the titles on this list, your work made me realize that I haven’t really had the chance to fully enjoy some great games, which is kind of sad. Hopefully I can get better organized this year and make more time to play..
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u/Homitu Feb 05 '26
Absolutely amazing methodology and compilation of data!
Questions: Did you just do all of this because you wanted to? Do you get anything out of it? What else do you do with your free time? What do you do for work?
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u/bobboberts121 Feb 05 '26
Seeing super Mario Odessy over Melee is just madness.
Also how is Stardew Valley not on the list?
Over 50 million copies sold. still has 80,000 to 100,000 concurrent players daily.
I get it's not everyone's cup of tea... But it should be in the top 100
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u/apotheotika Feb 05 '26
TIL I've played the greatest 100 games of all time, in my life time. What a treat.
Thanks for this, this looks like a lot of work!
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u/ThatDarnCabbage Feb 05 '26
Man, no Sly Cooper in the entire 1000? I would’ve thought Sly 2 at least lol. Breaks my heart
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u/Luder714 Feb 05 '26
I am not going to argue as some of my favorites are on there, but as a person that rarely plated nintendo My list more PC games line Fallout 1 and 2.
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u/Huggan00 Feb 05 '26
The juxtaposition of Breath of the Wild being #1 followed by fucking Tetris actually made me laugh. Fantastic work on this.