The 150 Most Acclaimed Games of All Time: Updated Rankings and Project Status

We have not been idle.

Last year, I shared the early results of my friend James’ project to rigorously calculate the most acclaimed video games of all time. The original results can still be found here. We also answered a number of questions about the project in a follow up article.

At that stage the project was little more than a proof of concept, and the formula — despite already being far more sophisticated than the ones used by Metacritic, Video Game Canon, or pwnRank — still had significant weaknesses. Since then, the project has matured considerably, and all of the formula’s major weaknesses have been addressed.

This final list is no longer biased towards the most prolific publications, nor does it give undue weight to lists from less reputable sources. These issues were solved through a combination of clever weighting algorithms, and crude adjustments. Along with these improvements, a slight bias towards more recent lists has also been added to better reflect the current critical consensus.

The result is a much more authoritative representation of the most acclaimed video games of all time. It’s not just the formula that’s been updated, either: numerous data entry errors have been corrected, and more than 100 new lists have been added to the database, including the end of year lists for 2020 and 2021. The total number of lists is now more than 370.

The project will soon have its own website, but until then, enjoy this teaser: the definitive 150 most acclaimed video games of all time, as determined by games media critical consensus.

1	The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild	2017
2	The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time	1998
3	Tetris	1988
4	Resident Evil 4	2005
5	The Witcher III: Wild Hunt	2015
6	Super Metroid	1994
7	The Last of Us	2013
8	The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past	1992
9	Super Mario 64	1996
10	Half-Life 2	2004
11	Bioshock	2007
12	Mass Effect 2	2010
13	Shadow of the Colossus	2005
14	Street Fighter II	1991
15	Super Mario World	1991
16	Chrono Trigger	1995
17	Hades	2020
18	World of Warcraft	2004
19	Grand Theft Auto V	2013
20	Final Fantasy VII	1997
21	Castlevania: Symphony of the Night	1997
22	Portal	2007
23	Red Dead Redemption	2010
24	Bloodborne	2015
25	Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare	2007
26	God of War (2018)	2018
27	DOOM	1993
28	Dark Souls	2011
29	Minecraft	2011
30	Super Mario Kart	1992
31	The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim	2011
32	Portal 2	2011
33	Halo: Combat Evolved	2001
34	Super Mario Bros. 3	1989
35	StarCraft / BroodWar	1998
36	GoldenEye 007	1997
37	Uncharted 2: Among Thieves	2009
38	Metal Gear Solid	1998
39	Red Dead Redemption 2	2018
40	Metroid Prime	2002
41	The Last of Us Part II	2020
42	Journey	2012
43	Animal Crossing: New Horizons	2020
44	Half-Life	1998
45	Super Mario Bros.	1985
46	Diablo II	2000
47	Deus Ex	2000
48	Super Mario Odyssey	2017
49	Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic	2003
50	Half-Life: Alyx	2020
51	Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater	2004
52	Silent Hill 2	2001
53	Final Fantasy VI	1994
54	Pokémon Red / Blue / Yellow	1998
55	Spelunky	2012
56	Outer Wilds	2019
57	Grand Theft Auto III	2001
58	Counter-Strike / Counter-Strike 1.6	2000
59	Overwatch	2016
60	Fallout 3	2008
61	Ico	2001
62	The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker	2003
63	Grand Theft Auto IV	2008
64	Disco Elysium	2019
65	Return of the Obra Dinn	2018
66	Inside	2016
67	EarthBound / Mother 2: Gīgu no Gyakushū	1995
68	Batman: Arkham Asylum	2009
69	Super Mario Galaxy	2007
70	Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas	2004
71	Batman: Arkham City	2011
72	Super Smash Bros. Melee	2001
73	Super Mario Galaxy 2	2010
74	Resident Evil	1996
75	Persona 4	2008
76	Ms. Pac-Man	1982
77	Final Fantasy Tactics	1998
78	System Shock 2	1999
79	Sid Meier’s Civilization IV	2005
80	The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask	2000
81	League of Legends	2009
82	Spelunky 2	2020
83	Assassin’s Creed 2	2009
84	Super Smash Bros. Ultimate	2018
85	Donkey Kong	1981
86	Mega Man 2	1989
87	SimCity 2000	1993
88	The Legend of Zelda	1987
89	Tomb Raider	1996
90	Horizon Zero Dawn	2017
91	Grand Theft Auto: Vice City	2002
92	Undertale	2015
93	Grim Fandango	1998
94	Walking Dead, The	2012
95	The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind	2002
96	Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2	2000
97	Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time	2003
98	Sonic the Hedgehog	1991
99	Dishonored	2012
100	Braid	2008
101	Stardew Valley	2016
102	Planescape: Torment	1999
103	Fortnite: Save the World/Battle Royale	2017
104	Ōkami	2006
105	Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island	1995
106	Secret of Mana / Seiken Densetsu 2	1993
107	Punch-Out!! / Mike Tyson’s Punch Out!!	1987
108	Burnout 3: Takedown	2004
109	Nier: Automata	2017
110	Katamari Damacy	2004
111	Titanfall 2	2016
112	The Sims	2000
113	Divinity: Original Sin 2	2017
114	Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain	2015
115	Dota 2	2013
116	Persona 5	2017
117	Gone Home	2013
118	Space Invaders	1978
119	Sonic the Hedgehog 2	1992
120	The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion	2006
121	Galaga	1981
122	God of War	2005
123	Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty	2001
124	Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End	2016
125	Left 4 Dead 2	2009
126	Maniac Mansion II: Day of the Tentacle	1993
127	Rocket League	2015
128	Papers, Please	2013
129	SimCity	1989
130	What Remains of Edith Finch	2017
131	XCOM: Enemy Unknown	2012
132	Halo 3	2007
133	Left 4 Dead	2008
134	Resident Evil 2 Remake	2019
135	Team Fortress 2	2007
136	The Secret of Monkey Island	1990
137	Shenmue	2000
138	Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory	2005
139	X-COM: UFO Defense / UFO: Enemy Unknown	1994
140	Mario Kart 8 / Mario Kart 8 Deluxe	2014
141	NBA Jam	1993
142	Soulcalibur	1998
143	Quake 3: Arena	1999
144	Hearthstone	2014
145	DOOM (2016)	2016
146	Control	2019
147	Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn	2000
148	Celeste	2018
149	Advance Wars	2001
150	Dishonored 2	2016

With this update to the formula and the subsequent rankings, we both think it serves as a better and more accurate reflection of critical consensus. It should also prove to be more useful for someone seeking out a new game to play. Of course, this is a list derived from overall critical consensus, so there’s plenty of personal disagreements that we both have with it. I’m personally glad that Morrowind is moving up higher in the rankings, if nothing else!

But the intention wasn’t to make our favourite games list ever, because it’d obviously look drastically different from this. This wasn’t done to seek validation or inflate our egos on how well we agree with things; it was done to find the critical consensus, which we’ve done. And this kind of list brooks far more interesting and fun discussions, besides.

That kind of disagreement can spawn all sorts of in-depth conversations about individual games and the medium as a whole. That, in turn, can help hone and refine discussions about games and potentially elevate criticism of them if only through experience. It’s why I personally got into doing what I do, and why I love to have these discussions at length wherever I go.

Still, I’d love to hear your takes on the list, whether through the usual sources or in the comments. I also highly encourage you to share this list around and discuss it freely and openly online. James in particular has put a tremendous amount of effort and thought into this project, and I was mostly just an assistant and sounding board compared to the technical efforts he undertook.

The end result is, more than the actual list itself, a more thorough and analytical approach to determining critical acclaim in the games industry than any other recorded attempt in history. I think that alone should warrant more attention and discussion, if only to highlight James’ efforts. Let us know what you think!

(Also, if anyone knows CSS or how to adjust WordPress layouts, I am in need of a sorcerer to fix the mess that is the margin widths on those columns. Inquire within!)