Rolling Stone has been in the listmaking game for a very long time, first publishing “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time” all the way back in 2003. But as we move into 2025, they’ve finally turned their editors loose on video games and published a new list of “The 50 Greatest Video Games of All Time“.
In creating their list, Rolling Stone decided to shy away from including dozens of sequels from the same franchise, and to ask how well the classics of yesteryear still hold up today:
But to pick the best games ever made, there’s a lot of considerations. Gaming is a medium where sequels thrive — they can always look and play better. And while certain gaming dynasties run dozens of entries deep, there needs to be representation across the board. Today, everyone’s a gamer, but they’re not all playing the same thing.
For this list, we looked at both how influential each game was at arrival, as well as whether it still holds up. A good game may have played well, but a great one still does. These are games that made the culture what it is today and will chart where it goes tomorrow.
Looking over the list, they technically made good on their first promise, as each franchise is represented by a single entry. That technically is there because Rolling Stone did manage to sneak in multiple games featuring Samus Aran and Link by classifying the 2D and 3D games as separate sub-franchises. Though, to be fair, this distinction is pretty common among listmakers.
This exception worked out well for both franchises, as sitting at the very top of the list is Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It was joined at #47 by the equally-influential The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, with Samus Aran also pulling double duty at #10 (Super Metroid) and #41 (Metroid Prime).
But the most interesting part of Rolling Stone’s list might be how samey it feels next to other recent lists. I’ve tracked more than 80 lists for the Video Game Canon going back to 1985, and cataloged the more than 1,500 different games that appear on those lists, and Rolling Stone is one of the few that has no unique titles. Each of these 50 games has appeared on at least one other list over the years, making Rolling Stone’s effort feel a little too safe. It’s a little surprising to see in a magazine that was founded to give a voice to the counterculture. Where are all the oddball picks?
That said, there’s nothing wrong with the 50 games on Rolling Stone’s list. As the introduction says, each one is great. There’s Hades at #49, Chrono Trigger at #40, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate at #36, and Wii Sports at #30. Moving into the Top 25, there’s Stardew Valley at #25, Mario Kart 64 at #20, and Madden NFL 2004 at #18. The Top 10 includes the aforementioned Breath of the Wild (#1) and Super Metroid (#10), with Tetris (#2), Grand Theft Auto V (#3), Super Mario World (#4), The Last of Us (#5), Half-Life 2 (#6), Metal Gear Solid (#7), Final Fantasy VII (#8), and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (#9) sandwiched in-between.
It’s really a good list. It’s just one we’ve seen before.
Rolling Stone’s “The 50 Greatest Video Games of All Time” will be added to the Video Game Canon as part of the next update.