Is it possible to rank the greatest video games of all time in a scientific way? Do you just throw the question to so-called experts and let them hash it out in a no-holds-barred debate? Or is there some way to create a Video Game Canon that the wide-ranging community of developers, critics, and players can all agree on?
Probably not. But we can try.
Since gaming’s earliest days, dozens of publications have tried to sort through the noise and compile their own list of The Best Video Games of All Time. By analyzing all of these attempts at ranking the greatest games and combining them into a single list, we can apply a little scientific rigor to the process and possibly create a Best Video Games of All Time list that everyone can agree on.
Before we go any further, let me just say… no matter how we try to justify it, it’s impossible to prove, by science or otherwise, that one game is definitively better than another. My attempt at adding science to the mix is just a way to add some zing to the numerical formula doing all the work behind the scenes.
Ideally, this project will give us the chance to look back at the history of video games reflected through some of the medium’s greatest titles. The list itself will serve as something of a road map to help us learn how the best games of all time are connected to each other, to better appreciate how players interacted with video games in the past, and to explore what video games might become in the future.
The Video Game Canon and the C-Score
The Video Game Canon is a statistical meta-analysis of 76 Best Video Games of All Time lists that were published between 1995 and 2023. To qualify for inclusion, each list had to include at least 50 games, include some form of editorial oversight in the process (lists made up solely of reader polls or fan voting were excluded), and have no restrictions on release dates or platforms.
After feeding each Best Games list into the Video Game Canon machine, the games were ranked against each other using the C-Score, a formula that adds together a game’s Average Ranking across all lists with the complementary percentage of its Appearance Frequency. Combining these two factors allows us to create a list of games that have universal appeal across a long period of time without punishing any game for being too old or too new.
This also means that a lower C-Score results in a higher ranking on the Video Game Canon.
Want an example? Tetris appeared on 94.67% of all lists, and it has an Average Ranking of 17.35 on those lists. Plugging those numbers into the C-Score formula gives us this…
17.35 + (100 – 94.67) = 22.68
Average Ranking + (100 – Appearance Frequency) = C-Score
17.35 + (100 – 94.67) = 22.68
If a game was released at the time of a list’s creation and didn’t make the cut, it was given a ranking of one beyond the bottom of the list from that publication for averaging purposes (i.e., any games not included in a Top 100 list would be entered into the Average Ranking formula as a 101). However, if a game was unreleased at the time of a list’s creation, it was not included in the game’s Average Ranking or its Appearance Frequency. And all games included on lists that chose not to rank their selections were given a ranking of 1 for averaging purposes.
Additional Sorting Rules
Games with multiple remakes or revisions (i.e. Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, Street Fighter II Turbo, and Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers) were consolidated into a single title for ranking purposes. Rankings for yearly sports franchises and peripheral-based music franchises were also consolidated into their core Series as most publications treated all entries in the franchise as a single game (i.e. Madden NFL Football (Series) includes rankings from any yearly update to the Series, starting with John Madden Football.
If a publication ranked a complete Series in lieu of an individual game, all games from the Series available at the time of the list’s creation received credit for the ranking.
Games released after December 31, 2019 were excluded to remove any recency bias.
The List
With a project of this size, it was inevitable that the same titles would pop up again and again. A total of 1,532 games were selected by at least one publication, and more than a third received just a single mention. But one game stood out above all the rest…
Alexey Pajitnov’s masterpiece, Tetris, was far and away the consensus choice for the top game on the Video Game Canon, with strong support from critics and other game writers over two decades.
The remainder of the Top 100 includes a wide range of titles that represent the global reach of the gaming community. Titles developed in Japan, the United States, and across Europe can be found on the list, as well as games both old and new that have been released on every conceivable platform.
The Top 100
Last Update: 11/18/2023 (Version 7.0 Update)
- 1. Tetris
- 2. Resident Evil 4
- 3. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
- 4. The Last of Us
- 5. Half-Life 2
- 6. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
- 7. Super Mario 64
- 8. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
- 9. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
- 10. BioShock
- 11. Super Metroid
- 12. Shadow of the Colossus
- 13. Mass Effect 2
- 14. Red Dead Redemption
- 15. Street Fighter II
- 16. Grand Theft Auto V
- 17. God of War (2018)
- 18. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
- 19. World of Warcraft
- 20. Doom (1993)
- 21. Final Fantasy VII
- 22. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- 23. GoldenEye 007
- 24. Bloodborne
- 25. Chrono Trigger
- 26. Halo: Combat Evolved
- 27. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
- 28. Portal
- 29. Super Mario World
- 30. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
- 31. Metal Gear Solid
- 32. Portal 2
- 33. Journey
- 34. Super Mario Bros. 3
- 35. Minecraft
- 36. Red Dead Redemption 2
- 37. Dark Souls
- 38. Super Mario Kart
- 39. Metroid Prime
- 40. StarCraft
- 41. Deus Ex
- 42. Disco Elysium
- 43. Final Fantasy VI (AKA Final Fantasy III [US])
- 44. Rock Band (Series)
- 45. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
- 46. Super Mario Bros.
- 47. Diablo II
- 48. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater (Series)
- 49. Pokemon Blue/Red/Yellow (1998) / Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen (2004)
- 50. Silent Hill 2
- 51. Half-Life
- 52. Counter-Strike
- 53. Inside
- 54. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
- 55. Ico
- 56. Sonic the Hedgehog
- 57. Grand Theft Auto III
- 58. Super Mario Odyssey
- 59. Tomb Raider (1996) / Tomb Raider Anniversary (2007)
- 60. Donkey Kong
- 61. Fallout 3
- 62. Ms. Pac-Man
- 63. Undertale
- 64. Batman: Arkham City
- 65. EarthBound
- 66. Celeste
- 67. Stardew Valley
- 68. Super Mario Galaxy 2
- 69. SimCity 2000
- 70. Super Smash Bros. Melee
- 71. System Shock 2
- 72. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
- 73. Mega Man 2
- 74. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
- 75. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island
- 76. Pac-Man
- 77. SimCity (1989)
- 78. Grim Fandango
- 79. The Legend of Zelda
- 80. Grand Theft Auto IV
- 81. Okami
- 82. The Walking Dead
- 83. Braid
- 84. The Sims
- 85. Overwatch
- 86. Resident Evil (1996) / Resident Evil (2002)
- 87. Space Invaders
- 88. The Secret of Monkey Island
- 89. Batman: Arkham Asylum
- 90. Lemmings
- 91. League of Legends
- 92. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
- 93. NBA Jam (Series)
- 94. Galaga
- 95. Super Mario Galaxy
- 96. Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! (1987) / Punch-Out!! (1990)
- 97. X-COM: UFO Defense (AKA UFO: Enemy Unknown)
- 98. Secret of Mana
- 99. Civilization IV
- 100. Final Fantasy Tactics
Now that we know where all the best games rank on the Video Game Canon, let’s look back at the industry’s history, starting with the very first blockbuster…
Next Essay: Pong