Live ranking

The full ranking.

5,046 video games face off in duels and 368,078 duels have already been settled. The ranking is recomputed with every vote: filter by genre, decade, platform or period.

20 games Reset

  1. 1 Pokémon Blue Version 1996 · JRPG 1,867
  2. 2 Pokémon Red Version 1996 · JRPG 1,862
  3. 3 Pokémon Yellow Version: Special Pikachu Edition 1998 · JRPG 1,844
  4. 4 The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening 1993 · Action-adventure 1,757
  5. 5 Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins 1992 · Platformer 1,694
  6. 6 Super Mario Land 1989 · Platformer 1,665
  7. 7 Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 1994 · Platformer 1,632
  8. 8 Tetris 1989 · Puzzle 1,593
  9. 9 Gargoyle's Quest 1990 · Action RPG 1,530
  10. 10 Kirby's Dream Land 1992 · Platformer 1,517
  11. 11 Castlevania Legends 1997 · Platformer 1,498
  12. 12 Metroid II: Return of Samus 1991 · Metroidvania 1,497
  13. 13 Kirby's Dream Land 2 1995 · Platformer 1,497
  14. 14 Donkey Kong 1994 · Platformer 1,494
  15. 15 Wario Land II 1998 · Platformer 1,483
  16. 16 Final Fantasy Adventure 1991 · Action RPG 1,478
  17. 17 Castlevania: The Adventure 1989 · Platformer 1,421
  18. 18 Donkey Kong Land 1995 · Platformer 1,415
  19. 19 Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge 1991 · Platformer 1,385
  20. 20 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan 1990 · Action-adventure 1,382

Browse by genre, platform and era

By system
Greatest Mac games Ranking of Linux games Top games on DOS Best games on SteamVR Best games on Oculus Rift Top games on PlayStation 2 Top games on PSP Greatest PlayStation 3 games Greatest PS Vita games Top games on PlayStation 4 Greatest PlayStation 5 games All-time best PlayStation VR games

FAQ

Questions about the ranking

How is this ranking established?

The ranking comes solely from player votes, in duels between two games. Each vote updates an ELO score, the rating system used in chess: every game starts at 1,500 points and its score moves duel after duel.

How often is the ranking updated?

Continuously: every duel voted immediately adjusts the score of the two games involved. The badge on the right shows how each game's rank moved over the past seven days.

How many games take part in the ranking?

5,046 games, selected for their fame, face off in duels. The full GameForever catalogue covers tens of thousands of titles, across every era and platform.

How can I see the best games by genre, decade or platform?

Use the filters at the top of the page: genre (RPG, FPS, platformer, strategy...), decade and platform (PC, PlayStation, Nintendo, Xbox, SEGA). Filters combine, and the selection is numbered from 1, from the highest ranked down; each game's world rank stays shown on its own entry. The period filter instead ranks on the points gained recently, from 7 days to 12 months (all time by default).

Why can an indie game finish ahead of a blockbuster?

The ELO score measures neither sales nor budget, but the preferences expressed in duels. An indie game that regularly wins its match-ups against higher-ranked titles climbs mechanically, owing nothing to its production budget.

What is the difference between the position in the list and the world rank?

The position is that of the selection on screen, numbered from 1 and carried on from page to page: filter on RPGs and the top RPG becomes number 1. The world rank depends on no filter and is shown on each game's own entry, along with its duel count and win rate.

Why rank by duels rather than by a score out of 10?

Absolute scores saturate: nearly every game that matters ends up between 7 and 9, and what is left of the gap often says more about a site's audience than about the games. A duel asks a question you cannot answer with "both", and it lets a 1994 game and a 2024 game be compared without correcting anything: they are not scored on two scales, they are set against each other.

Vote on a duel