30 most popular games| How to choose?
The lack of any statistics or research on video game sales makes our task much more difficult, so we rely on rankings and results that are published on VGChartz and Wikipedia. The problem is that these resources only take into account physical copies, but do not keep track of online sales. In addition, VGChartz does not categorize games based on compatibility with operating systems - Windows, Mac and Linux. It is sometimes impossible to differentiate between PC and console sales because publishers provide incomplete information.
Overall, in order to create the most accurate ranking, we researched various publications and charts while discussing the cultural impact of a given game. That is why we did not call this article simply a ranking of bestsellers (by sales volume) and prepared a list of the most popular games in alphabetical order so that it looks the least subjective.
We also decided to write about one game from the franchise, so as not to clutter the rating with them and ultimately consider as many as possible different games. For example, we did not include The Sims in the ranking because The Sims 2 sold many more copies. There are a number of other games that undoubtedly left their mark on history (we are talking about Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto), but they were not included in our list because they were sold in much smaller quantities.
30 most popular games | Age Of Empires
Age Of Empires is a strategy released in 1997 in which you had to build a civilization with the transition to different eras(starting from the Stone Age to the age of agriculture, then to the Bronze and Iron Ages). It could be said that the game combined Civilization II and Warcraft II, and its sales volume eventually reached the three million mark.
30 most popular games | Anno 1503: The New World
Anno 1503 A.D.: The New World combines real-time strategy and city building simulator. The game was developed in Austria, released in 2003 and subsequently sold over three million copies
30 most popular games | Baldur's Gate
This role-playing game (RPG) appeared in 1998, and since then sales have exceeded two million copies. Baldur's Gate is the first game in the famous fantasy world of Forgotten Realms, the creation of which was largely influenced by the tabletop role-playing game Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, released back in 1974.
30 most popular games | Battlefield 2
The acclaimed first-person shooter game, based on a fictional conflict set in the 21st century, was released by Digital Illusions CE (DICE) in 2005, using certain role-playing and strategy mechanics to help create a fun multiplayer game. The game sold a million copies within the first month of its release, and currently has ten million licenses sold worldwide, surpassing even Battlefield 3 (although it's difficult to estimate such figures since EA doesn't separate sales of PC and console games ).
30 most popular games | Command & Conquer: Red Alert
This real-time strategy game appeared back in 1996, and since then it has sold more than three million copies, although it gained popularity more slowly than the new version - Red Alert 2. However, fans' interest in this RTS game was maintained for a long time time, and at the moment Command & Conquer: Red Alert can be downloaded for free on the Internet.
30 most popular games | Cossacks: European Wars
"Cossacks" is another bright representative of the real-time strategy genre. The game was released in 2001 for the Windows 95/98 operating systems, then sold four million copies and also received a lot of awards and rave reviews in the press. The game's graphics were especially praised, as was its welcome video.
30 most popular games | Counter-Strike
Although Counter-Strike is a modification of the game Half-Life, we could not pass it up, if only because of the large number of copies sold - after all, it reached four million units. In addition, the game had a significant influence on the first-person shooter genre. In addition to popularizing gameplay and attracting new fans, Counter-Strike can also be praised for its contribution to the development of various gaming tournaments.
30 most popular games | Crysis
According to Crytek, three million copies of the game have been distributed, which was released in 2007 and went on to become one of the most popular in the series. The game takes place in a fictional future after the discovery of an alien spaceship. The player, protected by a special exoskeleton nanosuit, has to fight with the military North Korea, and also with aliens.
30 most popular games | Diablo III
Diablo III is a new name in our list of popular video games. Blizzard created this game in 2012 and, according to recent data, has already sold 15 million copies. By the way, Diablo III holds the record for fastest sales among PC games, since gamers purchased 3.5 million copies in the first 24 hours after release.
30 most popular games | Doom 3
Another famous FPS shooter is still the most popular game from id Software. In the new version, unlike previous games, a different plot was used, although the gameplay remained the same, despite the use of various techniques from the horror genre. Another drawback - the inability to use a flashlight and a weapon at the same time - did not prevent Doom 3 from selling more than 3.5 million copies worldwide.
30 most popular games | EverQuest
EverQuest is a 3D massively multiplayer online role-playing game that is still undergoing modernization. Since the game's release in 1999, Sony has sold over four million copies, and by 2012 had released over 19 expansions.
30 most popular games | Far Cry
Far Cry is a story about an American special forces soldier who is looking for a journalist who has disappeared on a mysterious island. The game went on sale in 2004 and received overall good feedback in the press and has since sold 2.5 million copies.
30 most popular games | Guild Wars
Guild Wars is a prominent representative of the genre of massively multiplayer online role-playing games, in which gamers are required to choose any of six main professions and develop the corresponding skills. The game includes a PvP mode. Since its release in 2005, more than 6.5 million copies have been sold.
30 most popular games | Half-Life 2
By 2008, Valve announced sales of more than 6.5 million copies of Half-Life 2. This is exactly the case when the sequel became more successful than the original, which sold 10 million copies, because Half-Life 2 has already sold more than 12 million copies , not including online sales. Initially, $40 million was invested in Half-Life 2, and the creation of the game, released in 2004, took 5 years. By the way, it was introduced at the same time when Valve launched its Steam service. Thus, Half-Life 2 became the first single-player game to require online activation.
30 most popular games | Microsoft Flight Simulator
The game was released in 1996 as Microsoft Flight Simulator for Windows 95 and became a huge hit in North America. The popularity resulted in five million sales, and in 2009 the project was suspended. It is known that in 2012, the Microsoft Flight game was released without the Simulator prefix, which was characterized by more advanced graphics compared to previous versions of the popular simulator.
30 most popular games | Minecraft
The game's official website proudly reports 14 million copies sold, which is not much less than Diablo III's 15 million. In Minecraft, gamers have to build for the sake of their own survival and use as many resources as possible for this. However, there is also a special “creative mode” (Creative mode), where it is impossible to die, and where literally all the conditions for creativity are created.
30 most popular games | Myst
Next comes one of the few adventure games on our list, which was published back in 1993 and has since registered six million licenses sold. According to the plot main character named Wanderer finds a magic book, with the help of which he goes on a journey through different worlds. The game is extremely exciting artistically and, unlike many adventure games of the time, it features a first-person perspective.
30 most popular games | Populous
The old Lionhead website lists the number as 4 million, which is how many copies have been sold since Populous was released in 1989. The real-time strategy contains as many as 500 levels, and in each of them a piece of land is played out that needs to be conquered. With this game the foundations of the so-called "god simulator" were laid, and in Populous the player uses supernatural abilities to help his people “be fruitful and multiply.”
30 most popular games | Portal 2
According to Valve, this first-person puzzle game has sold more than four million copies. Portal 2 is a sequel to the game released in 2011, where all the principles of the previous version are followed. The action takes place in the Aperture Science Laboratory, where special weapons are used to create portals, and each level is filled with difficult puzzles that will help you escape from the evil artificial intelligence.
30 most popular games | RollerCoaster Tycoon
RollerCoaster Tycoon is a 1999 game that has sold four million copies in North America alone. It represents the economic strategy genre, and is one of the most popular amusement park simulators. However, like many strategy games, the Xbox version of RollerCoaster Tycoon was much less successful.
30 most popular games | SimCity 3000
The famous city-planning simulator was released in 1999 and, according to EA statistics, has sold five million copies, including an expanded version of SimCity 3000 Unlimited. SimCity 3000 featured many changes over its predecessor that received rave reviews from the press, and the game itself served as a great example of a powerful city-building simulator.
30 most popular games | The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a representative of the RPG genre, released in 2011. The action takes place 200 years after the events of the previous game in the series (The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion), and the main character will have to stop the return of the dragons and defeat the most powerful of them, Alduin. Currently, five million copies of this game have been sold.
30 most popular games | StarCraft
The most popular in the StarCraft series was the first version of the game, in which players find themselves in the fictional 25th century, where three playable races are trying to conquer the galaxy. StarCraft, released in 1998, is a real-time strategy game. Sales eventually reached 11 million copies, half of which were from South Korea, where the game became wildly popular.
30 most popular games | Star Wars: The Old Republic
According to some sources, Star Wars: The Old Republic sold about three million copies. It is noteworthy that approximately $150-200 million was spent on the creation of this massively multiplayer online role-playing game. At the same time, Star Wars: The Old Republic became the fastest growing MMORPG project, as the number of players exceeded a million people in the first three days after release.
30 most popular games | The Sims 2
The Sims 2 is arguably the best-selling game in history, with total sales of 20 million copies. In the new version of the “life simulator” from 2004, the main idea of the first The Sims product was supported, but the issue with the presence of naked characters, who could be seen using special cheat codes, also had to be resolved. Later this error was eliminated.
30 most popular games | Theme Park
This economic simulator appeared in 1994, and since then the developers have managed to sell 3.5 million copies of the game. At the very beginning, gamers will have to build an amusement park in the UK, for which only 100 pounds are allocated. The game gained popularity, in part, due to its eccentric humor and gameplay, which reminded us of RollerCoaster Tycoon.
30 most popular games | Tomb Raider II
This version can be considered the most successful game in the Tomb Raider series, with improved gameplay and graphics, which helped it become a cult favorite and sell eight million copies worldwide (3 million of which were intended for PCs). It’s unlikely that anyone could forget that the action here revolves around the Dagger of Xian, which gives the owner supernatural abilities.
30 most popular games | Warhammer 40,000: Dawn Of War
Developer THQ reports more than four million copies of this game sold, including all its add-ons. The real-time strategy game, published in 2004, tasks players with defending certain areas on the map and collecting resources for the subsequent construction of buildings and bases.
30 most popular games | Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego
And here is the main surprise of our rating - a game released in 1985 with more than four million releases, it is also the oldest of all on our list. This educational strategy game challenges players to track down enemies around the world, requiring them to find various clues and develop their detective skills.
30 most popular games | World Of Warcraft
Well, this game had perhaps the greatest impact on video game culture in the 21st century. It was released in 2004 based on the previous version of WarCraft and united more than 10 million subscribers who invaded the world of Azeroth and chose a more suitable faction of the Alliance or Horde. In total, more than 14 million copies were successfully sold. It is worth noting that this game raised the popularity of international tournaments and received its share of ridicule in the cartoon South Park.
Well, this is what a selection of the 30 most popular games in PC history looks like, according to .
And in the first place in it is the Russian game.
Unlike the BBC, which commissioned film critics to compile its top list, Time created its own. “Time's technical team put more than 150 nominees through a multi-step evaluation process to come up with a selection of best games new ideas for almost four decades,” the magazine writes on its website.
Time's 50 Best Video Games
2. Super Mario 64
3. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
7. The Legend of Zelda
8. Super Mario Bros.
9. The Oregon Trail
10. World of Warcraft
Continuation of the list
11. Sid Meier's Civilization IV
12.Final Fantasy VI
13. SimCity 2000
15. Counter-Strike
16.Grand Theft Auto III
18. Rise of the Tomb Raider
19. Space Invaders
22.GoldenEye 007
23. Microsoft Flight Simulator X
24.Final Fantasy VII
25. Halo: Combat Evolved
26. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty
27. Mortal Kombat
30. Pokemon Red & Blue
32. Wolfenstein 3D
33. Super Mario Kart
34. Red Dead Redemption
41. ESPN NFL 2K5
43. Call of Duty 2
44. Super Smash Bros.
46.Resident Evil 4
45: Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec
50. King's Quest III: To Heir Is Human
Now let's grumble
Like all the top lists that claim to be “the best of all times and platforms,” Time’s list raises many questions and looks very controversial.
You can endlessly list which games should have been included in it and were not included. Let's say the famous racing series Need For Speed not mentioned at all. The strategy and RPG genres are extremely poorly represented: there are no classic parts WarCraft, no episodes Heroes of Might & Magic And Total War, neither Witcher, neither Baldur's Gate. And, what is absolutely criminal, not a single game in the world The Elder Scrolls.
They were hardly less significant for the history of video games than Braid, GoldenEye 007 or the next release of a hockey simulator from EA Sports. It’s hardly fair that there are no TES games in the top, while there are three games about Mario. And if Pong as one of the first games in history, perhaps worthy of mention, the existence of The Oregon Trail only very gray-haired old people remember.
And the worthy series that did make it to the top are presented strangely in it. So, in some cases, the first part “takes the rap” for the entire game series, although the sequels have surpassed it ( Mortal Kombat, Castlevania). In others, the series is represented by a sequel ( Fallout 3, StarCraft II, Rise of the Tomb Raider), although it was the original or a completely different sequel that was cult ( GTA III, although it was asking Vice City). Finally, in the third, the series was awarded several inclusions in the top, and almost all of them were in the top 10 ( Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda).
Time's top, like the recent top of the best films of the 21st century from the BBC, once again reminds: attempts to compile a list of the best works of all time are doomed to failure and misunderstanding. There are too many important works; any selection would be controversial. In addition, Time selected the 50 best games from only 150 candidates, and for the top of all time they need to be sorted through about a thousand. It would be better if they tried to compile several separate tops by genre, era or platform - then the chance of objectivity would be much higher.
But all this will not stop us from being proud that “ Tetris", created by Russian programmer Alexey Pajitnov. This is a game that everyone has truly played.
The best game of all time was invented in Russia. © Freeze frame video
Let’s make a reservation right away: like all such tops, the Time rating raises many questions and looks contradictory. The magazine chose from only 150 games, but for the “top of all time” there had to be at least several hundred of them. And, of course, if journalists tried to compile several separate tops by genre, era or platform, the chance of objectivity would be higher.
Don't forget that this is an American list. Many of our early games were generally unknown or could not claim much interest due to the theme. For example, games about American football.
So, here are the 50 best video games of all time, according to Time magazine.
50. King's Quest III: To Heir Is Human (1986)
The game was released in 1986 for operating system DOS. According to the plot, Prince Alexander was kidnapped from his cradle by the evil sorcerer Mannanan, who calls him Gwydion. The prince must escape from the sorcerer, understand who he really is, and save his sister by fighting the dragon. You can see what the game looked like in this video:
Video: trailer for the game “Kingʼs Quest III: To Heir Is Human”
Player review: “The whole game is spoiled by the timer: if you don’t have time to complete the preparations before the wizard returns, it’s the end. When I passed, there was no Internet, no Fido, everything was found out at random, I looked up every word in the dictionary, it took a very long time. But it was happiness to finally escape from the clutches of the wizard and go explore the world.”
In 2006 and 2011, remakes of the game were released in VGA versions.
49. Dota 2 (2013)
Multi-user team game genre Multiplayer online battle arena, implementation of the famous DotA map for the game Warcraft III in a separate client.
48. Angry Birds (2009)
Series computer games, developed by the Finnish company Rovio, in which (in the main line) the player must use a slingshot to shoot birds at green pigs placed on various structures.
The game was first released for the Apple iOS platform on December 10, 2009 in the App Store, after which it gained wild popularity. In less than two years since its release, the game was downloaded more than 500 million times, and by July 2015, the number of downloads reached 3 billion. The game received a crazy number of sequels, spin-offs and various special editions.
In April 2012, the Angry Birds Land amusement park opened in Finland. In March 2013, Rovio released the animated series Angry Birds Toons, and in 2016, the full-length cartoon Angry Birds at the Movies.
47. Guitar Hero (2005)
Musical game for PlayStation 2. The main task of the player is to press the keys on the neck of a special guitar-shaped controller at the right moment and hit the “string” key.
The game became a hit, received good reviews from critics and many awards from various world publishers. The game marked the beginning of the Guitar Hero media franchise; all games in the series have been sold for a total of more than $1 billion.
46.Resident Evil 4 (2005)
Multiplatform computer game in the genres of third-person action and survival horror, the sixth game in the main Resident Evil series. In the story, government agent Leon Scott Kennedy goes on a mission to Europe. He must save Ashley Graham, the daughter of the US President, who was kidnapped by followers of a mysterious cult. A trip to a rural village in Spain turns into a meeting with its bloodthirsty inhabitants.
45: Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec (2001)
A racing simulator with short competitions for beginners, multi-hour races and rally competitions with rivals. The main goal of the game is to win all races, championships, and pass all driver's license tests.
As of 2009, 14.89 million copies of the game were purchased worldwide.
44. Super Smash Bros. (1999)
A fighting game with characters from various Nintendo game series - Mario, Pikachu, Donkey Kong, Link from The Legend of Zelda and others. At first, the game was supposed to be released on a CD drive for the Nintendo 64 CD, but due to the commercial failure of the device and competition, the game had to be published on a 128-megabit cartridge. Therefore, Princess Peach, Bowser, Princess Zelda, Ganondorf, Mewtwo, Pete and King Dedede and many levels had to be cut.
However, Super Smash Bros. became a successful game and spawned three sequels: Super Smash Bros. Melee on Nintendo GameCube, Super Smash Bros. Brawl on Wii and Super Smash Bros. 4 for 3DS and Wii U.
43. Call of Duty 2 (2005)
A first-person shooter where the player takes on the role of one of the soldiers of the Soviet, American and British armies fighting German troops. Call of Duty 2 was the most popular game at the Xbox 360's launch, selling 250,000 copies in its first week. As of July 2006, the Xbox 360 had sold 1.4 million copies.
42. BioShock
First-person shooter with RPG and science fiction elements.
Bioshock takes place in 1960. The main character, a young man named Jack, as a result of a plane crash ends up in the underwater city of Rapture, hidden at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Rapture was created by millionaire Andrew Ryan as his ideal society. However, the discovery of a substance called adam, which gives people superhuman powers, split Rapture society and ultimately led to the collapse of the utopia.
In addition to visual scenes, the plot is presented through found audio recordings, as well as radio conversations with a few friendly characters.
41. ESPN NFL 2K5 (2004)
An American football simulator with multiplayer and pretty decent physics and graphics for that time.
40. Pong (1972)
One of the earliest arcade video games and the first commercially successful game in history. Pong is a tennis sports game using simple 2D graphics. Programmer Allan Alcorn created it as a skill training tool.
39. Castlevania (1986)
A typical representative of the platformer genre of the 8-bit era. The events take place in the fictional world of the game series and tell the story of the confrontation between vampire hunters from the Belmont clan and the vampire lord Dracula.
The game consists of six levels with a boss at the end, which are completed by the only possible way, without plot branches and alternative levels. The game character is Simon Belmont, who is armed with a Vampire Killer whip.
38. Portal 2 (2010)
First-person puzzle game, sequel to the game Portal (2007). The core gameplay remains the use of a handheld portal-creating device, allowing the player to create two interconnected portals - rifts in space - through which he can instantly move from one place to another and carry various items. This is the basis for completing the game and solving game puzzles.
At the GDC 2010 conference, Valve director Gabe Newell said that Portal 2 is the best game in the company's history.
37. Braid (2008)
A puzzle platformer in which the main character tries to save a princess from a monster. The clues given in the plot allow us to give the story different metaphorical interpretations: from a simple separation from a lover to the development of a nuclear bomb.
In search of the princess, the main character travels through six fantasy worlds, each of which corresponds to a room in his house.
36. Fallout 3 (2008)
Action/RPG, the third canonical game in the Fallout series. The action takes place in a world slowly reborn after a nuclear war in 2077. The game is set in 2277 and takes place 36 years after the events of Fallout 2.
The main character of the game is the Lone Wanderer, who from an early age lived in one of the underground shelters. Although in his mind the shelter has never been opened since the nuclear war, his father goes outside one day. A lonely wanderer goes in search of him to find out the reasons for his departure.
35. Galaga (1981)
A classic fixed shooter in the form of an arcade slot machine. Player controls spaceship located at the bottom of the screen. It can only move along a horizontal axis.
At the beginning of each level, the space around is empty, but over time, enemy ships arrive, lining up in formations and also moving along a horizontal axis. The player's task is to destroy all enemy ships. After this, the player moves to the next level.
34. Red Dead Redemption (2010)
Action-adventure Western from a third person perspective with open world and RPG elements. The action takes place in America in 1911. The game's protagonist, John Marston, a former thug who left the bloody trade, is forced to work for government agents to kill or capture alive his former accomplices, including his "old friend" Bill Williamson.
33. Super Mario Kart (1992)
Racing arcade game with characters from the Super Mario Bros. universe. By running over images with question marks on the track, it is possible to collect various upgrades for the kart and build traps for your opponents. Each of the computer-controlled characters also has their own unique abilities that they can use to gain an advantage in the race.
32. Wolfenstein 3D
First-person shooter developed for DOS. Mistakenly considered the founder of the genre. The player controls a soldier attempting to escape from the eponymous Nazi fortress; He is confronted by many armed guards and guard dogs.
Due to the use of Nazi symbols and music by Horst Wessel, the PC and Atari versions were banned from sale in Germany in 1994. The ban was only lifted in September 2011.
31. The Sims (1999)
A life simulator in which the player controls one or more characters - Sims, takes care of their well-being, develops their skills, strengthens connections with other characters, advances them in their careers and equips their apartment building. The game has no storyline, and the game can theoretically be played "forever".
30. Pokemon Red & Blue (1996)
The player travels as a Pokémon trainer throughout the fictional region of Kanto, interacting with and battling other trainers. The goal of the game is to become the greatest Pokémon trainer in the region by defeating the region's other top trainers, the Elite Four. Another goal is to catch 151 Pokémon and fill the Pokédex, a digital encyclopedia about Pokémon, with information about them.
29. Myst (1993)
Graphic quest about traveling around interactive world with a first person view. Unlike most computer games, it is impossible to die here at the hands of enemies or unforced circumstances; The only problem for the player is the difficult puzzles. To complete the journey, the player must visit all the worlds presented in the game, moving through them with the help of books.
Myst, along with its sequels, sold around 12 million copies worldwide and for a long time was the best selling game.
28. Donkey Kong (1981)
One of the first platform games to be developed for an arcade machine. The main character of the game is a character named Jumper - a carpenter who must save his girlfriend (unnamed in the original, just “Lady”, later - Pauline) from the villain, played by Donkey Kong.
This was the first use in video games of the established "rescue the damsel in distress" scenario, which later became a template and was featured in many other computer games. Jumper, already in "Donkey Kong Jr." dubbed "Mario", he was featured in later Mario games and became Nintendo's mascot.
27. Mortal Kombat (1992)
The developers originally had the idea of making a video game starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, but Mortal Kombat was created and released in 1992 instead. The original game was continued in subsequent games in the series and other adaptations, including films, cartoons, TV series, comics, card games, a tour with a costume show was also organized. Along with Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat is one of the most successful and influential fighting game franchises in video game history.
26. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty (2010)
Real-time strategy, sequel to StarCraft. The game takes place in the 26th century in a remote part of the Milky Way galaxy. The plot of the game is based on the interaction of three races: Terrans (descendants of exiled criminals who do not maintain contact with Earth), Zergs (a race of creatures whose warriors are mutated mammals or insect-like or reptile creatures of various planets, controlled first by the Overmind, and then by the Queen of Blades) and the Protoss (a high-tech race with pronounced psionic abilities).
25. Halo: Combat Evolved
A first-person shooter, the plot of which tells the story of a war between people represented by the forces of the United Nations Space Command (UNSC) and a religious union of several alien races - the Covenant.
People struggle to survive, but still lose ground on all fronts. The last hope of humanity was the SPARTAN-II project - a program to create biologically enhanced super-soldiers who have become the most effective weapon in the fight against aliens.
24. Final Fantasy VII (1997)
A Japanese role-playing game set in a dystopian fictional world set in a science fiction setting with fantasy elements. The plot of the game tells how the group of eco-terrorists "AVALANCHE", which includes the main character Cloud Strife, fights the mega-corporation "Shin-Ra", whose activities are leading to the depletion of the source of planetary energy. In the future, the heroes face a greater danger to the planet and themselves - the main villain of the game, Sephiroth.
23. Microsoft Flight Simulator X (2006)
A flight simulator that includes hundreds of existing airports in the world and hundreds of existing civil aviation aircraft of the most different types, starting from small single-seat gliders without an engine, ending with giants like the Boeing 747.
22. GoldenEye 007 (1997)
A first-person shooter based on the seventeenth Bond film, GoldenEye. The player controls James Bond and must complete the mission's objectives. The game has earned high marks from many publications. The multiplayer mode was especially praised.
21. Diablo II (2000)
The legendary Action/RPG, which was awarded an entry in the Guinness Book of Records (in the “2000 edition”) as the fastest selling game. It sold more than 1 million copies in the first two weeks, and by January 2001 it had sold 2.75 million copies worldwide.
20. Zork (1978)
A series of text (later graphic-text) adventure computer games from Infocom.
19. Space Invaders (1978)
Originally created for arcade machines, the game in many ways became the founder of modern gaming and helped the gaming industry become one of the largest in the world. During its initial release, the game was very successful and popular, causing a temporary shortage of 100 yen coins. Space Invaders is the best arcade game according to the Guinness Book of Records.
18. Rise of the Tomb Raider (2015)
An RPG/platformer in which Lara Croft sets out to find the city of Kitezh, also known as the “Russian Atlantis.” She travels to snowy Siberia with a partner named Jonah Maiava, known from the previous part of the series. Having discovered her thirst for adventure, Lara intends to discover the secret of endless life and eternal youth in the mythical city.
17. Half-Life 2 (2004)
A sci-fi first-person shooter in which Gordon Freeman finds himself on a train arriving in City 17, unarmed and without the protective power suit that served him faithful assistant and repeatedly saved lives in the first part of the game.
Soon the situation begins to clear up: City 17 is under the rule of a totalitarian government, the head of which is Wallace Breen, as it turns out later, a former administrator of the Black Mesa research center. But Brin, in turn, is himself a pawn in the hands of the leaders of a powerful union - the Alliance.
By the way, waiting for the third part of the game has long become a meme.
16. Grand Theft Auto III (2001)
The first 3D game in the Grand Theft Auto series. The events take place in the fictional American city of Liberty City, based on New York. The protagonist of the game is an unnamed criminal who has become a victim of a criminal conspiracy between his girlfriend Catalina and Miguel, a member of a Colombian drug cartel.
The game contains elements of a car simulator and a 3rd person shooter.
15. Counter-Strike (2000)
A mega-popular team-based first-person shooter that originally appeared as a modification of the game Half-Life. The main idea of the game is a confrontation between two teams - terrorists and counter-terrorists. Each player, when entering the game, selects the team for which he wants to play, or the opportunity to be an observer, if this is provided for by the game server settings.
14. Quake (1996)
A first-person shooter that made a breakthrough in 3D technology, implementing a fully three-dimensional world instead of a two-dimensional map with height information (as was the case in Doom).
With the advent of the first Quake, the concept of “e-sports” was born, a large community arose, major championships began to be held, and the concept of tricking in relation to computer games arose: the use of some game bugs in character movement to achieve superpowers by professional players, specially regulated in professional mods.
13. SimCity 2000 (1993)
A game that has become a classic example for city planning simulators. In total, it sold about 4.23 million copies.
12. Final Fantasy VI (1994)
The events of this Japanese role-playing game take place in a fictional fantasy world with well-developed technology, the setting is reminiscent of the period of the second industrial revolution. The plot describes the journey of a group of heroes opposing an aggressive, tyrannical empire.
11. Sid Meier's Civilization IV (2005)
Continuation of one of the most popular and successful series of global turn-based strategies. The total circulation of the series currently totals more than 6 million copies. The player is given the opportunity to control one of the empires. You start the game in 4000 BC. e. with a settler and one warrior, and gradually develop into a superpower.
10. World of Warcraft (2004)
A massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. According to the Guinness Book of Records, it is the most popular MMORPG in the world. In January 2014, it was announced that over 100 million accounts had been created throughout the game's life.
By controlling the game character, the player can explore the area, wander through famous places, fight monsters, and also carry out various orders given by computer-controlled characters. In addition, fights with other players are possible.
9. The Oregon Trail (1971)
An educational computer game about the life of American pioneers, widely used in schools North America. The name of the game is associated with the Oregon Trail, which actually existed in the 19th century.
The player controls a group of immigrants with a specific profession and traveling in a conestoga. The game's success led to several sequels.
8. Super Mario Bros. (1985)
Listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the best-selling game in history. The main characters of the game are the plumber Mario and his brother Luigi (as a playable character for the second player). The goal of the game is to travel through the Mushroom Kingdom while avoiding or destroying the soldiers of the turtle Koopa King (also known as Bowser) in order to rescue the Princess he has captured.
7. The Legend of Zelda (1986)
The game takes place in the fictional kingdom of Hyrule. The army of the powerful Prince of Darkness Ganon, who invaded Hyrule, plunged the kingdom into chaos; Ganon himself captured the Triforce of Power, a magical artifact that grants its owner great power. Princess Zelda of Hyrule, who owned another artifact, the Triforce of Wisdom, divided it into eight fragments and hid them from Ganon in the kingdom's secret dungeons.
The main character of the game, Link, decided to save Zelda. But in order to fight Ganon, he must first find and collect together the fragments of the Triforce of Wisdom scattered throughout the country.
The game became a bestseller on the Nintendo platform, selling 6.5 million copies.
6. Minecraft (2011)
An indie sandbox game with elements of a survival simulator and an open world. Minecraft provides the player with a three-dimensional procedurally generated world made entirely of cubic blocks, and gives the player the opportunity to freely rebuild it, creating complex structures from the blocks - this feature of the game makes Minecraft similar to the LEGO set.
The game does not set any clear goals for the player, but offers him many opportunities and activities: for example, the player can explore the world, create a variety of structures and objects, and fight with various opponents.
Video: 5 best games of all time according to Time magazine
5.Ms. Pac-Man (1982)
Arcade game published by Midway Manufacturing (Illinois). Ms. Pac-Man was released a year after Pac-Man and became one of the most popular computer games of all time, leading Namco (the owner of the rights to Pac-Man) to recognize it as part of the official line.
4. Doom (1993)
A first-person shooter that is one of the most significant and influential computer games in the history of the industry. Its popularity largely determined the further development and spread of the genre.
The game "Doom" takes place in a sci-fi setting using horror film techniques. The player takes on the role of an unnamed space special forces soldier. The plot is simple and is revealed only in the user manual, and in the game itself there are only short messages for the player between episodes.
3. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998)
The next part of the popular The Legend of Zelda series. Link goes on a journey to stop Ganondorf (the main enemy of the princess and the main antagonist of the games in the series, in the first games he was called Ganon).
Ganondorf, in an attempt to take over Hyrule, seeks to acquire an artifact known as the Triforce, which has the power to grant the wishes of those who wield it. To stop him, Link travels through time using a musical instrument, The Ocarina of Time.
2. Super Mario 64 (1996)
Technically, the first "3D" game in the Mario series was the platformer Mario Clash on the Virtual Boy, in which the player could move Mario between the foreground and background. But Super Mario 64 introduced true 3D for the first time, with free-direction movement, 3D polygonal models instead of 2D sprites, and large open spaces to explore.
1. Tetris (1984)
Tetris was first written by Soviet programmer Alexei Pajitnov on the Elektronika-60 computer. While working at the Computing Center of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Pajitnov worked on problems of artificial intelligence and speech recognition, and used puzzles, including the classic pentomino, to test ideas.
Pajitnov tried to automate the placement of pentominoes into given figures. However, the computing power of the then equipment for rotating pentominoes was not enough; it had to be debugged on tetrominoes, which determined the name of the game. In those experiments, the main idea of Tetris was born - for the figures to fall and the filled rows to disappear.
Compiling such lists is always associated with many difficulties. Differences in genres and time of release, discrepancies in numbers from different sources, and other “difficulties of translation.” However, the brave souls at tomshardware.com put all the information together and this is what came out of it.
15th place - Cossacks: European Wars
Cossacks was released in 2001 and took its place among the classic RTS. The variety of troops and factions, the excellent depiction of weapons for those times, as well as epic battles in which up to 8,000 combat units could simultaneously participate - all this distinguished Cossacks from other games in the genre. Creators - GSC Game World.
Circulation: 4 million copies
14th place - Diablo II
The second part of Diablo was released in 2000. After the first two weeks, more than 1 million copies were sold, for which Diablo 2 was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the fastest-selling game. An absolute classic of the genre, combining the possibility of an endless grinder with progression through the plot and leveling up the selected character. Apparently, Blizzard Entertainment will release the 3rd part of this great game in May.
Circulation: 4 million copies
13th place - Counter-Strike
Valve released their masterpiece back in 1999 as one of the modifications for Half-Life. And until now CS is one of the most popular games in many countries. It hardly makes sense to tell eSports fans what CS is, since many began their gaming career with this game in cozy computer clubs.
Circulation: 4.2 million copies
12th place - StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty
The continuation of the famous StarCraft was released in 2010. Changes in graphics and gameplay were condemned for a long time by fans of the first part of the game, but time has shown that the developers did everything in good faith. According to many, it was the release of StarCraft II that raised the bar for eSports to a new level.
Circulation: 4.5 million copies
11th place - Riven
This game was released in 1997 by the Miller brothers. It became a continuation of Myth and differed from the original with improved graphics and more complex puzzles. However, the glory of the original could not be surpassed.
Circulation: 4.5 million copies
10th place - World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
The game was released in 2011 by the same Blizzard Entertainment as one of the additions to the original WoW. The game is the most popular MMORPG in the world; currently the number of subscribers exceeds 10 million people. The fantasy world of WarCraft has become a home for many.
Circulation: 4.7 million copies
9th place - Half-Life
One of the best first person shooter games. When Valve released Half-Life in 1998, more than 40 gaming publications voted it the best game of the year. Thanks to ingenious solutions in the development of levels, gameplay and AI, the game has received cult status.
Circulation: 5 million copies for PC (9.3 million copies for all platforms)
8th place - SimCity 3000
This is the third game in the SimCity series, which is the most successful in the genre of city life simulators. Compared to previous parts, SimCity 3000, released in 1999, stood out in terms of graphics and more complex circuits work of some industries, especially those related to waste processing and disposal. Developer - Electronic Arts.
Circulation: 5 million copies
7th place - Battlefield 3
Relatively a new game on the list. The third part of the famous Battlefield series was released in 2011. Electronic Arts relied on stunning graphics and multiplayer. And although the plot single player Because of this, it was somewhat blurred, the game received the highest praise both from gaming publications and from the gamers themselves.
Circulation: over 5 million copies (over 11 million across all platforms)
6th place - MineCraft
Another new product that came out just last year. Developers from Sweden invited players to create their own world from cubes, embodying their imagination in unknown architectural forms. Thanks to its uniqueness and simplicity, literally in a year the number of registered users of the game reached 24 million.
Circulation: 5.3 million copies
5th place - Half-Life II
The second part of the cult game was released in 2004. During the year, Half-Life 2 collected about 40 awards for the title of “best game of the year.” A new engine, brilliantly executed animation of the world, advanced AI - thanks to this, the second part of the series still remains on the first line of the most highly rated first-person shooters.
Circulation: over 6 million copies (12 million across all platforms)
Is there a perfect recipe for releasing a great game and selling it in record numbers? Judging by the best-selling games in history, no. Here we will talk about the first-person shooters Battlefield and Call of Duty, and about the Minecraft world constructor, and about the GTA V prostitute murder simulator.
And now a riddle: what was the best-selling game in history? I'm sure most of you can handle it easily. But the answer is still at the end of the article.
World of Warcraft
The World of Warcraft game was released in 2004, by 2007 the number of users reached 8 million people, and in 2010 it exceeded 13 million. This is the most popular MMORPG in the world in terms of the number of subscribers, which is confirmed by an entry in the Guinness Book of Records. Throughout its history, more than 100 million accounts have been registered in the game, and the number of players fluctuates between 7 and 10 million people.
In October 2016, the fifteenth game in the series, Battlefield 1, based on the First World War, was released. Time will tell if it will make it to the list of best-selling games in the future.
Call of Duty
The success of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 became obvious in the first day after release, November 10, 2009. During the day, the developers set a record and sold 4.7 million copies of the game, surpassing Grand Theft Auto IV in this parameter. Seven years have passed since then, but the game still evokes the warmest feelings for many.
The game, on the contrary, caused indignation among deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation. At the beginning of 2010, during the spring session of the meeting, they began to discuss Call of Duty, proposing to equate the games with extremist materials. We were talking about scenes of violence, namely the murder of unarmed people at the airport in the game. The “No Russian” level has been removed in the Russian version.
In November 2010, the Call of Duty game: Black Ops broke the record of its predecessor - 5 million copies were sold in one day. Total sales of the game exceeded 26 million copies in 2012.
On November 12, 2011, Activision announced that a Call of Duty game had set a world sales record for the third year in a row. In just one day, 6.5 million copies were bought in the USA and England. Until 2013, 28.5 million copies were sold.
This game is dedicated to the end of World War III and is a sequel to Modern Warfare 2. Personally, I think this game is the best in the series. But this is my subjective opinion, perhaps tied, among other things, to a nostalgic mood towards her. It's still nice to sometimes turn on the survival battle mode with bots.
Pokémon Red, Blue, Green and Pokémon Gold and Silver
In 1996, Nintendo released Pokémon Red, Blue and Green in Japan for the Game Boy. These were the first games in the Pokemon series on the console. The three versions sold 23.64 million copies. As we can see, the popularity of Pokemon was already affecting the sales of video games, so the success of Pokemon Go is quite logical.
Let's remember what Pokemon Red looked like on Game Boy in 1996. With such graphical capabilities then it was necessary to create excellent gameplay. Or is the main thing to choose the right characters, what do you think?
Two new versions of Pokémon Gold and Silver were released in 1999 on the Game Boy and Game Boy Color. They couldn't match the success of their predecessors, but still sold 23 million copies, making them some of the best-selling video games in history.
To the 151 types of Pokemon from previous versions, 100 more were added, bringing the total number of characters to 251. To collect all the Pokemon, it was not enough to go through one game - for example, Gold. Users needed to exchange Pokemon with players of the Silver version, as well as older games.
Some more ear balm in the form of old 8-bit music in Pokemon Silver gameplay.
Nintendogs
Long before the goat simulator, but after the Tamagotchi, Nintendo decided to make a dog simulator for the DS console. From 2005 to 2011, Nintendogs sold 23.64 million copies.
In the game you need to take care of a dog, controlled using a touchscreen and microphone. You can communicate with other users using wireless communication between consoles.
Diablo III
The famous RPG Diablo III was released in 2012. The game set a record for daily sales of games for personal computers - 3.5 million per day. Sales reached 6.3 million copies in the first week, and 30 million copies were sold in total. Perhaps if Diablo III were released on several platforms at once, it would break Call of Duty's records.
Diablo III received a warm welcome, but fans who played previous versions decided that the atmosphere was not the same. The colors are too bright, not enough gothic, and so on. In this regard, they put forward a petition to Blizzard demanding to change color scheme. The company refused.
Below is the trailer for Diablo III: Reaper of Souls.
Super Mario
Any ranking like this should have Super Mario. If we were talking about gaming franchises, this character would be at the top. Super Mario Bros. game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (in Russia read “for Dendy”) it sold 40.24 million copies.
The game was made into an anime, a strange 1993 feature film, and, of course, porn, in which Ron Jeremy took part. Nintendo had to buy the rights to two porn films in order to bury them forever. But Youtube remembers at least such a small cut without, in fact, the main action.
The list of best-selling games in history includes Mario Kart Wii, New Super Mario Bros., New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Each of these games sold at least 23 million copies. But the total sales of all games in the franchise are 528 million units.
Grand Theft Auto V
The GTA series owes much of its popularity to the ability to move freely around the world and do whatever you want. If you want, crush people, if you want, you carry out tasks, if you want, you kill prostitutes. Because of the latter, the game Grand Theft Auto V was even banned in Australia.
The game was released in September 2013 on seventh generation consoles, in 2014 on eighth generation consoles and in 2015 on personal computers.
The PC version with 60 FPS and Full HD turned out amazing.
The game's advertising campaign went off with a bang and a scandal. In the poster below you can easily recognize Lindsay Lohan; moreover, the game has a mission where you need to save a character with a biography similar to Lohan’s from the paparazzi. But on the covers of the game it’s not a famous actress, but model Shelby Welinder. The actress sued Rockstar and lost.
In total, the game sold 65 million copies.
The predecessor to GTA V, the fourth part of Grand Theft Auto, released in 2008, sold 25 million copies. She was never able to overtake Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 2004 with 27.5 million sales. You can remember your childhood with San Andreas today on Android, but you will have to pay more than five hundred rubles. It’s blasphemous to profit from nostalgia like that.
Welcome to the Jungle - Guns"n"Roses are invited to GTA: San Andreas.
Wii Sports
The Wii Sports action game went on sale in November 2006 and has sold over 82 million copies. The recipe for success turned out to be simple - the game was delivered directly in the box with the Nintendo Wii console in all countries except Japan.
The game received various awards for its innovative gameplay. This collection of five sports simulators involves motion control using controllers.
Mobility in the game has become a double-edged sword. On the one hand, people began to get off the couch and spend time together exciting games. On the other hand, televisions suffered from this.
Controllers flying out of hands was not uncommon. After all, each of the sports in the set - tennis, baseball, bowling, golf and boxing - involves active swinging of the arms. You can simply forget that the bowling ball is rolling inside the game and try to knock down the pins with the plastic thing in your hand.
Minecraft
So beloved by the young Minecraft generation sold 107 million copies. In 2011, Swedish programmer Markus Persson, who founded Mojang, released it on Windows, OS X and Linux. A few months later it was released on Android, iOS, and then moved to the Xbox 360 and One game consoles, PlayStation 3, 4 and Vita. In 2014, Microsoft bought the Minecraft developer for two billion dollars.
The game has become one of the most popular in the world. In total, more than 107 million copies were sold. But why did it become popular in the first place? Why do schoolchildren love her so much and constantly make videos on YouTube?
Perhaps, as in the case of GTA, the openness of the game world plays a big role. Minecraft gives room for imagination and creativity. You can hunt, you can build buildings and cities, or blow things up. And all - in a world similar to Lego. And almost everyone loves Lego.
Tetris
On June 6, 2016, Tetris turned 32 years old. This game has been on almost all gaming platforms, as well as on graphing calculators and media players. They want to make a sci-fi feature film based on it in China. Moreover, this will be done by American producer Lawrence Casanova, who is responsible for the film “True Lies”, and also took part in several animated television projects for Lego.
What about a calculator, you could play Tetris on the wall of a skyscraper
The game was created by Soviet programmer Alexey Pajitnov. The name comes from "tetromino" and "tennis". "Tetraminoes" are geometric figures of four squares. There are seven such figures in Tetris. The pieces fall into a glass 10 squares wide and 20 squares high. The goal is to collect a horizontal row of 10 cells that then disappear.
Over the history of the game, it has not only been ported to all sorts of platforms, but also the rules have been changed, complicated, and improved. Tetris was made three-dimensional, it was colored and black and white, with a variety of musical accompaniments. They even sell “physical” Tetris. In 2009, designer Andrew Liszewski began selling his 360-degree version, in which a figure appears in the center and then falls to whichever side the player chooses by flipping the console.
Atari bought the rights to use the game in slot machines. Nintendo received the rights to port it to the NES and Game Boy. Then, in the late 1980s, the game came to Sega. And in 1996, Pajitnov founded the Tetris Company to start receiving money for his invention. In 2014, Tetris Company announced a deal to port the game to XboX One and PlayStation 4.
As of 2014, the number of mobile installations of the game was 425 million, 35 million on Game Boy, plus about 70 million copies were sold. It is difficult to say how many unlicensed cartridges and devices with this game were sold.
So Tetris is not just a leader, but an absolute leader with a huge advantage.
Let's now talk about your favorite games. It doesn't matter how many copies of these games were sold. What did you like to play in the past, and what do you still play now?
