Top 10 Most Influential Video Games of All Time

Grand Theft Auto V earned over $1 billion in revenue within its first three days—the fastest entertainment product of any kind to reach that milestone at the time. Developed by Rockstar North and released in 2013, it has sold over 200 million copies as of 2023, making it the second best-selling game behind only #1 Minecraft. Its multiplayer component, GTA Online, continues to generate hundreds of millions in annual revenue more than a decade after launch, and the game has been re-released on three console generations. That $1 billion in 72 hours is 30% faster than the typical blockbuster game's first-week revenue.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time holds a Metacritic score of 99/100—the highest ever recorded for any video game—and is the most frequently cited candidate for greatest game ever made by industry publications including IGN, Edge, and Time. Its Z-targeting lock-on combat system became the standard for 3D action-adventure games and remains in use 25 years later. Sold over 7.6 million copies on the Nintendo 64, it has been re-released on GameCube, Wii Virtual Console, and Nintendo 3DS. With a 99 Metacritic, it outperforms #4 The Last of Us by 4 points, and its 7.6 million sales on a single platform represent a higher attach rate than any other title on this list.

The Last of Us won over 200 Game of the Year awards—more than any single title had ever received—and is widely regarded as a turning point in cinematic narrative storytelling for video games. Released by Naughty Dog in 2013, its 2020 sequel, The Last of Us Part II, won the most GOTY awards of any game that year. The franchise was adapted into an acclaimed HBO series in 2023 starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, becoming one of the highest-rated debut seasons in HBO history. Its 200+ GOTY wins surpass #3 Ocarina of Time's estimated 50 awards by a factor of four, cementing its narrative influence.

Tetris is the second-best-selling video game franchise of all time with over 520 million copies sold across approximately 220 versions on at least 70 different platforms. Designed by Soviet engineer Alexey Pajitnov in 1984, its 1989 Game Boy bundle drove Nintendo's handheld to success, proving puzzle games had mass-market appeal beyond core audiences. The documented "Tetris effect"—players visualising falling blocks after play—is a cognitive phenomenon studied in sleep research. Outsold only by #6 Super Mario Bros., which has moved 800 million units, Tetris nonetheless demonstrated that a simple geometric challenge could achieve universal cultural penetration, surpassing every other title on this list in sheer platform ubiquity.

Super Mario Bros. single-handedly revived the North American video game industry after the catastrophic 1983 crash and established the side-scrolling platformer as the dominant 8-bit genre. Designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and released in 1985, it made Mario the most recognised video game character worldwide. The Super Mario franchise has sold over 800 million units globally, making it the best-selling video game franchise in history. With that figure, it outpaced #5 Tetris by 280 million copies, a gap that highlights Mario's unparalleled cultural and commercial impact, particularly in platforming, where it set a template still followed today.

Doom essentially invented the first-person shooter as a mainstream genre and pioneered networked deathmatch multiplayer. Released by id Software in 1993, an estimated 10–20 million copies were distributed as shareware, making it one of the most-installed PC games of the 1990s. Its 2.5D pseudo-3D graphics engine was so revolutionary that "Doom clone" became industry shorthand for the entire FPS genre for years. The engine technology by John Carmack influenced every 3D game that followed, including #8 Half-Life 2's Source engine, though Half-Life 2 later refined physics-based immersion. Doom's raw, visceral multiplayer model remains a direct ancestor of today's online shooters.

Half-Life 2 holds a Metacritic score of 96/100 and won over 39 individual Game of the Year awards—a record at its 2004 release. Valve's Gravity Gun and Source engine physics set a new benchmark for environmental gameplay and immersive simulation in first-person shooters, directly influencing the Bioshock, Portal, and Dishonored franchises. The game also anchored the launch of Steam, which now controls 75% of the PC gaming market. Its critical acclaim surpasses that of any other title on this list: the combined Game of the Year awards of #5 Tetris and #6 Super Mario Bros. do not match Half-Life 2's tally, underscoring its unprecedented recognition from critics.

FromSoftware's 2011 action RPG defined the "Soulslike" subgenre — a category of punishing, atmosphere-driven games that has since been adopted across the industry by studios including Sekiro, Nioh, and The Surge. The Dark Souls series has shipped over 39 million copies worldwide, and FromSoftware's 2022 spiritual successor Elden Ring, co-designed with George R.R. Martin, won virtually every major Game of the Year award and sold 25 million copies in its first year. Dark Souls' design philosophy — environmental storytelling, player self-determination, and earned difficulty — has become a graduate-level subject in game design curricula.

Blizzard Entertainment's 2004 massively multiplayer RPG peaked at 12 million active subscribers in 2010 — the highest ever for any MMORPG — and generated over $9.23 billion in revenue by 2017, making it the highest-grossing video game of all time at that point. It popularised the subscription model, the raid-based endgame loop, and the social guild structure that virtually every online RPG since has replicated. Its cultural footprint extended to a 2006 South Park episode, academic studies on virtual economies, and a 2016 feature film that grossed $433 million worldwide.