Top 10 Most Overrated Game Franchises

Ubisoft's open-world franchise has released 13 mainline games that all involve climbing towers, clearing map icons, and following NPCs at walking speed. Its pivot to RPG bloat with Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla traded the series' identity for 100-hour padding that exhausts rather than excites.

Game Freak's highest-grossing media franchise has coasted on nostalgia while delivering games with PS2-era visuals on modern hardware. Scarlet and Violet launched with performance so broken it was nearly unplayable, yet sold 24 million copies because the Pokemon brand is bulletproof.

EA's football franchise has been the same game with roster updates and a new number on the box for over a decade. Its $1.6 billion annual Ultimate Team revenue proves that sports fans will pay anything for marginal improvements and digital card packs with undisclosed odds.

Blasphemy to rank here, but Nintendo's adventure franchise is protected by a shield of nostalgia so thick that even mediocre entries like Skyward Sword and Tri Force Heroes get defended. Breath of the Wild was revolutionary, but claiming every Zelda game is a masterpiece is objectively false.

343 Industries has spent over a decade failing to recapture the magic Bungie created. Halo 4's divisive story, Halo 5's missing split-screen, and Halo Infinite's content drought have eroded the franchise to irrelevance, yet fans still treat Master Chief as gaming's messiah based on three Bungie-era games.

Square Enix's flagship RPG series has been in an identity crisis since Final Fantasy XIII, with each entry abandoning the last's mechanics. FFXV was an unfinished road trip, FFXVI was a God of War clone, and the franchise trades on legacy while struggling to define what a modern Final Fantasy should be.

Ubisoft's open-world shooter peaked with Far Cry 3 and has been reskinning the same outpost-clearing, tower-climbing formula for over a decade. Each entry adds a charismatic villain who appears for 15 minutes, a massive empty map, and the same weapon crafting loop fans have played since 2012.

EA's exclusive NFL license has killed all competition, allowing Madden to release yearly roster updates with minimal innovation since 2005. Its Franchise mode has been neglected for a decade in favor of Madden Ultimate Team monetization, and players buy it annually because there is literally no alternative.

Square Enix and Disney's crossover franchise has a plot so incomprehensible that understanding it requires playing games on six different platforms with titles like "358/2 Days" and "Dream Drop Distance." Its fans insist the story is genius while being unable to coherently explain it to anyone.

Ubisoft's open-world franchise has released 13 mainline games that all involve climbing towers, clearing map icons, and following NPCs at walking speed. Its pivot to RPG bloat with Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla traded the series' identity for 100-hour padding that exhausts rather than excites.

Game Freak's highest-grossing media franchise has coasted on nostalgia while delivering games with PS2-era visuals on modern hardware. Scarlet and Violet launched with performance so broken it was nearly unplayable, yet sold 24 million copies because the Pokemon brand is bulletproof.

EA's football franchise has been the same game with roster updates and a new number on the box for over a decade. Its $1.6 billion annual Ultimate Team revenue proves that sports fans will pay anything for marginal improvements and digital card packs with undisclosed odds.

Blasphemy to rank here, but Nintendo's adventure franchise is protected by a shield of nostalgia so thick that even mediocre entries like Skyward Sword and Tri Force Heroes get defended. Breath of the Wild was revolutionary, but claiming every Zelda game is a masterpiece is objectively false.

343 Industries has spent over a decade failing to recapture the magic Bungie created. Halo 4's divisive story, Halo 5's missing split-screen, and Halo Infinite's content drought have eroded the franchise to irrelevance, yet fans still treat Master Chief as gaming's messiah based on three Bungie-era games.

Square Enix's flagship RPG series has been in an identity crisis since Final Fantasy XIII, with each entry abandoning the last's mechanics. FFXV was an unfinished road trip, FFXVI was a God of War clone, and the franchise trades on legacy while struggling to define what a modern Final Fantasy should be.

Ubisoft's open-world shooter peaked with Far Cry 3 and has been reskinning the same outpost-clearing, tower-climbing formula for over a decade. Each entry adds a charismatic villain who appears for 15 minutes, a massive empty map, and the same weapon crafting loop fans have played since 2012.

EA's exclusive NFL license has killed all competition, allowing Madden to release yearly roster updates with minimal innovation since 2005. Its Franchise mode has been neglected for a decade in favor of Madden Ultimate Team monetization, and players buy it annually because there is literally no alternative.

Square Enix and Disney's crossover franchise has a plot so incomprehensible that understanding it requires playing games on six different platforms with titles like "358/2 Days" and "Dream Drop Distance." Its fans insist the story is genius while being unable to coherently explain it to anyone.