Loading page
Preview data: all rankings, scores, votes, refresh labels, methodology, testing and editorial-process statements in Top 49 are illustrative demo content, not live measurements or documented reviews.
Entertainment
Video Games
Four decades of interactive design
Ranked on design ambition, mechanical polish and the degree to which a title became a template others copied. Launch-day state matters — games that shipped broken carry that penalty even after patches.
2Ranked lists
34Entries scored
507KReader votes
Top of the category
Top 49 Video Games of All Time
Four decades of design ambition, judged against what actually shipped
Rank 01
Super Mario Bros.
Nintendo · 1985
Miyamoto built a physics engine out of a single jump arc and taught an entire generation to read a 2D screen for hidden depth. Released two years after the 1983 crash, it single-handedly convinced retailers video games were not a fad.
95.6/100 Top 49 scoreRank 02
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Nintendo · 1998
Miyamoto and Aonuma solved the problem of 3D combat by inventing Z-targeting, a lock-on system so intuitive that virtually every action game made since has some version of it.
94.0/100 Top 49 scoreRank 03
Tetris
Alexey Pajitnov · 1984
Pajitnov built it on a Soviet government computer with no thought of commercial release, and the legal fight over its rights afterward is nearly as dramatic as the puzzle logic itself, which needed zero revision to remain perfect four decades later.
92.1/100 Top 49 score
2 lists
Every Video Games ranking
Each list states its own criteria and cadence. Most recent data refresh: 1 Jul 2026.
Entertainment
Related categories
Film, television, music, games and the stories in between.
Explore more of Top 49
Top 49 rankings are editorial. Scores are produced from the published criteria on each list and are refreshed on the cadence stated there. Figures shown across this section are curated demonstration data.