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 the DOS operating system. 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)

A multiplayer team game of the Multiplayer online battle arena genre, an implementation of the famous DotA map for the game Warcraft III in a separate client.

48. Angry Birds (2009)

A series of 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)

A multi-platform computer game in the third-person action and survival horror genres, 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 in the only possible way, without plot branches or 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. The player controls a 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)

An action-adventure Western from a third person with an 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)

A graphic quest about traveling through an 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 about 12 million copies worldwide and was the best-selling game for a long time.

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, and 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 around the world and hundreds of existing civil aviation aircraft of various types, from small single-seat gliders without an engine to 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 his protective power suit, which served as his faithful assistant and saved his life several times 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)

This Japanese role-playing game takes 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 in 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.

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 compile a selection of the best game ideas from nearly 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, nor Witcher, nor 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.

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

In October 2016, the fifteenth game in the series, Battlefield 1 based on the First World War, will be released. Time will tell if it will make it to the list of best-selling games in the future.

Call of Duty

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.

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

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?

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

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

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 the color scheme. The company refused.

Below is the trailer for Diablo III: Reaper of Souls.

Super Mario

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. But Youtube remembers at least such a small cut without, in fact, the main action.

Grand Theft Auto V

The game was released in September 2013 on seventh generation consoles, in 2014 on eighth generation consoles and in 2015 on personal computers.

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. It never surpassed 2004's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 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 game received various awards for its innovative gameplay. This collection of five sports simulators involves motion control using controllers.

Minecraft

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

What about a calculator, you could play Tetris

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 , 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?

Only registered users can participate in the survey. Come in, please.

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, Call of Duty: Black Ops broke the record of its predecessor - it sold 5 million copies 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 the 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. It never surpassed 2004's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 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 playing 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 younger generation, Minecraft has 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?

The sales level does not always indicate the quality of the game, and its success is measured not only in numbers. However, often these numbers indicate that the project turned out to be at least good. We've done some in-depth research using cutting-edge techniques (thanks, Google) and compiled a list of the best-selling PC games of all time. All data is based on statistics from the Statista service for January.

The list, as expected, includes both time-tested hits from Blizzard and Valve studios, as well as rather unexpected projects. Please note that we did not take into account sales of various add-ons for games already present in the selection. And although some of these DLC sold quite impressive copies, we focused exclusively on full-fledged games. There are also different parts of the same series missing. Otherwise, the entire list would be filled exclusively with games from the Sims series, and no one needs that. Now is the time to go through the selection.

Worldwide circulation: 2.96 million copies

Star Wars: The Old Republic created a huge buzz when it was released, so it's no surprise that it made the list. The vibrant MMORPG from Bioware developed the ideas laid down in the Knights of the Old Republic series, turning the world familiar to many into a full-fledged MMO.

A couple of months after its release, Old Republic acquired a shareware model, and all kinds of additions for the game are still being released to this day. However, the quality of Old Republic remains top notch, and you can sign up for free at any time and start your adventure.

Worldwide circulation: 3.61 million copies

The first Doom game became so popular that many offices banned it because their employees spent hours playing the game. Of course, everyone was looking forward to the sequel called Hell on Earth, which in the end did not disgrace the honor of the original. Doom II: Hell on Earth was in no way inferior to its predecessor and delighted with many innovations. There are still heated debates over which of the two parts was better.

In fact, the 1993 Doom may well have sold more widely than the sequel. But since at first the game had stripped-down shareware versions distributed free of charge, it is difficult to even imagine what the potential profit could be.

Worldwide circulation: 3.88 million copies

It took developer Bethesda a lot of time to create a truly iconic RPG within the Elder Scrolls series. Arena and Daggerfall acted as a test of the pen, and Morrowind and Oblivion are considered by many today to be among the best representatives of the RPG genre. Therefore, it is very logical that the fifth masterpiece from Bethesda eventually took pride of place in the list of best-selling games in the history of the industry.

Skyrim is a true landmark of the genre, setting the direction for all modern open world games. The price for the enhanced edition of the game is $59.99.

World circulation: 4.12 million copies

Half-Life is an iconic series. The game had a huge impact on the first-person shooter genre, and no one has yet managed to surpass it. Hence the impressive circulation. And despite the fact that Valve has released quite a few amazing projects, Half-Life is rightfully considered to be developed by this studio.

Half-Life is an incredibly fun adventure, and the game's sales once again confirm this.

Worldwide circulation: 4.21 million copies

Before the release of the MMO World of Warcraft, the gaming community enthusiastically played Warcraft. Each new entry in Blizzard's revolutionary RTS series was unique in its own way, but Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness turned out to be unique precisely in terms of sales.

The game was released in 1995 for the DOS operating system, but its well-developed mechanics ensured Warcraft II true immortality. If you love the RTS genre, but haven't played any of the Warcraft games before, then it's time to catch up.

Worldwide circulation: 4.84 million copies

And again we have a project from Blizzard (by the way, not the last on this list). More precisely, another sequel to the successful RTS from Blizzard. Interestingly, Starcraft ended up being noticeably more successful than Warcraft. Today it is one of the largest eSports disciplines, and Starcraft II, which was developed for 11 years, raised the bar for the quality of RTS games to a completely new level, improving all the advantages of the original tenfold.

In light of the news about the upcoming remake of the first part, it's time to refresh your memory and dive into the world of Starcraft II.

Worldwide circulation: 5.12 million copies

Yes, the photo under the title is not a screenshot from the 1982 game, but it is much nicer to look at. But the numbers under the title are the actual sales level of Microsoft Flight Simulator, released in 1982. This game was ported to the IBM operating system and used as a benchmark test to show that the computer was "100% compatible with the IBM OS." That’s why the game sold a decent amount of copies.

Since then, several new installments of Microsoft Flight Simulator have been released, each offering improved graphics, interface and controls. However, if you want to touch the real legend, you can find the original (albeit quite difficult).

Worldwide circulation: 5.14 million copies

The third game from Blizzard on the list. Despite the rather lukewarm reception from the public immediately after release, Diablo III sold more than 5 million copies. Following the formula of the very popular Diablo and Diablo II, the third part showed what a modern action-RPG should be, delighting gamers with exciting gameplay and chic graphics for those times.

At first, many were annoyed by the need to constantly connect to the Internet, without which the game refused to start, but since then this flaw has already been corrected.

Worldwide circulation: 6.29 million copies

Warcraft may have been the first, but World of Warcraft was much more successful in every way. This MMO is the main benchmark for all other games in the genre, as well as an integral part of popular culture. The game managed to appear even in such famous shows as 20/20 and South Park. Of course, the current version of World of Warcraft is not much like the original, but it is still very popular among PC gamers, which is why it managed to take second place on this list.

The days of Vanilla World of Warcraft are long gone, but many remember this particular version with warm nostalgia.

Worldwide circulation: 8.01 million copies

It is because of this game that we decided not to include various DLCs in the list, because otherwise more than half of the positions would be taken up by Sims variations. The Sims 3 turned out to be the most successful of all the parts, beating the legendary World of Warcraft by 2 million copies sold. Thanks to the insane popularity of The Sims 3, even people who previously stayed away from consoles (or PC games) turned into avid gamers.

Of course, The Sims is not for everyone, but the series should be respected at least for its resounding success.

The best of the best

These were the 10 best-selling PC games of all time. In different sources, information about their circulation may differ slightly from each other, but in general the picture looks exactly like this. These 10 projects deservedly hold the record for sales in the field of computer entertainment.