The Games Most Often Cited as THE Best Ever

My ranking system deals in consensus rather than in polemics. For example, it is more beneficial for a game to be ranked at #10 on two lists than it is for a game to be ranked at #1 on one list and at #100 on another. However, dealing in extremes can also be interesting. To this end, I decided to see which games are most frequently cited as THE #1 greatest game ever. The results are after the jump.

Firstly, it should be noted that I am only looking at lists that include all systems / platforms, 'all time' lists (that is, no 'best of decade' lists), and lists that are ranked. Therefore, older games have a distinct advantage over recent ones. Additionally, this list will not correlate strongly with the top 200 in its current (as it includes a number of lists that were not in the database in the last update), or future (since the ranking system in this article is far more simplistic), form.

Below is every game with at least one #1 vote in my database. In brackets is the game's ranking in the most recent version of the 200 most acclaimed video games list.

Games with five (5) #1 votes:
Doom [17]
The Legend of Zelda [47]
Games with four (4) #1 votes:
Super Mario Bros. [30]
Tetris [2]
Games with three (3) #1 votes:
Half-Life [16]
Games with two (2) #1 votes:
Half-Life 2 [8]
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time [4]
Super Mario Bros. 3 [33]
Super Mario 64 [3]
Super Mario World [18]
Games with one (1) #1 vote:
Age of Empires II: Age of Kings [189]
Chrono Trigger [48]
Diablo [59]
Doom 2: Hell on Earth [N/A]
Grand Theft Auto III [56]
M.U.L.E. [147]
Master of Magic [N/A]
Nancy Drew: Danger on Deception Island [N/A]
Pac-Man [26]
Portal [41]
Quake 2 [N/A]
Secret of Mana [N/A]
Sid Meier's Civilization [1]
SimCity [20]
Space Invaders [42]
SunDog: Frozen Legacy [N/A]
Super Mario Bros. 2 [122]
Super Mario World 2 [90]
Super Metroid [15]
System Shock [166]
System Shock 2 [28]
Ultima IV [123]
Underwurlde [N/A]
Wing Commander [198]
Wizardry I [N/A]
Wizardry II [N/A]
Wizardry III [N/A]
Wolfenstein 3D [N/A]

General Notes

The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros. both have garnered several #1 votes, but still have a relatively low list placement. This is because, in addition to frequently being cited as the best game ever, both are also frequently left off of lists entirely. Naturally, this brings down their averages. Meanwhile, The most acclaimed video game of all time, Sid Meier's Civilization series, has only one #1 vote. (To be fair, it also has some #1 votes on PC only lists that are not included in the above tally.) However, it has eleven top 5 votes and probably appears on more lists than any other game. This trend is in keeping with the Civilization series' reputation as being 'everyone's second favorite game.' But, when one tries to build a consensus on the best video game ever, being a perennial runner-up pays off. Its aforementioned eleven top 5 placements is the most of any game, making it the clear consensus #1. Similarly, over half of the top 20 (eleven games in all) do not have a single #1 vote.

Moving from the obvious choices to the obscure, we have SunDog: Frozen Legacy. How obscure is this title? It has only ever appeared on one list, Ed del Castillo's -- of Command & Conquer fame -- top ten for GameSpy's 2001 poll, where it was ranked #1. The game itself was the first title developed by FTL Games, which would later go on to make the far less obscure Dungeon Master. The only other game among those receiving a number one vote that I would consider obscure is Underwurlde. It has appeared on three lists and was ranked #1 by Harvey 'Deus Ex' Smith in the same GameSpy poll.

A final note worth mentioning are those instances wherein a designer accounts for one of their own game's only number one vote. There are two cases of this. The first is Richard 'Lord British' Garriott, who ranked Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar as his #1 game in the aforementioned 2001 GameSpy poll. Nancy Drew: Danger on Deception Island was ranked #1 by Megan Gaiser -- president of the Nacny Drew series' developer Her Interactive -- in a feature for the PBS documentary The Video Game Revolution. In their defense, Garriott is certainly not the only person who might consider Ultima IV to be the best game ever (e.g., IGN's Hilary Goldstein). Likewise, the kind of people who might consider one of Her Interactive's Nancy Drew games -- which generally get good reviews and have sold over nine million copies globally -- the best ever (i.e., girls) are less prone to practice video game criticism and perhaps list making in general.

Ultimately, although an interesting diversion, number one votes alone make for a poor representation of the most critically acclaimed video games. Personal preferences are nuanced and contain several levels of appreciation that a simple tally of number one votes fails to account for. Therefore, although I am sure that many Zelda fans will disagree, it is far more sensible to take into account the entirety of a list rather than merely its top.