The Cambridge Dictionary's definition of the word "influential" is to have "a lot of influence on someone or something"; a suggestion that to be influential, you need to be at least a couple of years old and have clearly inspired something — not just be a really good game.
Voters who took part in BAFTAs' "The Most Influential Video Games of All Time" list did not understand that, though, as the 21-game countdown includes some incredibly questionable titles and debatable positions for the industry's best.
According to the public vote, the 21 most influential video games ever made are:
- Shenmue
- DOOM
- Super Mario Bros.
- Half-Life
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
- Minecraft
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
- Super Mario 64
- Half-Life 2
- The Sims
- Tetris
- Tomb Raider
- PONG
- Metal Gear Solid
- World of Warcraft
- Baldur's Gate 3
- Final Fantasy VII
- Dark Souls
- Grand Theft Auto III
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- Grand Theft Auto
The list contains a lot of the games you'd typically see be recognised in such a category, such as Super Mario 64, Metal Gear Solid, and Final Fantasy VII. However, direct your attention to the title in seventh position and the legitimacy of the list falls apart: Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.
An excellent RPG from Warhorse Studios, but at only 60 days old (released on 2nd February 2025), it is impossible for it to be considered "influential" in any capacity. Given how long game development takes, it can't have influenced anything yet!
The same goes for Baldur's Gate 3: despite its very obvious qualities, it hasn't been available long enough (roughly 18 months) to have influenced anything yet. Its impact will almost certainly be felt in the future, but give it a couple more years first.
While the BAFTA corporation will have obviously wanted its voters to take into account the influence of the titles they choose, it's clear some of this simply became a popularity contest. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 shouldn't be anywhere near this kind of list — especially as high as seventh!
As for Shenmue being the most influential video game ever made, the Dreamcast classic did indeed change how worlds could be interacted with and structured. Every NPC had their own lives to lead and interactions were only possible at certain times, and you needed to be there or things could be missed. It also popularised quick-time events, and enhanced features like the day and night cycle.
What's your take on this list? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
[source bafta.org]
Comments 54
GTA and Half life being on there twice is silly, the Sims shouldn't be any where on the list, as much as I love KCD2 (personal 10/10) that also shouldn't be on here either. And maybe the hottest take Space invaders > Pong.
Edit: Thinking about it some more, Resident Evil 4 has to be on the list as it LITERALLY changed the face of 3rd person shooters.
KC2??? This is why regular people can't vote for awards like Oscars and stuff because regular people are too stupid to be allowed such a privilege. KC2 is GOTY worthy but its influenced jack.
Shenmue at #1 is absolutely hilarious, awful games, never understand why some people have such nostalgia vision for such a lacking series.
@DonJorginho You wash your mouth out with a bar of soap!
Where is Street Fighter? Virtually every fighting game since follows it's template. Metroid/Castlevania created a genre. Assassin's Creed and Far Cry created hundreds of open world games with towers and map icons. All these are more INFLUENTIAL than many games on this list.
I don't think GTA has actually been that influential by comparison to others. There certainly aren't many games built in it's image. Saint's Row? Sleeping Dogs? Watch Dogs? Mostly dead IPs
Any such list without Super Metroid is questionable for me.
I have the same reaction seeing this list here as I did on Pure Xbox. Incredulity.
Hilarious list is hilarious.
@DonJorginho April fools is over.
GTA should be way higher, probably at no. 1, the whole industry avoids releasing their game against GTA and so far every entry set a new bar. Thats the most influence you can have
@DonJorginho I platinumed both Shenmue 1 and 2 having barely played the original on DC back in the day.
They are fun but also complete trash games. Agreed that beyond QTE's nothing about them is that influential really. They aren't open world in the way people say, the clockwork nature of them wasn't new either. Very dated and clunky.
Also what is the one thing Shenmue defenders like to say? "There is nothing quite like Shenmue" and while I agree isn't that also the complete opposite of Influential lol
@BlaizeV Shenmue influenced a lot of games that came after most notably 3D GTA and Yakuza.
@DonJorginho Its impact on open world games can't be denied. The Yakuza wouldn't even exist without it.
@themightyant I think you have down played just how influential GTA as a franchise is, I think you're in my age group so you must remember the impact GTA 3 had when it came out.
@Oram77 Perhaps. But what games has it actually inspired outside the list I posted above? Mafia?
I'm sure there are smaller aspects of the game, or technological breakthroughs, that have been cribbed but I think it's influence is limited compared to something like Street Fighter.
@DonJorginho Totally agree, never saw what the appeal was with those games.
@themightyant Mafia indeed, but also Just Cause, True Crime, Crackdown, Yakuza. You could also see Prototype, InFamous, Spiderman as sort of Superhero GTA's. You could even argue it evolved into open-world games, since San Andreas is at least a hybrid between sandbox/open world imo.
@themightyant So we basing this off game play mechanics or cultural influence? Because if it's the latter then nothing is bigger than GTA expect maybe Pokemon.
@Oram77 That's a fair question. I was going with influence in game design, but I guess the question is open to interpretation.
@Nalim I think many of those were just as influenced by Shenmue and other games as GTA3. But they likely took something from it.
A baffling list in many respects some games i think that should have been on there
Resident evil: still the biggest survival horror franchise to this day
Halo: revolutionised FPS shooters on console and console online multiplayer
last of us: a game that delivered new heights in writing and storytelling in games
Fallout 3: I would argue this is the trail blazer of open world games that so many others since have followed even skyrim which made the list
This list was made by people who call video game consoles "Nintendos"
The problem with all of these surveys that are done by people who aren't critics is that 90% of people just see any analysis like this as "What is the best game".
In this case, its influential but you often get it in other awards, the GOTY often will win "Best Sound" which often isn't the case.
People love to hate on critics, but they actually thoughtfully analyse things. Also you don't have to agree with anything anyone says really, so why does it matter
The speed of everything thee days has to be a million miles an hour. The Gen X among us are still reeling from the likes of The Last Ninja and Monkey Island and Outrun. But lost in time as too retro for the post iPhone culture.
Endless debates can be had about the placement of certain games on that list, or the absence of this or that game. But I think we can all agree that having a 2 month old title as the 7th most influential game of all time is so ridiculous that nothing else on that list even matters.
Man! Good games on the list, I will say. The Shenmue at the top spot is more forced, imo, than KCD 2, even if it is so very young. Perhaps influence and potential to influence is a better way to look at the voting.
I could make a triad of little reasons as to why KCD 1+2 are the most influential games, and I don't think Shenmue was first to do anything game design-wise. It was a passion project with a small team iirc.
But I appreciate the viewpoint, and would love to read more about Shenmue. I think I started on 3 and stranded somewhere in the first area, not having played the two first seemed detrimental to my motivation even if the game tried to update me numerous times.
The historical attention, the design of the game world and the sheer mechanical genious of KCD 2 (and 1) comes to mind if I were to create an unsubstantiated triad of reasons for the top-10 position.
I know it's easy to knock, but it can't be denied that Fortnite is one of the most influential games of the last decade. It really shaped how you do live service and most other games have been playing catch up since.
Having the utterly dull Shenmue ahead of Super Mario 64 is quite sonething
Modern Warfare should without a doubt be part of such a list, although I honestly hated how every other first person shooter had to copy it for years afterwards.
Others who should be included: PUBG, Slay the Spire, Amnesia Dark Descent, Monster Hunter. Morrowind instead of Skyrim, Demon's Souls instead of Dark Souls.
@AaronBayne Yup, they introduced the now infamous "battlepass",
It’s especially confounding when that 60 day old game is taking the place of something like Sim City or Dune II or Police Quest or Quake or……😂
Got to be an Aprils fools joke right?........r-right?
@Nalim hear hear!. GTA has to be top. Also where is Wolfenstein 3D or was Doom first? I’m sure it was Wolf?
Shenmue walked so Yakuza could run to the local hostess club for a drink, inexplicably become the new manager of the establishment, and then take on an evil empire of other hostess clubs in the Cabaret Club Grand Prix.
@AaronBayne yup, first thing that came to mind. That and CoD.
No Chrono Trigger? No Resident Evil? No Halo? He'll I'd even argue TLoU deserves a spot. I see a lot of Shenmue hate. If you played that game when it first dropped it was a surreal experience. It changed the thought process of what a game could be.
Of “All Time”. Clearly missed out on some influential titles there besides Pong. Ultima series, Bards Tale, Flight Simulator, SM3. I’d even add ET for the 2600, yes it was a failure, but epic. Also no Myst?
If we’re talking about the modern games industry where the influences can still be seen(so no Pac-Man or space invaders for example) then:
Super Mario Bros.
Super Metroid
Zelda: A Link to the Past
Doom(/Wolfenstein)
Command and Conquer(/Dune)
Baldur’s Gate 2
Pokémon Red/Green
Metal Gear Solid
Resident Evil
Final Fantasy VII
Mario 64
GTAIII
Resident Evil 4
Dark Souls
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Probably forgot some
Edit: Half-Life 2(|over the first because of Physics), Halo: Combat Evolved(complicated, changed console shooters but zero influence on PC) PUBG & Minecraft(guess I have to include these 😅)
Wtf is Shenmue?
Half life is about where id put it tho.
Kcd2 has no business being on this list, yet alone so high.
@ChrisDeku Feel like half life was way more of a revolution for fps games than half life2, but truuue no dune/c&c on the original list wtf.
Some games on the list make sense.
And really? Baldur's Gate 3 and Kingdom Come 2? They haven't inspired anything yet and I'm not sure what influence BG3 would have since it's hardly done anything new for the CRPG genre. Even Kingdom Come 2, outside of its combat systems has hardly done anything new for open world RPGs. There doesn't seem to be many games influenced by the first KC game so I think that says it all.
And where's Ninja Gaiden, Metroid, Devil May Cry or Resident Evil? Not a single Castlevania? You can't add Dark Souls but ignore the very games that clearly influenced it (NG, Castlevania, Metroid).
No one can tell me that they don't see the Castlevania and Metroid influence especially with the first game having a interconnected world like a Metroidvania game and speaking of that, these two games created that genre just as Soulslike is named because of Demon's Souls inventing that.
Skyrim, what's that doing there? It wasn't innovative in any possible way and did nothing new apart from dumb down the genre. And if we can choose multiple games from a franchise, then I'd say the first Zelda game should be there for being one of the first games to popularise the open world formula.
No Deus Ex or System Shock either... honestly we need a bigger list than just 21 games.
We can do better...
PushSquare let's right this wrong and let us improve on it
@DennisReynolds I’d say to be #1 you have to do more than just inspire far better games by being an awful game, imo anyway.
@BlaizeV Exactly! I’m not saying there’s no fun value but when I played them personally it was more The Room levels of fun bad, it had some cool ideas but it should never even touch the top 10 here.
@NintendoBebop Indeed it is! So why is Shenmue #1?
@get2sammyb NEVER.
Most people I talk to who love the games even say they’re pretty bad, I totally get it inspired some great games like Yakuza, but that doesn’t mean it should even break the top 10!
All the power to those who love it though, we all have bad games we love
If a game is new, imagine that it represents the entire series before it and is simply the best representative.
Before we insult the people who voted on this ranking and explained to BAFTA why they think these games are very important for the industry, next time you vote too.
I only see good games on this list and Shenmue deserves this recognition. Due to the low popularity of the Dreamcast, very few people have played it. Hopefully this award has a positive effect on that and more people will try it and see for themselves what it's all about.
@themightyant Your mistake is that you think only third person shooters are influenced by GTA. The large scale switch from regular corridor games to open worlds began with GTA.
Reminds me of that list of top 10 or something iconic video game characters of all time that featured Lara Croft at the top and like 2 or 3 characters from Baldur's Gate III lol
This is ANTI-recency bias. Think of ALL the games KCD2 has influenced in its short time. Like..
..that's not the point!
Can we ban people disrespecting Shenmue plz
Shenmue was the first time I felt like I was wandering around a real place, the nostalgia is justified it seemed incredible at the time. Maybe not number one but still.
As far as fighting games are concerned, Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat should both get strong consideration, probably more to SF2, though, since it released first.
Diablo should be somewhere on the list. And what was the most influential roguelike? And Metroid/Castlevania should be on the list, too.
GTA 3 was hugely influential; GTA not as much. Driving/racing games? Maybe Pole Position.
@Resurrected-X460 Perhaps. But I think that’s subjective. There were plenty of 3D open worlds before GTA3 (2001) it was something developers had been trying for a decade through games like Hunter (1991), Elite 2: Frontier (1993), Elder Scrolls 2 (1996), Urban Chaos (1999) which is actually VERY similar to the GTA template. (Check out the gameplay here)
But around 1999-2005 the console hardware finally allowed developers to do open worlds with reasonable draw distances and not have the Silent Hill like fog to hide all the loading. GTA didn’t kick this off, the improvements in hardware did.
To be clear I think GTA was influential, no doubt, just less so that others I mentioned like Street Fighter that didn’t make the list. But it’s a subjective question.
People who voted for the new Kingdom Come Deliverance II, clearly do not understand the meaning of the word “Influential”.
These lists prove to me that either people have short memories, or I am getting old. Maybe both.
For me influential games are things like -
GTA 3
Broken Sword
Monkey Island
Duke Nukem 3D
Eye of the Beholder
Elite
As in, actually having had some influence on subsequent releases.
@themightyant
Good call with Urban Chaos.
That game was great. I had almost totally forgotten about that one.
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