this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2025
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Gaming

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The most influential video game of all time - Bafta (www.bafta.org)
submitted 1 day ago by alyaza@beehaw.org to c/gaming@beehaw.org
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Video games’ influence on popular culture has never been more prevalent. Their effect is visible and audible in today’s music, across the world of TV and cinema, and on the catwalk. Even your favourite language-learning and fitness apps feature progression systems and rewards popularised by games. To reflect the medium’s universal impact, ahead of the 21st BAFTA Games Awards, we asked the public a provocative question : what is the most influential video game of all time?

As more than one responder said, it’s unfair to have to choose just one. Do you pick the pioneers that shaped the early days of the medium, the innovators that were ahead of their time, the ones that proved formative to your own creative journey, or simply the ones that made you most emotional? As might be expected, among the extraordinary number of responses we received was a staggering variety of games — ranging from titles that launched the industry to contemporary giants released mere months ago. The top ten alone spans multiple genres, from platformers to shooters, sandbox adventures to simulations.

So, without further ado, here are the public’s top 21: each of which, it’s fair to say, has had a seismic impact on games and those who play them…

the list, from most influential to least

  1. Shenmue
  2. DOOM
  3. Super Mario Bros
  4. Half Life
  5. Ocarina of Time
  6. Minecraft
  7. Kingdom Come Deliverance 2
  8. Super Mario 64
  9. Half Life 2
  10. The Sims
  11. Tetris
  12. Tomb Raider
  13. Pong
  14. Metal Gear Solid
  15. World of Warcraft
  16. Baldur's Gate 3
  17. Final Fantasy VII
  18. Dark Souls
  19. GTA 3
  20. Skyrim
  21. GTA
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[–] Bronzebeard@lemm.ee 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

You can tell this survey was filled out almost entirely by millennials by this collection. Almost all games that came out during their childhood or their young adult years, except those 2 they're playing right now. And pong.

[–] teawrecks@sopuli.xyz 1 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

To be fair, the video game industry is relatively young, and the games that built it to what it is today did come out during the years that correspond with millennial youthhood. If we made a list of most influential films today, a lot of them would be from the 40s and 50s, but that wouldn't be because a bunch of Silent Gens showed up to vote.

[–] Bronzebeard@lemm.ee 1 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Lol, what? Are you pretending like the late 90s was the infancy of gaming? The industry had already collapsed and rebounded like twice by then

[–] teawrecks@sopuli.xyz 1 points 14 hours ago

Do you believe that the film industry didn't start until the 40s and 50s? Of course not. The first "films" came out around 1900, but the technology was still improving, and the industry was still figuring itself out. It wasn't until the 20s that both had progressed enough for real "traditional" films could be made.

Similarly, the gaming industry collapsed and rebounded twice before the 90s because it wasn't getting off the ground. The tech wasn't there yet. So yes, if you look at a timeline of the gaming industry, it was objectively in its infancy until "like the late 90s". The same way the dotcom bubble came and went a decade before the vast majority of people even realized the internet had anything to offer them. I get that maybe you were in a nerdy little bubble of early adopters, but I'm talking about the world outside that bubble.

  • Note that revenue in ~1975 and ~1990 are basically the same. Industry revenue was mostly sideways for 20 years.
  • Then the 90s came. People shifted from arcades to handhelds, mobile, PC, the internet.
  • The number of games published per year increased significantly.
  • And an explosion of objectively "influential titles" were published in this era. Many of which are featured in Bafta's list. (Though obviously Rogue should be on there).