2000s
26 games
Resident Evil 4
Shinji Mikami reinvented the series with an over-the-shoulder camera that every third-person shooter...
Shadow of the Colossus
Fumito Ueda created a game about loneliness and sacrifice with only 16 boss fights and no regular en...
World of Warcraft
Peak subscribers hit 12 million in 2010. The South Park episode Make Love, Not Warcraft was its cult...
Grand Theft Auto III
Changed gaming forever by proving 3D open worlds worked. Over 14 million copies sold. Created the mo...
Portal
The cake is a lie became one of gamings most famous memes. GLaDOS is one of the greatest villains in...
BioShock
Ken Levine created a philosophical FPS set in the underwater city of Rapture. The twist about Would ...
Halo: Combat Evolved
The game that made Xbox a legitimate console. Master Chief became Microsofts Mario. Over 6.5 million...
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Transformed Call of Duty from WWII to modern warfare. The All Ghillied Up mission is one of the grea...
League of Legends
Over 150 million monthly active players. The World Championship finals draw more viewers than the Su...
Counter-Strike
Started as a Half-Life mod by Minh Le and Jess Cliffe. The most important competitive FPS ever made....
Super Smash Bros Melee
The most technically demanding fighting game ever at the competitive level. Still played at EVO afte...
Civilization IV
Sid Meiers series defined the 4X genre. One more turn is a universal experience. Over 3 million copi...
The Sims
Will Wright created the best-selling PC game of all time at that point. Over 200 million copies acro...
Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2
The soundtrack defined a generation of skate culture. Over 5 million copies. The create-a-skater and...
Wii Sports
Bundled with the Wii and sold 82 million copies. Got grandmothers bowling in living rooms. The motio...
Angry Birds
Over 500 million downloads. Spawned movies, merchandise, and theme parks. Saved Rovio from bankruptc...
Diablo II
The loot system defined the genre. The necromancer was so popular Blizzard brought him back in the r...
Star Wars: KOTOR
The twist about Revan is one of gamings greatest surprises. Over 3 million copies. The d20 combat sy...
Braid
Jonathan Blows time-manipulation platformer. Over 500,000 copies. Kickstarted the indie game movemen...
Spelunky
Derek Yu created the procedural generation template. Over 2 million copies. Every run is different. ...
Roblox
Over 70 million daily active users. Generated over 2 billion dollars in revenue in 2023. Players cre...
Metroid Prime
Texas based Retro Studios took Metroid into first person, a move fans initially feared. The scan vis...
Silent Hill 2
James Sunderland receives a letter from his dead wife asking him to meet her in Silent Hill. The tow...
Half-Life 2
Gordon Freeman returns to City 17, ruled by the alien Combine. The Source engine brought realistic p...
Super Mario Galaxy
Mario leaps between small planets with their own gravity, running around spheres and upside down. Th...
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Nathan Drake hunts for the lost fleet of Marco Polo and the hidden city of Shambhala. Set pieces lik...