pwnRank v3, the first rankings update of 2016, is now live, so we thought we’d shed a little light on the changes from v2.2.

This latest update brought along a moderate shake-up in the Top 10. Games 1-5 remained the same, with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remaining your overwhelming defending champion, but there were several changes beyond that.

• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past jumped up to #6 (prev. #9).
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim moved up one spot to #7.
• Goldeneye 007 took a tumble to #8 (prev. 6).
• Super Mario World remained at #10.
• The biggest jump in the Top 10 was Resident Evil 4 catapulting to #9 (prev. 16).
• Super Mario Bros. fell out of the Top 10, from #7 to #12.
• Games on the Top 10 bubble: Metal Gear Solid, Super Mario Bros., Halo

Notable changes in the Top 25:

• Metal Gear Solid moved to #11 (prev. #14).
• Halo jumped up to #13 (prev. #15).
• Red Dead Redemption flew up to #15 (prev. #20).
• The Last of Us moved up to #17 (prev. #21), and is the highest ranked game 2013 and newer.
• Chrono Trigger moved ahead 5 spots to #19.
• The biggest loser in the Top 25 was Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, which plummeted from #11 to #24. Ouch.
• Games on the Top 25 bubble: Super Metroid, Portal, Shadow of the Colossus

Notable changes in the Top 100:

• Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater leapt to #47 (prev. 56). Looks like people are reminiscing about glorious MGS memories of old, after playing Phantom Pain.
• Pac-Man moved up five spots to #57. This is surprising, given the fact that older games typically start to fade with the introduction of new games and lists. Pac-Man ftw.
• Sonic the Hedgehog took a dive to #61 (prev. 54).
• Journey jumped up to #64 (prev. 72).
• The Secret of Monkey Island cannon-balled it’s way past 24 spots, reaching #66.
• The Sims fell ten spots to #74.
• Halo 3, a pwnRank favorite, fell to #77 (prev. 68), now trailing Halo 2 (#73). That part does make sense.
• Civilization jumped eight spots to #84.
• The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind stepped off of the ledge, moving up to #89 (prev. #100).
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt became the first game from 2015 to join the Top 100 party. It’s now ranked #92 (prev. #117).
• Tomb Raider (1996) jumped up twenty spots to #96 (prev. #116).
• And after fixing a scoring mishap, Star Wars: TIE Fighter is rightfully in the Top 100, listed at #99.
• Games on the Top 100 bubble: Shenmue, Final Fantasy Tactics (prev. #94), Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Mass Effect 3 (prev. #89), Super Smash Bros. Brawl (prev. #85)

Notable games entering the Top 500 for the first time: Fallout 4, Duck Hunt, Streets of Rage 2, Life is Strange, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, R-Type, Manic Miner, Bubble Bobble, Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, FIFA 14, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, The Curse of Monkey Island

For a complete look at all games in the Top 500, check pwnFilter 500.

As a quick refresher for those who are new to pwnRank, our “Top 100 Video Games of All-Time” and “pwnFilter 500” (a filtered view of the top 500 games), are calculated based on relevant “top game” lists found around the web, and even some print sources. We are currently pulling data from 88 lists. It’s a long and boring story as to how it all works, but if you’re interested, you can learn more about the process here.

The first thing that some pwnRank devotees may notice is that the overall pwnScore has dropped across the board. This is due to the fact that all lists prior to 2016 are now calculated as one year older, therefore making them slightly less valuable (as part of the scoring algorithm).

“So other than the everything getting one year older, what else changed?” you might ask. Typically, with a pwnRank update, there are two to three factors in play.

First, we scour the web for any credible lists that we might not already be using (and also get great tips for pwnRank followers) and decide whether or not what we find matches up with our criteria for inclusion. If a list matches up, we add it to the system. These new ranks apply points to the games that appear in the lists.

The second factor deals with a set of “dynamic” lists that we use. They are always changing; usually due to ongoing fan voting or ratings. There are also a couple others, such as the gaming awards list, and overall game sales. At the time of the update, we take those updated numbers, and plug them into the system.

The third factor would be the aforementioned issue of a change in the active year. This is only a factor when an update occurs after the calendar flips.

Enough with the boringness of how the system works. Here’s a look at the new lists that were added:

Best Selling Games of All-Time
by VGChartz (2016)

You might recall that we had previously been using this list, but dropped it due to some negative reports about the way VGChartz calculates their data. Instead, we switched to the Wikipedia entry for top-selling games. The problem is that Wikipedia only references about 40 games, and their numbers are coming from various sources, which are also virtually impossible to track.

Using VGChartz allows us to grab the Top 100 best-selling games, thus providing more usable and diverse data. We also checked back into some of the potential issues, and while it’s impossible to say how completely accurate all of their numbers are, we deemed them credible enough to work into the rankings. Due to the fact that not all game sales numbers are made public, and some forecasting/estimating is required, we don’t give this list a top level core value.

Note: If you’ve ever visited VGChartz, you’ll notice that they do a great job of breaking out each game into different platforms. That doesn’t work well for our purposes however, as we need total numbers for each game across all platforms, so we do quite a bit of work on our own, compiling that data, and condensing it down. The resulting rankings are based on each game across all reported platforms.


The 50 most important PC games of all time
by PC Gamer (2016)

This is a great list put out by PC Gamer, which emphasizes importance to video game history. Many have said that you can’t mix “nostalgia” and “history” with “greatest” and “best”, but that’s not our philosophy with pwnRank. Being a video game hall of fame of sorts, we take into account everything that makes games great. That being the case, we love lists like this. They bring up great memories from the past, and remind us of the shoulders that the amazing games of today are standing on.

Note: Being that this is a PC-based list, it does not hold a full core value, as it inherently excludes console-only games from being included. However, many games listed in PC-only lists do platform-hop, so you end up with a good mix.

We also updated the dynamic lists, and that included an entry for the most awarded video game in 2015; The Witcher 3 (based on the “List of Game of the Year Awards” entry on Wikipedia). We compile that data as well, to provide a single (or tied) winner for each year that includes reported awards.

A few other recent releases started popping up in some of the dynamic lists as well, including Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Fallout 4 and Undertale.