Let's Discuss! Top 10 gaming franchise of all time

[Shadow1980]

Shatts said:

Fair enough and understandable. Do you think you will change your list if it was "intellectual property" instead of "franchise"? 

If we did that, then we wouldn't be talking about franchises, because an "IP" can literally just be a single game.

Now, if we talked about the top ten games of all time based on similar criteria I listed before (e.g., impact on the industry, importance to gaming history, still enjoyed years after its release, long-term cultural relevance), the list might change up a bit, but it would consist mostly of older titles. Just to give a list of definite titles or strong contenders I would or might include in a Top 10 list, it would be (in release order; definite titles bolded)

Pac-Man
Super Mario Bros.
Tetris
The Legend of Zelda
Sonic the Hedgehog
Doom
Street Fighter II
Mortal Kombat
Final Fantasy VII
Pokemon Red/Green/Blue
Grand Theft Auto III
Halo CE
World of Warcraft

Now, I might be a bit more inclined to include games like League and Fortnite in such a list. Probably not in the Top 10, but likely in a Top 20. League has been popular for over a decade now, it popularized MOBAs, and it's a huge e-sport. Fortnite was, along with PUBG, instrumental in popularizing battle royale games & game modes. Hard to say if the popularity of those games or their genres will remain, especially with something as relatively new as Fortnite and BR games.

Jumpin said:

I strongly agree with this post. It should have more attention.

I mean, when talking about recent time in the recent industry, that’s one thing when mentioning games like Fortnite, but when considering the entire history of gaming, it’s a little premature to consider Fortnite one of the greatest franchises of all time.

When considering historical power as well, a sense of scale has to be considered. To use an analogy with human history: Do we discard Dynastic Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Romans as three of the greatest civilizations in history merely because they fell 1.5 to 2.5 thousand years ago? Or perhaps because they didn’t have the productivity of some modern nations? They were all major superpowers with significant staying power and cultural legacy extending far longer than modern countries. Just like human history, when considering the entire history of games, earlier times can’t be ignored.

One thing that's always bugged me about a lot of Top 10/20/30 "Greatest ___ of All-time" lists, especially when its just regular people voting, is the recency bias. So often these lists are inundated with recent titles that were really popular and/or acclaimed, but just because a game is popular now doesn't necessarily mean it will have the kind of long-term impact on the industry or the staying power of a certified classic like Super Mario Bros. There is a lot of well-regarded science fiction cinema and TV still being released, but how much of it, regardless of quality or current popularity, will be remembered 30+ years later in the same breath as classics like Star Wars, Star Trek, E.T., Blade Runner, Alien, or 2001: A Space Odyssey?

Also, a lot of popular games released over the past 5-10 years are free-to-play, which I would consider a huge caveat. Would they have been as popular if they were premium $60 titles instead of games that let players in the door at no charge and then try to squeeze money from them after the fact with microtransactions and seasonal DLC? Even if the game is legitimately fun for those that play them, I imagine the negligible barrier to entry is a huge factor. Some of them have remained popular for years now, but what about in another decade or two?

For example, Fortnite has been steadily bleeding population for the past couple of years, and while the remaining population is still high, if it continues on this path it could gradually fade away. If the game stops being profitable for Epic, they'll eventually just shut it down, and nobody will get to play it ever again (the eventual fate of every always-online game). While the game will probably be well-remembered by those who played it in its heyday, and it did result in the popularization of battle royale games (which may not stay popular forever; not only is Fortnite possibly past its peak, but PUBG has only a fraction of the players it did in 2017, and it seems to continually lose players), there's reason to be skeptical at the moment that it will be remembered decades later in the same way so many other classics have.