Throughout December, forumites voted on the best Major Studio and Indie games, ranking their choices from one to ten with weighted scores.
I will be revealing the top 20 in each ranking, and their average score per voter. To rank 20th place, a game required just 20 points in the Major Studios, and just 17 points in the Indies.
In cases where the is a draw for a position, I have awarded the game with the most 10s (or next highest awarded score) the higher spot. Because of this, Uncharted 4 can consider itself the unluckiest game of the decade, having tied points wise for 20th, but lacking a point haul higher than 7 from any single voter.
Top spot in the Indies won by just 3 points, with only 8 points separating the top four.
However top spot in the Major Studios won by more than DOUBLE the second place game's score, having made its way into 18 people's lists.
The best represented year in our combined top 40 is 2015 by a decent margin, with 9 games. The distribution is as follows:
Games which received rereleases during the decade across different consoles (e.g. Mario Kart 8 and The Last of Us) have been treated as a single game.
But first, some notable omissions from the voting. 106 Major Studio games and 105 Indie games receive at least one point each, but the following games and series received NO POINTS.
I've picked out games with very high Metacritic scores, or huge popularity. A few seem have suffered from their successors/predecessors pushing them out of people's minds:
Final Fantasy (series) Halo (series) FIFA (series) Forza (series) Far Cry (series) Overwatch Fortnite PUBG Mass Effect 3 Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen Bioshock Infinite Starcraft II Super Smash Bros for Wii U Uncharted 3 Persona 4 Golden Batman Arkham City Super Mario Maker 2 Fez
INDIE GAME OF THE DECADE
20th - Overcooked (5.67) 19th - Baba is You (8.50) 18th - Shovel Knight (4.50) 17th - Minecraft (10.00 ) 16th - Undertale (5.25) 15th - Hotline Miami 2 (6.00) 14th - Super Meat Boy (5.00) 13th - Disco Elysium (8.33) 12th - Axiom Verge (6.50) 11th - Ori and the Blind Forest (8.67)
NB: Minecraft is potentially controversial, as it was released to certain members of the public in late 2009. If you wish to exclude it from the list on this basis, 20th place goes to Inside.
And the top ten:
10th - Dead Cells (7.50)
9th - Superhot (5.17)
8th - Rocket League (5.50)
7th - Into the Breach (8.25)
6th - Stardew Valley (6.80)
5th - Untitled Goose Game (7.40)
4th - Journey (6.38)
3rd - Hollow Knight (7.57)
2nd - Celeste (8.00)
1st - Hotline Miami (7.38)
MAJOR STUDIO GAME OF THE DECADE
20th - Metal Gear Solid V (6.67) 19th - Dark Souls (7.67) 18th - Skyrim (4.80) 17th - Fallout New Vegas (6.00) 16th - Spider-Man (4.80) 15th - XCOM 2 (6.50) 14th - Red Dead Redemption 2 (6.50) 13th - Super Smash Bros Ultimate (7.50) 12th - God of War (8.00) 11th - Red Dead Redemption (6.40)
And the top ten:
10th - Mario Kart 8 (4.44)
9th - DOOM (5.86)
8th - Grand Theft Auto V (5.38)
7th - Yakuza 0 (6.14)
6th - Bloodborne (6.43)
5th - Super Mario Galaxy 2 (6.86)
4th - Super Mario Odyssey (5.75)
3rd - The Last of Us (7.60)
2nd - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (8.78)
1st - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (8.89)
Great work Clarkman, and those are decent lists! Indie especially. I need to play Shovel Knight, Axiom Verge, Disco Elysium, Ori, Dead Cells and Into the Breach.
I played and loved a bunch of games in the Indie Top 20. But I must admit I've never heard of hotline miami.
Having only seen the trailer (admitedly a trailer isn't much to go on), it doesn't seem that great! But a bundle of 1 and 2 is on eshop for £6 so I definetely want to see what all the fuss is about