I Asked My Colleagues For Their Top 4 Games Of All Time – Here's What They Said

Here we go again. After shamelessly stealing the Letterboxd format for my article I Asked My Colleagues For Their Top 4 Movies Of All Time – Here's What They Said, it's now time to give it a real EarlyGame twist. Because let's be honest – it's called EarlyGame, not EarlyFilm. Since this article is going to shatter the limits of average reading time anyway, let’s not waste another second and dive straight into the 16 Top 4s of my colleagues!

Analyzing The Chaos

First things first: According to the internet's busiest gaming nerds at EarlyGame, there are three games tied for the number one spot as the best game ever. Baldur’s Gate 3, Minecraft, and Red Dead Redemption 2 top the list as the most frequently mentioned games, each appearing three times. Also, with little to no surprise, the publisher with the most mentions is Nintendo with 9, followed by Rockstar and EA sharing the second spot with 5 each.

But let’s take a closer, more individual look at the top 4 and rank them by their qualities. For the film article, I used the IMDb ranking – an easy choice, since it's the oldest Internet Movie Database (fun fact: that’s actually what IMDb stands for). When it came to the gaming one, I was torn between IGN and Metacritic, but ultimately went with Metacritic – where multiple critics' scores are combined into a single consensus. Unlike IGN, which reflects the view of just one reviewer, Metacritic offers a broader perspective. And as you know, in scientific research, we value consensus over individual opinions.

In a Shyamalan-esque twist, after hitting last place in the film top 4, it is Miss Tanja Haimerl (The Last of Us Part I, The Last of Us Part II, Red Dead Redemption 2, Zelda: Ocarina of Time) who takes the top spot – with an average rating of a near-perfect 94.5. With a difference of just 0.7 points from second place, Johanna Goebel, and her untamed love for The Last of Us, Tanja has rightfully claimed the gaming throne. Although I personally rate her taste in gaming a 7/14 – absolutely basic.

Look, you hate to see it – but someone has to come last, and once again, it wasn’t even close. With an average rating of 73.3 – more than 10 points below second-to-last, Verena Buchner – it’s Sahbina Dostovic (Super Mario Bros., The Sims 4, Just Dance, The Last of Us Part I). This woman’s love for video games is so strong, she’d probably buy the Sims 4 bug-fixing DLC from EA. Sure, Super Mario Bros. and The Last of Us are certified classics – but overall last place Just Dance and second-to-last The Sims 4 only made it onto the list because of her picks. She doesn’t need scientific evidence to like something – think of her as the homeopathy doctor of video games.

Opposites Unite: Gaming Knows No Rank

Now, let’s take a moment to look at the bright side of gaming – its power to bring people together across all kinds of boundaries. Case in point: first-place Tanja Haimerl and last-place Sahbina Dostovic actually share the same favorite game – The Last of Us Part I. A small but powerful reminder that even at opposite ends of the ranking, gaming connects us all.

Tanja Haimerl (Ocarina of Time), Malena Rose (Ocarina of Time), Daniel Fersch (A Link to the Past, Breath of the Wild) and Stoyan Occharov (Breath of the Wild) should have no problem agreeing on a game series for the next gaming night. Just like Max Papenburg (Skate 2) and Karlson König (Skate 3) – they can’t keep their feet still, but neither can their hands on the controller. Florian Frick and Marion Meyer could theoretically enjoy a League of Legends match together on bot lane – if that ever actually happened. Florian, in particular, seems to have a soft spot for rage-inducing games like LoL, CS, and Rocket League – only to cool off later with some calming Minecraft. Smart move.

Based on his taste in games, the brokest colleague of them all is Timo Ströhl (Fortnite, Minecraft, Rocket League, Valorant), who put three free-to-play games in his top four, and also Minecraft, a game where it's been reported that more than 80% of the players pirated it. Although he might be mad rich, since all these games include the possibility of microtransactions. Call it Schrödinger's wallet – it's empty and full until you open it.

Compared to other art forms like film, music, or painting, video games are still in their adolescence – the picks on this list have an average age of just 13.3 years. Stoyan Occharov shows the strongest recency bias, with his picks averaging just 5 years in age. On the other end, Daniel Fersch leans into nostalgia – his picks go back an average of 27 years. The 2010s dominate the rankings, with nearly half of all selections coming from that decade. The still-unfolding 2020s follow in second place with 24%. The oldest game on anyone’s list? Super Mario Bros., released all the way back in 1985.

So, what did we learn form all of this?

• You need to play Baldur's Gate 3, Minecraft, Red Dead Redemption, and definitely any Zelda game.
• Just like the top 4 films, most game picks are heavily influenced by childhood nostalgia.
• The nerd charm of the good people of EarlyGame is only matched by their kindness and cooperativeness in creating cool stuff.
• Most people thought this one was harder than the film one.

Interested in the complete list? I've got you:

What are your top 4? And who would you pick for a gaming session? Let us know in the comments!