The British Academy of Film and Television Arts did more than select the winners of the 2024-2025 BAFTA Games Awards last month (once again, congratulations to Astro Bot).
In the leadup to this year’s ceremony, the group gave the public a chance to vote for “The Most Influential Video Game of All Time“. With all the votes now tallied, Sega’s Shenmue appeared at the top of the list, and it was followed by 20 additional titles.
Chris Schilling, formerly of Edge Magazine, helped introduce the breadth of games on display:
As more than one responder said, it’s unfair to have to choose just one. Do you pick the pioneers that shaped the early days of the medium, the innovators that were ahead of their time, the ones that proved formative to your own creative journey, or simply the ones that made you most emotional? As might be expected, among the extraordinary number of responses we received was a staggering variety of games — ranging from titles that launched the industry to contemporary giants released mere months ago. The top ten alone spans multiple genres, from platformers to shooters, sandbox adventures to simulations.
Shenmue launched to near universal acclaim in 2000 and is ostensibly about Ryo Hazuki’s search for his father’s killer. But the game also works as a massive life simulation, giving players the opportunity to also play arcade games, chat with NPCs, and even drive a forklift.
It’s actually a pretty solid list top to bottom, with foundational games like Pong (#13), Tetris (#11), and Super Mario Bros. (#3) sitting alongside newer classics like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (#20) and Baldur’s Gate 3 (#16). Doom (1993) (#2) and Half-Life 2 (#9), two games that often make the cut on lists like this, were also will represented in the top ten.
Though I was a bit baffled that you’ll find Kingdom Come: Deliverance II (#7) sandwiched between Super Mario 64 (#8) and Minecraft (#6). Warhorse’s sequel has received some fantastic reviews so far this year, but it’s also only two months old and cannot have influenced much of anything yet.
The complete list of games from BAFTA’s “The Most Influential Video Game of All Time” can be found after the break.
BAFTA Games Awards
The Most Influential Video Game of All Time
- 1. Shenmue
- 2. Doom (1993)
- 3. Super Mario Bros.
- 4. Half-Life
- 5. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
- 6. Minecraft
- 7. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
- 8. Super Mario 64
- 9. Half-Life 2
- 10. The Sims
- 11. Tetris
- 12. Tomb Raider (1996)
- 13. Pong
- 14. Metal Gear Solid
- 15. World of Warcraft
- 16. Baldur’s Gate 3
- 17. Final Fantasy VII
- 18. Dark Souls
- 19. Grand Theft Auto III
- 20. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- 21. Grand Theft Auto