After 200,000 Votes, Game Informer Readers Name Zelda: Ocarina of Time as the Greatest Game of All Time

[Gamernyc78]

Game Informer Readers Name Zelda: Ocarina Of Time As Greatest Game Of All Time

The results are in, and Link's debut 3D adventure takes home the top prize in our 2024 reader vote to determine the greatest video game of all time!

www.gameinformer.com

No matter the industry – sports, television, movies, or games – the debate of "the greatest of all time" inevitably comes up. These debates are often full of superfluous apples-to-oranges comparisons and, as a result, are unlikely to come up with a definitive answer everyone will be happy with. But that's what makes them so fun. In that spirit, we took the month of March to hold our own bracket-style tournament, voted on by readers, to determine the greatest video game of all time.

Though we here at Game Informer assembled the bracket, even that was heavily influenced by our Reader Vote we held in 2018 to coincide with our 300th issue. Using the results of our 2018 Reader Vote combined with some input from staff, general sentiment in various online communities, and critical reception for more recent games, we assembled a starting bracket of 64 games. Still, there were some exclusions that raised eyebrows within our community, most notably the original Deus Ex, as well as games like Super Smash Bros. Melee, Max Payne, and the Ori games.

From there, we held two rounds of voting per week until we whittled this field down to one ultimate winner. After more than 200,000 votes were cast, the Game Informer readers and community have named The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time the greatest video game of all time! This stands in contrast to the results in our 2018 Reader Vote, where The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt took home the top prize, and The Last of Us came in second. In that 2018 vote, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time came in third, so it's not exactly the underdog story of underdog stories, but it still shows the enduring legacy of Nintendo's 1998 masterpiece.

Along the way, we had some blowouts, but we also experienced our fair share of close calls. The closest matchup in the tournament saw Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater eke out a win over the seminal Pokémon entries, Red and Blue, by a mere 12 votes. Meanwhile, one of the biggest upsets in the tournament, Metroid Prime over The Last of Us Part II, was also one of the closest, as Samus took out Ellie with a margin of just 23 votes. Finally, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past narrowly defeated Half-Life 2 with a difference of fewer than 90 votes separating these two classics.

You can see the full bracket below!

Was Ocarina of Time your pick to go all the way? If not, when did your favorite get eliminated? Which results surprised you the most? Sound off in the comments below!

 

[Luffy123]

wtf is this list lmfao

 

[Gamernyc78]

wtf is this list lmfao

My list would definitely look different. What saves them is TLOU made it all the way to the end.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Recency & popularity biased list. These "Top 100" or "Of All Time" lists are always pretty off when done by the big publications.

If you don't care for 3D action-adventure games, OoT would be relatively worthless to you. These publications seem too lazy to do lists based on genre; recency & popularity bias would still be a factor in those too, but at least it'd cover a wider gamut of games more accurately.

 

[quest4441]

The final should have been the original FF7 and Ocarina of Time, wtf BS is Todd's slop winning against FF7

 

[Zzero]

I remember Gamefaqs did one of these in, like, 2002 and OoT won it too. Zelda fans are spoiled rotten and yet always demand more, lol.

 

[Gamernyc78]

I remember Gamefaqs did one of these in, like, 2002 and OoT won it too. Zelda fans are spoiled rotten and yet always demand more, lol.

True dieherds tht don't see anything else.

 

[Zzero]

Also, a few oddities I spotted:

Zero Genesis games on the list.
No SNES platformers and only one NES.
No Mega Man, Donkey Kong or Sonic.
No PC pre-2000s PC games on the list, including such potentials as Sim City 2000 or 3000 (or 4, for that matter,) Civilization 2 or SMAC, Doom/Quake/Duke/Wolfie, Grim, Lucas Arts or Sierra adventure games, etc.
The only PC game on at all is Portal 2, even though 1 is the iconic one.
A lot of series got their best selling title listed even if die-hard fans think its one of the lesser entries. (Example: AC:New Horizons, Pokemon Red/Blue, Halo one instead of 2)

Obviously this shit works a lot less well than it did 20 years ago, with more and more games coming every year.

 

[ethomaz]

OoT is in my TOP3 too.

It is one of the greatest games I ever played.
And yes it is better than BotE and TotK.

 

[Box]

I think personally FF7 should be number 1
Sm64 as a close second
OOT as third

 

[Luffy123]

ff7 being beaten by Skyrim lmfao you just have to laugh

 

[anonpuffs]

Spider-man winning over Final Fantasy 6 is hilarious

 

[Bryank75]

It was set up to the benefit of certain games...

They eliminated GOW 2018 before the final strategically.

RDR2 isn't even the best RDR.

 

[Gods&Monsters]

It's always the same games people are voting. It's just a habit at this point.

In 2050 people will stay vote for OOT even if they didn't play it. It's the default option