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PC Gamer Top 100 2025

Because I still haven't been buying enough games lately...!

Similar to the retro games list I went through the other day, I came away from this one noting 13 titles I already own, but here there was only one I'd played before (well, only one I'd completed — the original Doom is on both lists, and while I've played it a bit, I've never been through it thoroughly). I did find 28 to keep in mind for future purchasing, and a further 16 that piqued my interest enough to look into more and decide whether to add to that 'wants' list or not — which means only 42% of the list made me think "nah".

One thing that definitely intrigued me was how changeable this list can be. I get that they publish it every year so don't want it to be basically the same with a few tweaks (otherwise who would care?), but, having only recently looked at their 2024 list, some changes were so big they were immediately obvious.

For example, the top ten is 60% the same, and some of that is due to the kinds of small shifts you'd expect: Doom drops out by falling from #10 to #11; Red Dead Redemption II rises from #15 to #10, which is a relatively minor reevaluation (and it's been in the top ten previously, so hardly revelatory). Except it's not just those kinds of small moves, nor new titles entering: last year's #5, Persona 5 Royal, plummets to #49; while a game that was released 20 years ago, Dwarf Fortress, suddenly jumps from #16 to #3. I'm not sure such a reappraisal was prompted by anything, either (although it has also previously been in the top ten, so this is closer to RDR2 in scale).

I guess it's just changing voters and/or adjusted final-total calculations. And there is certainly consistency in places (the top two are identical, for instance). It's just kinda wild that things can fall so far, or (higher up the list) drop out entirely, while old games where nothing's changed fly up, or even enter the list. Keeps it lively though, I guess.

(I also have physical copies of the 2021 and 2022 lists, and after I thought of this I tracked down the 2023 version too, which tempted me to work out a ranking-of-rankings for the last five years. Is it worth the time and effort, though? I don't know... but once I had the idea, it became almost inevitable, so now I'm doing it.)