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’re taking 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. From here, we’ll hold two rounds of voting per week until we whittle this field down to one ultimate winner.

Will this result in a definitive selection of the best game ever released? Or will it reveal a coordinated effort from a particular gaming community committed to seeing their favorite game rise through the ranks? Only time will tell. 

While this is meant to be a fun experiment to see how the results shake out within the Game Informer readership and community, we hope you’ll come back to root for your favorites every Monday and Thursday until we are able to crown our champion in the 2024 Game Gauntlet. Be sure to bookmark this page or follow us on social media to be alerted when a new round starts! 

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Finals