Reggie Fils-Aime will probably look like he’s just swallowed a wasp when he reads this headline, as Call of Duty has been named gaming’s greatest ever franchise by the Guinness World Records. To be fair, there’s nothing especially scientific about this discovery, as 5,000 readers of the recent Guinness World Records 2015 Gamer’s Edition book voted online for their favourite titles, which saw Activision’s first-person property come out on top.
The shooter series beat out Minecraft, Grand Theft Auto, and Assassin’s Creed, all of which scored places in the Hall of Fame. PlayStation exclusives such as God of War, LittleBigPlanet, and The Last of Us – despite it only having a single entry – scored positions in the full rundown, which we’ve reproduced below. Crash Bandicoot, despite his age, finished in a respectable 43rd position.
Given the way in which this data was sourced, it’s probably not worth paying too much attention to – but it is interesting to see what’s currently hot or not in the gaming sphere. All of the major brands appear to be represented, but it’s strange to see classics such as Street Fighter and Castlevania omitted. Also, where the heck's Tomb Raider and Tekken?
Guinness World Records: 50 Greatest Game Franchises
1. Call of Duty
2. Super Mario Bros
3. Minecraft
4. Grand Theft Auto
5. Halo
6. The Legend of Zelda
7. FIFA
8. Assassin's Creed
9. Battlefield
10. The Elder Scrolls
11. Pokémon
12. Angry Birds
13. Final Fantasy
14. Need for Speed
15. Mario Kart
16. League of Legends
17. Borderlands
18. Metal Gear
19. Sonic the Hedgehog
20. Counter-Strike
21. Kingdom Hearts
22. The Last of Us
23. World of Warcraft
24. The Witcher
25. Pro Evolution Soccer
26. God of War
27. Far Cry
28. Bioshock
29. Resident Evil
30. Uncharted
31. Fallout
32. Batman: Arkham
33. DotA
34. Gears of War
35. Mass Effect
36. Half-Life
37. Pac-Man
38. Portal
39. Super Smash Bros.
40. Saints Row
41. WWE
42. LittleBigPlanet
43. Crash Bandicoot
44. LEGO
45. Mortal Kombat
46. Red Dead Redemption
47. World of Tanks
48. Gran Turismo
49. NBA 2K
50. Just Dance
[source independent.co.uk, via uk.ign.com]
Comments 26
They can't be serious. How could it possibly come before series like Final Fantasy, Zelda, GTA, halo? And how is minecraft even on the list when it has only one entry lol
Haha. Silly. Where is Shenmue and where is Tetris?
@Bad-MuthaAdebis Tetris ain't better than World of Tanks, yo!
who did that list, some idiot in his basement?
while CoD does make a lot of money no way is it more influential than Mario, Zelda, Final Fantasy or Metal Gear
what a load of ****
@FullbringIchigo It was voted for by gamers. In short, this is a "What's Hot" list. I do think CoD is influential, but I agree with you that Super Mario, Zelda, etc should be at the top.
Greatness is vague, and pop culture votes for cod right now. Pointless.
@get2sammyb things like this shouldn't be voted for, they should be researched and everything from money made by the series to the impact it's had on the industry should be taken into account before a list like this is done
Good for a giggle but nothing else. Minecraft above all those other franchises, almost all of which have been so highly influential in shaping the world of modern gaming? Also, FIFA, CoD and Angry Birds - none of these deserve to be placing anywhere near as highly. You're drunk voters, go home...
@FullbringIchigo It's just never going to be possible. To effectively measure influence across an industry as a whole, as well as everything else mentioned you'd need to go down to the level of things like how much other games have borrowed from certain earlier games in terms of gameplay, aesthetic, design etc, to assess their influence on the design of later games. On the sort of crazy wide scale required, that is a statistic that is just never going to be possible to obtain.
can't believe angry birds is that high
Just Dance, Far Cry, Lego, Minecraft and Angry birds, I no longer want to live on this planet when these games beat out actual classic series.
Edit: And COD beating Mario is lunacy.
Some of these games are solo games, so this isn't really a list of the greatest series of all time.
@SkywardLink98 I think what they did is asked people to vote for their favourite games, and then combined titles from the same franchise. So, if you voted Ocarina of Time and I voted Majora's Mask, that would be two votes for The Legend of Zelda.
Again, hardly scientific...
Oh god...
12. Angry Birds
13. Final Fantasy
Don't really need to comment after that. Though if they only meant the 3 FF13 games as a series unto itself I'm ok w/ it being after Angry Birds
Where's Candy Crush?
OK 1 more
16. League of Legends
17. Borderlands
18. Metal Gear
Snaaaaaaaaaaakkkkkkkkkkeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What is this conspiracy theorism?
I feel like someone just took a nice long dump in my face after seeing this. I know I shouldn't take this seriously, but still, just WHY?
CoD beating Mario and Minecraft beating Zelda is like some form of heresy, Angry Birds being on there at all, much less beating names like Metal Gear, Final Fantasy, Sonic, etc should be considered a crime punishable by death. This is just wrong.
Well, if there was something that was going to get a rise out of me this week, here it is.
Yea this list is ridiculous.. There's no way Mario isn't #1. And where's the persona series?! If people only knew the greatness
I vote a re-vote!
@Bad-MuthaAdebis : yeah ,where IS shenmue ? (and blue stinger) this list's a load of CoDswallop !!
No matter what this list is actually representing it is definitely a worry for Sony that their first exclusive appears at #22! Sony's studios have a lot of work to do.
Angry birds is just a game you play on the porcelain throne. This list is the biggest joke since Zelda CDI.
Skylanders can't crack the top fifty?
I have enjoyed a few call of duties in my time gaming, but would I call it gaming's greatest series... hell no
@Spade_the_prinny
Yea the fact that Angry Birds is even on this list is proof on how this list is complete dog s*#%.
And Call Of Duty deserves to be #1........said no one ever. Well, other than 14 yr old boys.
Mario & Link laugh at this.
Best selling maybe but greatest game?
To quote the world famous Team Fortress Engineer: NOPE.
This is very non-Guinness like. I tend to think of the group as one based on actual fact and NOT opinion of a narrow group of like minded people. They've for a long time been about challenges, pushing the envelope, and marking the bests under proven conditions. Asking 5000 video game players, maybe not even actual video gamers, just the 'as activision put it' casual gamers into shooting, all selecting the biggest yearly rehash on the market outside of EA's turn style hardly make it true.
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