What are the Most Popular Games in the World?

The video gaming industry has come a really long way since the days of arcades and Pong. Now, we can even fulfill our wildest dreams vicariously through software that allows us to perceive virtual space in stunning first-person. On the road from just a few pixels to VR technology, gamers have collected their fair share of favorites, some of which are still standing the test of time today. Here’s a quick snapshot of that road’s most popular video games.

1. TETRIS

First one this this is the iconic legendary puzzler, TETRIS. Arguably the best thing to come out of the former USSR, TETRIS has sold an estimated 170 million copies since its release in 1984. That is insane. That also makes it one of the most popular games of all time based on copies sold alone. Interestingly, if you find random useless facts interesting, TETRIS was developed by Alexey Pajitnov based around on old game about fitting pieces into a box. It was so named for the Greek prefix Tetra, representing four, and his favorite sport, tennis. I’m not sure what exactly made this game so popular, but I’ve wasted considerable amounts of life on it as well. If you ever want to cause anxiety in someone, show them a straight piece that just barely missed completing a stack of four rows. They’ll probably cry, or punch you.

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2. Minecraft

What a terrible world we live in that Minecraft is the second highest-selling game of all time based on volume. As you can tell, I never got on that train. Everyone knows about Minecraft, the open-ended sandbox extravaganza that essentially allows you to construct virtually anything. Businesses are even making copies of their headquarters within the game space and holding meetings with other businesses there. Parents swear that it provides substantial social benefits to children with Autism and ADHD. There’s even a server dedicated to assisting with just that. School art programs are adopting it as a 3D virtual sculpting tool and architects are using it to build rough outlines of their ideas. It’s an astounding idea that an indie developer with limited resources and marketing could produce such a useful and widely adopted piece of software.

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3. Fortnite

I loved Fortnite even before it became the battle royale mega-giant that it is today. Originally a survival sandbox game, Fortnite allowed players to build forts and defend them from zombie-like enemies. The voice acting was brilliant and the story dialogue light-hearted and fun. Then Playerunknown unleashed his glorious seven headed biblical beast Battlegrounds, and suddenly, everyone was talking about BR games. EPIC, Fortnite’s developer, had a choice to make: remain the same and perish like Lawbreakers, or evolve, adapt, and crush the competition. They chose the latter. Now, arguably the most popular game in the world, at least on Twitch, Fortnite welcomes all kinds with its crazy antics and hilarious dance animations.

4. World of Warcraft

Deciding the most played game in the world can be a bit difficult, depending on what criteria you use to evaluate it by. Is it the most played video game of the current year? Or, perhaps is it just one of the most played games of all time? The answers change. When it comes to dedicated fans and sheer content, however, World of Warcraft has no competition. With over 6 million paying subscribers active as of right now, you can put together a raid group faster than you can complete a daily quest. So, if player base is your motivation for such a search, look no further than Blizzard’s posterchild MMO. Trust me, it can still eat up hours of your life, and will continue to do so for years to come.

5. Grand Theft Auto V

Grand Theft Auto will simply not die. Released in 2013, it remains to be one of the most played games on Xbox One’s list of most played games. That means that tons of active players are still playing nearly five years later. Why? I think we all know why. Humans are violent, terrible creatures. We like to murder, steal, destroy, and jump from jets at max speed, virtually of course. With the addition on online play in this installment that just plain rocks and tons of support coming from Rockstar games, how could we stop. Fun fact, I had five German Roommates back on my internship with Walt Disney Parks and Resorts back in 2015. We had free access to the parks, tons of gorgeous coeds surrounding us, parties every other night, and what did they do? They played Grand Theft Auto V on a wall-sized projector getting wasted on vodka and screaming German words at me. I was both amused and terrified. Point is, Grand Theft Auto V isn’t going anywhere until Red Dead Redemption 2 launches.

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What games do you play most? What do you think of the BR genre’s sudden success? Leave it below.