If you have spent any amount of time on the internet, browsing different sites, reading articles, then you’ll have noticed that there are plenty of places that have ranking lists. A ranking list is an article that is formatted like a list that counts down (or counts up, depending on site preference) entries of a specific topic.
There are listsranking the best A24 movies. There are listsranking the best smartphones of the year. There are listsranking the best WCW wrestlers of a bygone era. There are listsranking the best indie games of a take-your-pick year. There are so…many…lists. With all these lists, they can start to feel like a dime a dozen.
Here at Game Rant, we’re no stranger to lists. Everybrand within the Valnet Gaming umbrellapublishes a lot of lists per day, and it’s no wonder, as this particular style of content is considered a cornerstone of the sites. However, we don’t simply pluck a few games from the ether and stick them into a ranked list. When it comes to writing these ranking lists for games, we consider the following things: player opinions, a game’s critical reception, and lastly, the writer’s own preferences.
So all in all, it’s a mix of objectivity and subjectivity that will leave some readers pleased, others unhappy, but that’s all in a day’s work for GR’s list team. Come along for a few paragraphs, and we’ll break it down even further.
Wading Through An Ocean Of Player Opinion
There is a common belief that sites aim to “rage-bait” visitors. Through the lens of a Game Rant list, this would mean including a game in a ranking that was selected simply to get readers mad. You may be surprised to know that more often than not, games will be chosen for a ranking based on what we believe to be popular opinion. We do take into account how beloved a game is when considering what to include.
From the mouth of Game Rant’s Evergreen Content Lead, Russ Boswell, “We will generally choose a metric or theme and then base our research on that particular element to help craft the list. ‘Best Action Games On Playstation 5’ would surely look at the overall score from both critics and the community to help place games in order of how well they were received by the general public and industry.”
For example, personally, you might not enjoy The Witcher 3. But if you were responsible for writing a list about the best RPGs of 2015, you would be remiss if you didn’t include it in the ranking.
Sussing out what is and isn’t popular can be a bit of a gut check, especially when looking at recently released games. For new games, we look at places like Steam User reviews, forums, and other areas of player discussion.
In addition to that, the Lists team at GR has an abiding appreciation for games and their history. We can recognize the impact a game has had on players, and use that knowledge to determine a title’s inclusion on a ranking list.
Critical Reviews And A Dash Of Objectivity
On top of player opinion, we also consider the work of professional critics. And as part of Valnet Gaming, not only do we have our own Game Rant reviews to look at, we have our sister sites likeDualShockers,Hardcore GamerandTheGamerto draw upon when looking at a game.
Valnet Gaming also hasOpenCriticunder its umbrella, which it acquired in 2024. OpenCritic is a site that collects game ratings and scores from a horde of different publications, so users can get a broader understanding of aggregate scores. When ranking games, we can look to sites like OpenCritic to get a purely numerical and objective ranking.
As a matter of fact, we haveranking lists purely dedicated to showcasing aggregate scores.
Russ sums up the nature of taking these things into account, saying, “While some of it is opinion-based, many of our lists are rooted in some form of metric to help decide whether they belong on a list or not.”
Despite the straight-up objectivity of taking ranking inspiration from aggregate sites and professional game critics, it still only plays a part in what goes into a ranking list.
Most Importantly, What Do YOU Think?
Lastly, when it comes to writing a list that ranks games, we want to always include a bit of subjectivity on the part of the writer handling it. Everyone on the team is a fan of video games, which of course means they have so much to say about them.
Tempered by the objectivity of critical and general opinion, we encourage writers to insert themselves into their picks. After all, no one wants to read a ranked list of games from someone who is toeing the line of someone else’s opinion. We’re all enthusiasts. We want to hear the thoughts of fellow enthusiasts.
As long as a writer makes a solid case for a game inclusion on a list in the entry’s paragraph, it’s more than welcome. For instance, if someone, let’s say a random person who is most definitely not writing this article, wanted to include PowerWash Simulator on a ranked list of the best simulator games in the history of ever, that entry’s paragraph would have to fully and totally convey the supreme satisfaction and superlative game design of PowerWash Simulator.
There may also have to be an admission of bias.
Ranking Games Is A Joint Effort
When creating a ranking list, we take all these things into account. It’s not just one person’s opinion OR regurgitating scores (unless that’s the specific stated angle of the list). It’s an understanding of all of these points combined into one ranking.
And if you find yourself reading a list on Game Rant and differing in opinion on what games made the cut, we welcome the recommendation for inclusion. Most of GR’s articles have threads (a comments section) at the end. Let us know what we missed! You may just turn us onto our next PowerWash Simulator favorite game.
