I think Guinness should stick to documenting facts and leave the opinion pieces to the gaming magazines.

How on earth did Street Fighter not make the Top 50? Street Fighter II is easily one of the greatest games of all time. Only the "fans" have a short term memory and can only remember what they played the past month.

Owen's comment ++



At least have the courtesy of calling it "Most Popular Video Game Series." "Top" or "best" lists are just horrible, especially for any artistic medium.

I would just rather they just said Top 50 Video Game Series "at the time" rather than "of all time".

Yeah, because everybody knows that "Runescape" is a more important series than God of War and Final Fantasy, and "WWE Smackdown vs. RAW" is far more important than Diablo or Starcraft. Mr. Gaz Deaves, you failed before you started.

So, just another popularity contest.

Less than 10% of gamers in America heard of an obscure poll and voted for their favorite games over a period of 7 months. The series with the highest votes are now the top video game series "of all time!"

Halo also tops my personal 50 most overrated franchises of all time.

I wonder who these so called 'different kind of eXperts' who obviuosly have Halo and Call of Duty on top of their list?



And Mario is not on top?



C'mon, what's wrong with him!!!

Who the hell did they ask? This has got to be the most ridiculous "fact" I have ever read. Just by looking at that list you can tell they polled a bunch of high school boys who have probably never played a Zelda game that wasn't published later than 2006.



I reject this list.

Okay everyone, let's not drop this comments section into a hate contest. We're not on Kotaku. I don't believe Guinness world records has any authority on this matter, and I also think this Top 50 is pretty ridiculous, but that doesn't mean Halo is the worst game ever. C'mon that's just immature.



I'm sick of people bashing games solely for their popularity. Halo's a pretty good game in my book. Not the greatest of all time, but it certainly deserves some of the praise it gets. It's got solid mechanics, polished gameplay and one of the best multiplayer experience out there.



Why don't you haters go personally tell the hard working guys at Bungie that their game is the "worst shooter" ever. I judge a game by it's makers, not by it's audience, and that's what matters.

Mark Venturelli said: "Yeah, because everybody knows that "Runescape" is a more important series than God of War and Final Fantasy, and "WWE Smackdown vs. RAW" is far more important than Diablo or Starcraft. Mr. Gaz Deaves, you failed before you started."



The end of the article details Mr. Deaves intentions here.



"We are confident that this 'top 50' more accurately reflects the tastes of the average gamer and not just the critics."



So I don't understand the hate here. Gamers like Halo.



Gamers also like Saint's Row. Hey, I agree that the Street Fighter series is in my Top 25, but I can't blame gamers for like open world sandbox games. Nevermind one that is a decent playing ripoff of the PS2 GTA games.



Terry Matthes said: "Just by looking at that list you can tell they polled a bunch of high school boys who have probably never played a Zelda game that wasn't published later than 2006."



I haven't played a Zelda game since 2006, and I myself would rank Halo among others higher than Zelda. While I think you are right in the sense that the tastes are more "modern" and leave out some classics, and some new titles are in there, surprisingly...I'd have to state that it may have less to do with age and more with changing tastes.



I'm quite old and over time have come to appreciate the many hours I've put into multiplayer games like CounterStrike, Halo, Warcraft, Quake, and UT that I do have to say that I am beginning to prefer them over my previous all time favorites like Mario, Sonic, Zelda, Metroid, Castlevania, etc. which are all single player experiences.



Ignoring or rejecting this list won't do us much good. At the same time one cannot put a lot of stock into web polls. But it does tell us what today's gamers are into. There is a clear trend towards multiplayer games being very popular.



What I note is that Nintendo has been able to franchise a single player experience in the form of Super Mario Bros. into two popular multiplayer games in the form of Smash Bros. and Mario Kart that compare favorably to the other multiplayer games on that list.



Also, the popularity of FIFA (more popular than Madden) and PES demonstrate to me that the readers of the site were of a more "international" flavour and not necessarily North American.

The very need to have a top list is flawed. There is no "best" game or game series, just as there is no best song. You can instead remark on a particular element that a game does better than almost every other game out there. I think awards should be rewarded on a per-game basis rather than by category. Such and such game did this thing really well compared to other games this year, so let's give it an award that says "great this thing." That way it won't penalize a great game if it's stacked up against, say, a Blizzard title in the same category that year.

The very list is flawed. I do not know what their condition is for a set of video games to be a series to start with.



1) Crono Trigger? Only 1 international sequel (and one Japan only)?

2) Lego Batman? Was there a Lego Batman 2 that I missed somewhere?

3) Pong?!?!

Uh-oh seems like, for example, Civilization players were too busy playing the game than to cast their vote there. lol.

13.000 readers voted? That's way too small sample and way too much focused.

"I can cur" - just another popularity contest.

cant believe how they missed prince of persia

Is it me or this Guinness thing turns more and more into facebook? Guitar hero is on that list even though they had 2 good games and the rest were ... meh ? Oh and I like how they put Tom Clancy's as a series and not Star Wars :P

I think this list is a fairly accurate look at the face of modern gaming. While many of us grew up with Mario, Sonic and Zelda games, those games don't hold the same weight that they once did. For the past decade or so the Halo and Guitar Hero games have been two of gamng's hottest properties so I can't really say I'm surprised to see them top an internet-based voting list. Mario would probably top my list, but I wouldn't put Halo far behind.

Without Pong you wouldn't have many games.

eh.. look in what times we have to live. Incompetent mobs get loud again. Guinness Book of Records is really low in my personal ranking of whatever that matters. They have only become ridiculously good at exposing idiocy and dumbness.

@Daniel Biesiada

"They have only become ridiculously good at exposing idiocy and dumbness."

Exactly and it's been proven once more. 7 month to compile those result? I could have done the same in less than 10 minutes and would had been just as flawed and useless.

@Roberg Gill:

I don't think you would actually call Pong a series

Glad to see some discussion, but like everyone else I find this list to be humorous at best, and absolutely pathetic at worst.



Diablo and Starcraft in the bottom quarter of the list? In the same area as Crash Bandicoot, Lego Batman and Ratchet & Clank?!? I can *see* arguments (or at least the outlines of arguments) which could put those two historic titles in the bottom fourth of a 'greatest' or 'best' list, but c'mon...those other titles even MAKING the list seem to invalidate the whole thing.



I think if they had labeled it as more of a popularity contest with a date stamp on the thing, it could have a lot more meaning and validity. As is, it's just weak.