Every ARK game, ranked
All 3 ARK games we hold, spanning 2017 to 2023: 3 ranked by the GamingPickz Score and plotted below, the rest listed in release order so nothing in the series is missing. Together they carry 904,716 Steam reviews.
Where to start
- For the best-reviewed: ARK: Survival Evolved (GamingPickz Score 7.8), the highest-rated entry we can score.
The ARK games on the grid
Compare the whole catalogueThe same 3 games, plotted rather than listed. The two axes below are the ones the ranking is built from, so a game sitting high and right is a game the formula placed near the top. Change either axis to see the field a different way. Where we hold a publisher wordmark, the game is drawn as its mark rather than a dot.
3 games have both
Axes are fitted to these 3 games rather than the full 0 to 100 scale, because a filtered list shares a narrow band and would otherwise sit in one corner. End values are marked. A point on the left edge is the lowest of thesegames, not a low score.
Players. The share of Steam reviews marked positive, pulled toward the catalogue average in proportion to how few reviews stand behind it. A game with 200 reviews moves a long way toward the average; one with 200,000 barely moves at all. Without this a title sitting at 100 percent on nine reviews outranks Half-Life 2 at 98 percent on 278,000.
Popularity. A blend of two things that are not the same. Audience is how many people wrote a Steam review, which is a floor on how many played it. Reach is how many language editions of Wikipedia document the game, which is cultural footprint rather than sales. A game can score high on one and low on the other: a huge free-to-play title has audience without reach, and a landmark console exclusive has reach without a Steam audience at all. Where both exist they are averaged; where only one does, that one carries it.
- PC
Every point links to that game's entry. The value map and the reception map are fixed views of the same data.
How positions are decided
No paid placement, no favouritism, live third-party data
- Placed by the published method, not by us. Every coordinate is computed from the axis definitions and weights printed on this site. Nobody moves a point. See the axes.
- Nothing here is paid for. No sponsored placements, no promoted slots, no arrangement of any kind affects a position. If that ever changes it will be labelled and sit outside the ranking.
- No favouritism, including our own. The 16 games we have written full reviews of are scored by exactly the same formula as the other 1,510, from the same third-party inputs, and they land where it puts them. Our own opinion of a game does not enter its coordinates.
- A position is not an endorsement. It says how a game was received and what it costs, not that we recommend it. Where we do recommend something, it carries a written review with a name on it.
- Fetched from live third-party data. Player sentiment from Steam, critic aggregates as published on store pages, prices checked hourly, attention from Wikipedia. Each figure carries its source and the date it was read, and we do not adjust any of them.
3 best ARK games, ranked
Ordered by GamingPickz Score. Every figure links back to the source that produced it.
- 1
ARK: Survival Evolved
Best for: The safest bet on this list, by weight of evidence
7.8GamingPickz Scorehigh confidenceARK: Survival Evolved at a glance Released 2017 Studio Studio Wildcard Player sentiment 83% positive of 776,582 Critics 70/100 Price $9.89 Steam Deck verified Install size 60 GB Accessibility 1 declared feature Raw 83% shrinks to 83.0 on 776,582 reviews, then blends with the 70 critic aggregate, giving 7.8.
What the data supports- Valve has tested it and rates it Verified on the Steam Deck.
Worth checking first- Players rate it well above critics, 83 against 70. Usually a sign it improved after launch, or that it delivers something reviewers undervalued.
- 2
ARK: Survival Ascended
Best for: Playing through with a friend online
6.1GamingPickz Scoremedium confidenceARK: Survival Ascended at a glance Released 2023 Studio Studio Wildcard Player sentiment 60% positive of 116,330 Critics No aggregate Price $11.24 Steam Deck verified Install size 180 GB Accessibility 1 declared feature Raw 60% shrinks to 60.1 on 116,330 reviews, giving 6.1. No critics data, so that weight was redistributed across the rest rather than counted as zero.
What the data supports- Valve has tested it and rates it Verified on the Steam Deck.
- 3
ARK: Survival Of The Fittest
Best for: Playing with other people
6.0GamingPickz Scoremedium confidenceARK: Survival Of The Fittest at a glance Released 2017 Studio Studio Wildcard Player sentiment 66% positive of 11,804 Critics No aggregate Price Not listed Steam Deck unknown Install size 36.13 GB Accessibility 1 declared feature Raw 66% shrinks to 66.6 on 11,804 reviews, giving 6.0. No critics data, so that weight was redistributed across the rest rather than counted as zero.
Worth checking first- Multiplayer only. There is no solo mode to fall back on.
Best and worst entry
The best-received ARK game we can score is ARK: Survival Evolved at 7.8. The lowest is ARK: Survival Of The Fittest at 6.0, a 1.8-point spread across the series. The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment, critics and popularity, computed the same way for every game.
How the series scored over time
GamingPickz Score against release year, 2017 to 2023. The later entries score lower than the earlier ones: the series has been trending down.
Cheapest way in, and best value
- Cheapest right now: ARK: Survival Evolved at $9.89. Prices are read live from Steam and move.
- Best value: ARK: Survival Evolved, the most GamingPickz Score per dollar in the series at its current price.
On a Steam Deck
Valve's own Deck compatibility rating for the ARK entries on Steam:
- Verified: ARK: Survival Evolved, ARK: Survival Ascended
Platforms across the series
Where the 3 ARK games have landed, counting every entry we hold:
| Platform family | Entries |
|---|---|
| PC | 3 of 3 |
The ARK series, game by game
Every ARK game we hold, in release order. Each description is the game's own, from Steam where it has a listing and Wikipedia for the older entries, never ours.
- 2017
Stranded on the shores of a mysterious island, you must learn to survive. Use your cunning to kill or tame the primeval creatures roaming the land, and encounter other players to survive, dominate... and escape! (Steam)
Reception
Reception Ark: Survival Evolved received "mixed or average" reviews for the Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One versions, while the Switch version received "generally unfavorable" reviews, according to review aggregator website Metacritic . TJ Hafer's 7. 7/10 review on IGN stated that "When I'm having a good time in Ark , I'm having a really good time. (Wikipedia)
- 2017
ARK: The Survival of the Fittest is a prototype spin-off of ARK: Survival Evolved, pitting up to 60 combatants against each other in a fast-paced, action-packed struggle for survival, where players are ultimately pushed into an epic final showdown leading their Dinosaur Armies into battle. (Steam)
- 2023
ARK is reimagined from the ground-up into the next-generation of video game technology with Unreal Engine 5! Form a tribe, tame & breed hundreds of unique dinosaurs and primeval creatures, explore, craft, build, and fight your way to the top of the food-chain. Your new world awaits! (Steam)
Reception
The early access release of Ark: Survival Ascended was met with criticism from players for its technical issues, including frame rate drops and game crashes . It received mixed user reviews on Steam . As a result of "critical issues" in the multiplayer, Studio Wildcard announced the console versions would be delayed until November 2023. (Wikipedia)
ARK, head to head
Two entries side by side on score, price, specs and reception:
ARK vs other series
How ARK stacks up against other series in the same genre, as a whole:
Also: ARK vs DRAGON BALL, ARK vs Mass Effect, ARK vs Mount & Blade, ARK vs Yakuza, ARK vs Risen, ARK vs State of Decay, ARK vs The Witcher, ARK vs Torchlight, ARK vs Watch, ARK vs ArcheAge, ARK vs Divinity, ARK vs Dragon's Dogma, ARK vs Dungeon Siege, ARK vs ELDEN RING, ARK vs EverQuest, ARK vs Gothic, ARK vs Heaven Island, ARK vs Kingdom Come, ARK vs Kingdoms of Amalur, ARK vs Marvel’s Spider-Man, ARK vs Middle-earth, ARK vs Might & Magic, ARK vs NARUTO SHIPPUDEN, ARK vs Pathfinder, ARK vs Prototype, ARK vs SoulWorker, ARK vs South Park, ARK vs Squad, ARK vs The Lord of the Rings, ARK vs The Surge, ARK vs Tom Clancy’s The Division, ARK vs Two Worlds, ARK vs Wasteland, ARK vs Z1 Battle Royale
Common questions
How many ARK games are there?
We hold 3 ARK games in the catalogue, released between 2017 and 2023. 3 of them carry enough Steam data to rank; the rest are listed in release order below, including console-only entries with no Steam listing.
Which ARK game is best?
By the GamingPickz Score, ARK: Survival Evolved rates highest at 7.8. That is a composite of player sentiment, the critic aggregate and popularity, computed the same way for every game, not our opinion. The full ranking is above.
What order should I play the ARK games in?
Release order is listed below, from 2017 to 2023. For most series that is also story order, but we list dates rather than telling you a canon; the timeline is read from Wikidata.
More franchises
Browse every game franchise ranked the same way, or head to the full grid.