Every ARMA game, ranked
All 4 ARMA games we hold, spanning 2009 to 2013: 4 ranked by the GamingPickz Score and plotted below, the rest listed in release order so nothing in the series is missing. Together they carry 325,775 Steam reviews.
Where to start
- For the best-reviewed: ARMA 3 (GamingPickz Score 7.7), the highest-rated entry we can score.
- For canon order: begin with ARMA 2 (2009) and follow the release-order timeline below.
- For the money: ARMA 2 gives the most score per dollar right now.
The ARMA games on the grid
Compare the whole catalogueThe same 4 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.
4 games have both
Axes are fitted to these 4 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.
4 best ARMA games, ranked
Ordered by GamingPickz Score. Every figure links back to the source that produced it.
- 1
ARMA 3
Best for: The safest bet on this list, by weight of evidence
7.7GamingPickz Scorehigh confidenceARMA 3 at a glance Released 2013 Studio Bohemia Interactive Player sentiment 90% positive of 294,969 Critics 74/100 Price $29.99 Steam Deck playable Install size Not stated Accessibility 0 declared features Raw 90% shrinks to 90.0 on 294,969 reviews, then blends with the 74 critic aggregate, giving 7.7.
What the data supports- 90% positive across 294,969 reviews is a strong signal at that volume, where a few enthusiasts cannot move the number.
Worth checking first- Players rate it well above critics, 90 against 74. Usually a sign it improved after launch, or that it delivers something reviewers undervalued.
- Flagged for mature content on its store page.
- 2
Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead
Best for: Players who trust other players over critics
7.7GamingPickz Scorehigh confidenceArma 2: Operation Arrowhead at a glance Released 2010 Studio Bohemia Interactive Player sentiment 92% positive of 22,247 Critics 73/100 Price $3.99 Steam Deck playable Install size Not stated Accessibility 1 declared feature Raw 92% shrinks to 91.9 on 22,247 reviews, then blends with the 73 critic aggregate, giving 7.7.
Worth checking first- Players rate it well above critics, 92 against 73. Usually a sign it improved after launch, or that it delivers something reviewers undervalued.
- Flagged for mature content on its store page.
ARMA 2 at a glance Released 2009 Studio Bohemia Interactive Player sentiment 84% positive of 2,114 Critics 77/100 Price $2.59 Steam Deck unsupported Install size Not stated Accessibility 1 declared feature Raw 84% shrinks to 84.0 on 2,114 reviews, then blends with the 77 critic aggregate, giving 7.0.
Worth checking first- Flagged for mature content on its store page.
- Valve rates it Unsupported on the Steam Deck.
- 4
Arma: Cold War Assault Remastered
Best for: Playing through with a friend online
6.7GamingPickz Scoremedium confidenceArma: Cold War Assault Remastered at a glance Released 2011 Studio Bohemia Interactive Player sentiment 80% positive of 6,445 Critics No aggregate Price $4.99 Steam Deck playable Install size Not stated Accessibility 1 declared feature Raw 80% shrinks to 80.2 on 6,445 reviews, giving 6.7. No critics data, so that weight was redistributed across the rest rather than counted as zero.
Worth checking first- Flagged for mature content on its store page.
Best and worst entry
The best-received ARMA game we can score is ARMA 3 at 7.7. The lowest is Arma: Cold War Assault Remastered at 6.7, a 1.0-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, 2009 to 2013. It has held roughly steady across the years.
Cheapest way in, and best value
- Cheapest right now: ARMA 2 at $2.59. Prices are read live from Steam and move.
- Best value: ARMA 2, 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 ARMA entries on Steam:
- Playable: Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead, Arma: Cold War Assault Remastered, ARMA 3
- Unsupported: ARMA 2
Platforms across the series
Where the 4 ARMA games have landed, counting every entry we hold:
| Platform family | Entries |
|---|---|
| PC | 4 of 4 |
The ARMA series, game by game
Every ARMA 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.
- 2009
ARMA 2
7.0Building on 10 years of constant engine development, ARMA II boasts the most realistic combat environment in the world. It models real world ballistics & round deflection, materials penetration, features a realtime day/night cycle and dynamic wind, weather and environmental effects. (Steam)
Plot
Setting A map of the fictional country of Chernarus, showing the province of South Zagoria and the neighboring countries of Takistan and Russia Arma 2 's single-player campaign takes place in late 2009, in the province of South Zagoria in the north-eastern region of the fictional post-Soviet state of Chernarus, as well as the remote Chernarussian island of Útes. South Zagoria's approximately 225 square kilometers are based on actual satellite photos of… (Wikipedia)
Reception
Reception Arma 2 received generally positive reviews. The game has been praised for its realism, graphics, and the sheer scale of the game. However, as with the original Armed Assault , the game has received criticism for the number of bugs it contained on release and the quality of the AI. (Wikipedia)
- 2010
Three years after the conflict in Chernarus, portrayed in the original Arma 2, a new flashpoint explodes in the Green Sea Region. Coalition forces led by the US Army are deployed to Takistan to quickly restore peace and prevent further civilian casualties. (Steam)
Plot
Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead is set in the fictional country of Takistan and takes place in the then-future of summer 2012; nearly three years after the Chernarus conflict of fall 2009 that is depicted in Arma 2 , right after Arma 2's hidden ending. In the game's single-player campaign, Takistani government led by Colonel Muhammad Aziz threatens to use SCUD missiles against a neighboring Karzeghistan, following the outbreak of the economic crisis caused by… (Wikipedia)
Reception
Reception The game has received warm reviews from critics. GameSpot says " Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead , its stand-alone expansion, boasts all the beauty, realism, and action of the original and none of the game-breaking bugs. Improving upon its predecessor in almost every way. (Wikipedia)
- 2011
The genre-defining military sim that began as Operation Flashpoint (2001), now a modernized, 64-bit, cross-platform build for Windows and Linux, with its engine released as open source. Over 2 million copies sold. The Cold War battlefield of Everon and Nogova, remastered for today's hardware. (Steam)
- 2013
ARMA 3
7.7Experience true combat gameplay in a massive military sandbox. Deploy with a wide variety of single- and multiplayer content, a massive arsenal of modern weapons and vehicles, and limitless opportunities for content creation. Authentic, diverse, open - Arma 3 sends you to war. (Steam)
Plot
Setting The flag of the Republic of Altis and Stratis, the primary setting of Arma 3 Arma 3 takes place in the Arma series' fictional universe , set in the near future of the 2030s, during a multipolar period of global instability following Western isolationism , economic crises , and climate change . The main plot events are primarily set in the Aegean island country of the Republic of Altis and Stratis in 2034 and 2035. Other plot events occur as early… (Wikipedia)
Reception
Reception Arma 3 has received favorable reviews, garnering a score of 74 out of 100 on the review aggregation website Metacritic based on 38 reviews, and a user score of 7. 6 based on 1048 ratings. Praise was directed toward the gameplay, game engine, graphics, physics, and sense of realism, but criticism was directed toward the game's difficulty, unfriendliness toward new and inexperienced players, and complex controls. (Wikipedia)
ARMA, head to head
Two entries side by side on score, price, specs and reception:
ARMA vs other series
How ARMA stacks up against other series in the same genre, as a whole:
Also: ARMA vs Saints Row, ARMA vs Serious Sam, ARMA vs Borderlands, ARMA vs Car Mechanic Simulator, ARMA vs Crysis, ARMA vs Dead Island, ARMA vs Dishonored, ARMA vs Mafia, ARMA vs Max Payne, ARMA vs Red Faction, ARMA vs Sniper Elite, ARMA vs Sniper Ghost Warrior, ARMA vs Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, ARMA vs America's Army, ARMA vs Bright Memory, ARMA vs Burnout Paradise, ARMA vs Homefront, ARMA vs Jurassic World Evolution, ARMA vs Metal Gear, ARMA vs POSTAL, ARMA vs RAGE, ARMA vs Red Dead Redemption, ARMA vs Sea of Thieves, ARMA vs Shadow Warrior, ARMA vs Slime Rancher, ARMA vs Sniper, ARMA vs Squad, ARMA vs Subnautica, ARMA vs Thief, ARMA vs Transport Fever, ARMA vs Universe Sandbox, ARMA vs Z1 Battle Royale, ARMA vs Zombie Army
Common questions
How many ARMA games are there?
We hold 4 ARMA games in the catalogue, released between 2009 and 2013. 4 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 ARMA game is best?
By the GamingPickz Score, ARMA 3 rates highest at 7.7. 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 ARMA games in?
Release order is listed below, from 2009 to 2013. 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.