Every Bloons TD game, ranked
All 2 Bloons TD games we hold, spanning 2016 to 2018: 2 ranked by the GamingPickz Score and plotted below, the rest listed in release order so nothing in the series is missing. Together they carry 423,667 Steam reviews.
Where to start
- For the best-reviewed: Bloons TD 6 (GamingPickz Score 8.8), the highest-rated entry we can score.
- For canon order: begin with Bloons TD Battles (2016) and follow the release-order timeline below.
The Bloons TD games on the grid
Compare the whole catalogueThe same 2 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.
2 games have both
Axes are fitted to these 2 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.
2 best Bloons TD games, ranked
Ordered by GamingPickz Score. Every figure links back to the source that produced it.
- 1
Bloons TD 6
Best for: The safest bet on this list, by weight of evidence
8.8GamingPickz Scoremedium confidenceBloons TD 6 at a glance Released 2018 Studio Ninja Kiwi Player sentiment 97% positive of 394,354 Critics No aggregate Price $13.99 Steam Deck playable Install size 2 GB Accessibility 0 declared features Raw 97% shrinks to 97.0 on 394,354 reviews, giving 8.8. No critics data, so that weight was redistributed across the rest rather than counted as zero.
What the data supports- 97% positive across 394,354 reviews is a strong signal at that volume, where a few enthusiasts cannot move the number.
- Small install at 2 GB.
Worth checking first- Carries in-game purchases. Check what they cost before committing.
- 2
Bloons TD Battles
Best for: Trying the genre without spending anything
7.8GamingPickz Scoremedium confidenceBloons TD Battles at a glance Released 2016 Studio Ninja Kiwi Player sentiment 91% positive of 29,313 Critics No aggregate Price Free Steam Deck playable Install size 0.5 GB Accessibility 0 declared features Raw 91% shrinks to 90.9 on 29,313 reviews, giving 7.8. No critics data, so that weight was redistributed across the rest rather than counted as zero.
What the data supports- Free to download, so trying it costs only time.
- Small install at 0.5 GB.
Worth checking first- Carries in-game purchases. Check what they cost before committing.
Best and worst entry
The best-received Bloons TD game we can score is Bloons TD 6 at 8.8. The lowest is Bloons TD Battles at 7.8, 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.
Cheapest way in, and best value
- Cheapest right now: Bloons TD Battles at Free. Prices are read live from Steam and move.
- Best value: Bloons TD 6, 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 Bloons TD entries on Steam:
- Playable: Bloons TD Battles, Bloons TD 6
Platforms across the series
Where the 2 Bloons TD games have landed, counting every entry we hold:
| Platform family | Entries |
|---|---|
| PC | 2 of 2 |
The Bloons TD series, game by game
Every Bloons TD 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.
- 2016
Go head to head with other players in a Bloon-popping battle for victory. From the creators of best-selling Bloons TD 6, this all new Battles game is specially designed for multiplayer combat, featuring the ability to control bloons directly and send them charging past your opponent's defenses. (Steam)
Reception
Shortly after the release of Bloons Tower Defense , Lore Sjöberg of Wired described the game as cheerful and addictive, calling it "pop culture at its best". In 2012, Justin Davis of IGN described Bloons Tower Defense as one of the best free tower defense games, despite its "amateurish" artwork. He later noted the first entry's lack of depth, and that the sequel improved this. (Wikipedia)
- 2018
Bloons TD 6
8.8The Bloons are back and better than ever! Get ready for a massive 3D tower defense game designed to give you hours and hours of the best strategy gaming available. (Steam)
Reception
Bloons TD 6 received mostly positive reviews from critics. New Zealand Game Developers Association secretary Stephen Knightly praised the depth of the gameplay in Bloons TD 6 , specifically the visual appeal to a general audience and the level of complexity for more experienced players: "It's fun and friendly, so it's accessible, but under the surface it's quite complicated". Although praise was given for its extended gameplay variety, it was also… (Wikipedia)
Bloons TD, head to head
Two entries side by side on score, price, specs and reception:
Bloons TD vs other series
How Bloons TD stacks up against other series in the same genre, as a whole:
Also: Bloons TD vs Tropico, Bloons TD vs ENDLESS Space, Bloons TD vs Europa Universalis, Bloons TD vs Frostpunk, Bloons TD vs Hearts of Iron, Bloons TD vs Kingdom, Bloons TD vs Men of War, Bloons TD vs Sanctum, Bloons TD vs Stronghold Crusader, Bloons TD vs Town of Salem, Bloons TD vs Victoria
Common questions
How many Bloons TD games are there?
We hold 2 Bloons TD games in the catalogue, released between 2016 and 2018. 2 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 Bloons TD game is best?
By the GamingPickz Score, Bloons TD 6 rates highest at 8.8. 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 Bloons TD games in?
Release order is listed below, from 2016 to 2018. 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.