Every Command & Conquer game, ranked
All 5 Command & Conquer games we hold, spanning 1996 to 2020: 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 44,294 Steam reviews.
Where to start
- For the best-reviewed: Command & Conquer Remastered Collection (GamingPickz Score 8.0), the highest-rated entry we can score.
- For canon order: begin with Command & Conquer: Red Alert (1996) and follow the release-order timeline below.
The Command & Conquer 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.
Every game by critic score
The grid above is built from Steam data, so it can only place the Command & Conquer games that were on Steam. This one uses the Metacritic critic aggregate, which the older console-only entries have too, so the whole series lands on a single chart: critic score against release year.
On Steam (also has a GamingPickz Score) Console-only (Metacritic only)
2 best Command & Conquer games, ranked
Ordered by GamingPickz Score. Every figure links back to the source that produced it.
- 1
Command & Conquer Remastered Collection
Best for: Playing with other people
8.0GamingPickz Scorehigh confidenceCommand & Conquer Remastered Collection at a glance Released 2020 Studio Petroglyph Player sentiment 91% positive of 34,961 Critics 82/100 Price $19.99 Steam Deck playable Install size 32 GB Accessibility 0 declared features Raw 91% shrinks to 90.9 on 34,961 reviews, then blends with the 82 critic aggregate, giving 8.0.
- 2
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
Best for: A consistently well-received pick in this category
7.7GamingPickz Scoremedium confidenceCommand & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars at a glance Released 2007 Studio Danger Close Games Player sentiment 90% positive of 9,333 Critics 85/100 Price Not listed Steam Deck playable Install size Not stated Accessibility 0 declared features Raw 90% shrinks to 89.7 on 9,333 reviews, then blends with the 85 critic aggregate, giving 7.7.
Only the 2 Command & Conquer games with Steam review data can be scored and ranked. The complete series, scored or not, is charted in order below.
Best and worst entry
The best-received Command & Conquer game we can score is Command & Conquer Remastered Collection at 8.0. The lowest is Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars at 7.7, a 0.3-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: Command & Conquer Remastered Collection at $19.99. Prices are read live from Steam and move.
- Best value: Command & Conquer Remastered Collection, 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 Command & Conquer entries on Steam:
- Playable: Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, Command & Conquer Remastered Collection
Platforms across the series
Where the 5 Command & Conquer games have landed, counting every entry we hold:
| Platform family | Entries |
|---|---|
| PC | 5 of 5 |
| PlayStation | 1 of 5 |
The Command & Conquer series, game by game
Every Command & Conquer 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.
- 1996
Command & Conquer: Red Alert
Metacritic 90Command & Conquer: Red Alert is a real-time strategy video game in the Command & Conquer franchise, developed and published by Westwood Studios in 1996. The second game to bear the Command & Conquer title, Red Alert is the prequel to the original Command & Conquer of 1995, and takes place in the alternate early history… (Wikipedia)
Plot
Command Conquer: Red Alert takes place in a parallel universe. At the Trinity Site in New Mexico in 1946, Albert Einstein prepares to travel back in time. He activates his experimental time machine and returns to Landsberg , Germany , on December 20, 1924, where he meets Adolf Hitler just after the latter's release from Landsberg Prison . (Wikipedia)
Reception
Sales In the United States, Command Conquer: Red Alert debuted at No. 2 on PC Data 's computer game sales chart for November 1996, behind Microsoft Flight Simulator . Following a third-place finish in December, it became the United States' seventh-best-selling computer game of 1996 as a whole. (Wikipedia)
- 2000
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2
Metacritic 84Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 is a real-time strategy video game released for Microsoft Windows on October 25, 2000, as the follow-up to Command & Conquer: Red Alert. Red Alert 2 picks up after the Allied campaign of the first game. Its expansion pack is Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge, released a year later in… (Wikipedia)
Plot
Setting Like previous Command Conquer real-time strategy games, Command Conquer: Red Alert 2 contains two separate campaigns with distinct story lines, one for each playable faction. Red Alert 2 is set in the same alternative history universe as Red Alert in which Adolf Hitler was erased from history by Albert Einstein who travelled to the past through a Time Machine. However, although Hitler is gone, the Soviet Union has taken place of Nazi Germany to… (Wikipedia)
Characters
Ray Wise as President Michael Dugan Barry Corbin as Gen. Ben Carville Kari Wuhrer as Special Agent Tanya Adams Athena Massey as Lt. Eva Lee Larry Gelman as Albert Einstein Nicholas Worth as Premier Alexander Romanov Udo Kier as Yuri Adam Gregor as Gen. (Wikipedia)
Reception
Sales In the United States, Red Alert 2 debuted at No. 1 on PC Data 's computer game sales chart for the October 22–28 period. Holding the position in its second week, the title became October's ninth-biggest computer game seller, according to PC Data. (Wikipedia)
- 2007
The year is 2047. A massive nuclear fireball explodes high in the night sky, marking the dramatic beginning of the Third Tiberium War and the long-awaited return of the most groundbreaking Real-Time Strategy franchise of all time (Steam)
Plot
Setting Command Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars takes place within an alternate timeline, in which an alien substance called Tiberium lands on Earth in the 1990s and begins terra-forming the planet's ecology and landscape. Although the substance creates crystals containing precious metals leached from the surrounding soils, the process also transforms all plant life into alien flora that produces fatally toxic gas. By the 2040s, the planet's ecological state… (Wikipedia)
Characters
Joseph D. Kucan reprises his role as Kane , the leader of the Brotherhood of Nod. Tiberium Wars also features Tricia Helfer as Nod General Kilian Qatar, Josh Holloway as Nod Intelligence Officer Ajay, Michael Ironside as GDI General Jack Granger, Jennifer Morrison as GDI Intelligence Officer Kirce James, Grace Park as Lt. (Wikipedia)
Reception
Reviews Reception PC Gamer U. S. gave the game its "Editor's Choice" rating at 90%, stating that "one of the greatest RTS franchises of all time returns to glory", while PC Gamer Sweden and UK gave it a more reserved rating of 81% and 82% respectively, stating that it was "a welcome, but limited, return". (Wikipedia)
- 2008
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
Metacritic 82Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 is a real-time strategy video game developed by EA Los Angeles and published by Electronic Arts. It was released in October 2008 in the United States and Europe for Microsoft Windows. An Xbox 360 version was released on November 11. In addition, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – Ultimate… (Wikipedia)
Plot
As the Soviet Union faces defeat at the hands of the Allied Nations , Soviet General Nikolai Krukov (played by Andrew Divoff ) and Colonel Anatoly Cherdenko ru ( Tim Curry ) use a time machine beneath the Kremlin to travel back to Brussels in the year 1927 at the Solvay International Physics Conference and eliminate Albert Einstein , thus changing the future. Returning to the present, they discover that Cherdenko is the Premier of the Soviet Union , much… (Wikipedia)
Reception
Reception Command Conquer: Red Alert 3 received generally favorable reviews with an average critic score of 82/100 on Metacritic , citing a strong cooperative and multiplayer component. During the 12th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards , the Academy of Interactive Arts Sciences awarded Red Alert 3 with " Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year ". ^ "Command Conquer: Red Alert 3 for PC Reviews" . (Wikipedia)
- 2020
Command & Conquer and Red Alert are both remastered in 4K by the former Westwood Studios team members. Includes all 3 expansions, rebuilt multiplayer, a modernized UI, Map Editor, bonus footage gallery, and over 7 hours of remastered music. (Steam)
Plot
See also: Command Conquer (1995 video game) § Plot See also: Command Conquer: Red Alert § Plot Command Conquer: Remastered Collection consists of two games: Command Conquer: Remastered and Command Conquer: Red Alert - Remastered . They contain the same plot as their original counterparts, with visual changes and upscaled full motion video cinematic footage. ^ Macgregor, Jody (March 8, 2020). (Wikipedia)
Reception
Reception Command Conquer Remastered Collection received "generally favorable reviews", according to review aggregator Metacritic . Fellow review aggregator OpenCritic assessed that the game received "mighty" approval, being recommended by 92% of critics. Alex Battaglia of Digital Foundry wrote that " Command and Conquer Remastered plays, looks, and sounds great". (Wikipedia)
Command & Conquer, head to head
Two entries side by side on score, price, specs and reception:
Common questions
How many Command & Conquer games are there?
We hold 5 Command & Conquer games in the catalogue, released between 1996 and 2020. 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 Command & Conquer game is best?
By the GamingPickz Score, Command & Conquer Remastered Collection rates highest at 8.0. 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 Command & Conquer games in?
Release order is listed below, from 1996 to 2020. For most series that is also story order, but we list dates rather than telling you a canon; the timeline is read from Wikidata.
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