Every Darkest Dungeon game, ranked
All 2 Darkest Dungeon games we hold, spanning 2016 to 2023: 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 188,743 Steam reviews.
Where to start
- For the best-reviewed: Darkest Dungeon (GamingPickz Score 7.9), the highest-rated entry we can score.
The Darkest Dungeon 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
- PlayStation
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 Darkest Dungeon games, ranked
Ordered by GamingPickz Score. Every figure links back to the source that produced it.
- 1
Darkest Dungeon
Best for: Handheld play, small install and Deck verified
7.9GamingPickz Scorehigh confidenceDarkest Dungeon at a glance Released 2016 Studio Red Hook Studios Player sentiment 92% positive of 161,942 Critics 84/100 Price $3.74 Steam Deck verified Install size 2 GB Accessibility 1 declared feature Raw 92% shrinks to 92.0 on 161,942 reviews, then blends with the 84 critic aggregate, giving 7.9.
What the data supports- 92% positive across 161,942 reviews is a strong signal at that volume, where a few enthusiasts cannot move the number.
- Valve has tested it and rates it Verified on the Steam Deck.
- Small install at 2 GB.
- 2
Darkest Dungeon II
Best for: Handheld play, small install and Deck verified
7.0GamingPickz Scorehigh confidenceDarkest Dungeon II at a glance Released 2023 Studio Red Hook Studios Player sentiment 75% positive of 26,801 Critics 81/100 Price $12.39 Steam Deck verified Install size 6 GB Accessibility 1 declared feature Raw 75% shrinks to 75.1 on 26,801 reviews, then blends with the 81 critic aggregate, giving 7.0.
What the data supports- Valve has tested it and rates it Verified on the Steam Deck.
- Small install at 6 GB.
Worth checking first- Flagged for mature content on its store page.
Best and worst entry
The best-received Darkest Dungeon game we can score is Darkest Dungeon at 7.9. The lowest is Darkest Dungeon II at 7.0, a 0.9-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: Darkest Dungeon at $3.74. Prices are read live from Steam and move.
- Best value: Darkest Dungeon, 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 Darkest Dungeon entries on Steam:
- Verified: Darkest Dungeon, Darkest Dungeon II
Platforms across the series
Where the 2 Darkest Dungeon games have landed, counting every entry we hold:
| Platform family | Entries |
|---|---|
| PC | 2 of 2 |
The Darkest Dungeon series, game by game
Every Darkest Dungeon 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
Darkest Dungeon is a challenging gothic roguelike turn-based RPG about the psychological stresses of adventuring. Recruit, train, and lead a team of flawed heroes against unimaginable horrors, stress, disease, and the ever-encroaching dark. Can you keep your heroes together when all hope is lost? (Steam)
Plot
At the outset of Darkest Dungeon , the player learns that they have inherited an estate from an Ancestor who, while seeking to fulfill his ambiguous ambitions by excavating the dungeons and catacombs beneath his manor , has unearthed some terrible monstrosity and released a number of horrific and evil creatures and corruptions onto the world. Now as the owner of the estate and the surrounding lands, the player must recruit a roster of adventurers and… (Wikipedia)
Reception
Reception The game received generally positive reviews on its full release in 2016, holding a score of 84 out of 100 on Metacritic . The Escapist awarded it a score of 4 out of 5, saying "Darkest Dungeon will kill your party, drive you insane, and leave you a gibbering mess at the Sanitarium. Yet it's so compelling and rewarding at the same time, you won't be able to resist diving back in for one more quest. (Wikipedia)
- 2023
Darkest Dungeon II is a roguelike road trip of the damned. Form a party, equip your stagecoach, and set off across the decaying landscape on a last gasp quest to avert the apocalypse. The greatest dangers you face, however, may come from within... (Steam)
Plot
Some time after the temporary defeat of the Heart of Darkness , a scientist known as the Scholar begins experimenting with an Eldritch force called the Iron Crown. However, the experiments go awry and the Iron Crown's powers go out of control, causing a "realignment" of the planet that sends the majority of the human population into madness and allows Eldritch beings to invade the physical world. The Scholar meanwhile finds himself trapped in an eternal… (Wikipedia)
Reception
Reception According to the review aggregator platform Metacritic , Darkest Dungeon II received "generally favorable reviews". 100,000 copies were sold on the day of the game's early access release. Red Hook announced that the game had sold more than 500,000 copies a week after it left early access. (Wikipedia)
Darkest Dungeon, head to head
Two entries side by side on score, price, specs and reception:
Darkest Dungeon vs other series
How Darkest Dungeon stacks up against other series in the same genre, as a whole:
Also: Darkest Dungeon vs Divinity, Darkest Dungeon vs Dungeons, Darkest Dungeon vs Hades, Darkest Dungeon vs Heroes of Hammerwatch, Darkest Dungeon vs Kingdom Rush, Darkest Dungeon vs Might & Magic, Darkest Dungeon vs Pathfinder, Darkest Dungeon vs Shadowrun, Darkest Dungeon vs Soda Dungeon, Darkest Dungeon vs Town of Salem, Darkest Dungeon vs Wasteland, Darkest Dungeon vs XCOM
Common questions
How many Darkest Dungeon games are there?
We hold 2 Darkest Dungeon games in the catalogue, released between 2016 and 2023. 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 Darkest Dungeon game is best?
By the GamingPickz Score, Darkest Dungeon rates highest at 7.9. 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 Darkest Dungeon games in?
Release order is listed below, from 2016 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.
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