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Every Hotline Miami game, ranked

All 2 Hotline Miami games we hold, spanning 2012 to 2015: 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 207,781 Steam reviews.

Where to start

  • For the best-reviewed: Hotline Miami (GamingPickz Score 8.3), the highest-rated entry we can score.

The Hotline Miami games on the grid

Compare the whole catalogue

The 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

83994865Players →Popularity →Hotline MiamiHotline Miami 2: Wrong N…

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.

  • Mobile
  • 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 Hotline Miami games, ranked

Ordered by GamingPickz Score. Every figure links back to the source that produced it.

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  1. 1Hotline Miami logo

    Hotline Miami

    Best for: A consistently well-received pick in this category

    8.3GamingPickz Scorehigh confidence
    Hotline Miami at a glance
    Released2012StudioDennaton Games
    Player sentiment97% positive of 127,794Critics85/100
    Price$9.99Steam Deckverified
    Install sizeNot statedAccessibility1 declared feature

    Raw 97% shrinks to 97.0 on 127,794 reviews, then blends with the 85 critic aggregate, giving 8.3.

    What the data supports
    • 97% positive across 127,794 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.
    Worth checking first
    • Flagged for mature content on its store page.

    AndroidAndroid TabletPlayStation VitaPlayStation 5Xbox Series X and Series SSteam Deck

    Full entryGames like thisStore page

  2. 2Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number logo

    Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number

    Best for: Handheld play, small install and Deck verified

    7.7GamingPickz Scoremedium confidence
    Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number at a glance
    Released2015StudioDennaton Games
    Player sentiment94% positive of 79,987CriticsNo aggregate
    Price$14.99Steam Deckverified
    Install size0.59 GBAccessibility1 declared feature

    Raw 94% shrinks to 93.9 on 79,987 reviews, giving 7.7. 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.
    • Small install at 0.59 GB.
    Worth checking first
    • Flagged for mature content on its store page.

    PlayStation VitaSteam Deck

    Full entryGames like thisModsStore page

Best and worst entry

The best-received Hotline Miami game we can score is Hotline Miami at 8.3. The lowest is Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number at 7.7, a 0.6-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: Hotline Miami at $9.99. Prices are read live from Steam and move.
  • Best value: Hotline Miami, 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 Hotline Miami entries on Steam:

  • Verified: Hotline Miami, Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number

Platforms across the series

Where the 2 Hotline Miami games have landed, counting every entry we hold:

Platform familyEntries
PC2 of 2
PlayStation1 of 2
Xbox1 of 2
Mobile1 of 2

The Hotline Miami series, game by game

Every Hotline Miami 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.

  1. 2012

    Hotline Miami

    8.3

    Dennaton Games · android, android-tablet, ps-vita, ps5

    Hotline Miami is a high-octane action game overflowing with raw brutality, hard-boiled gunplay and skull crushing close combat. (Steam)

    ViolentActionIndiePixel Graphics

    Plot

    In April 1989, Jacket receives a message on his answering machine and a package is delivered to his door containing a rooster mask. The package contains instructions advising Jacket to retrieve a briefcase from the Russian mafia at a metro station. After carrying out the mission, Jacket continues to receive messages instructing him to conduct more massacres. (Wikipedia)

    Reception

    Reception Hotline Miami received generally positive reviews from critics. On review aggregator website Metacritic , it holds an aggregate score of 85 per cent based on 51 reviews for the PC version, 87 per cent based on 19 reviews for the PlayStation 3 version, and 85 per cent based on 27 reviews for the PlayStation Vita version. Several reviewers praised the gameplay. (Wikipedia)

  2. 2015

    Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number

    7.7

    Dennaton Games · ps-vita, steam-deck

    Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is the brutal conclusion to the Hotline Miami saga, set against a backdrop of escalating violence and retribution over spilled blood in the original game. (Steam)

    GorePixel GraphicsViolentAction

    Plot

    Characters and setting The events of Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number are presented out of chronological order: before, during, and after the events of Hotline Miami (2012), focusing on events in 1985, 1989, and 1991 respectively. After the events of the original game, the player character, Jacket, is arrested, having been manipulated by 50 Blessings—a neo-nationalist terror cell posing as a peaceful activist group—into assassinating the Russian mafia's… (Wikipedia)

    Characters

    The events of Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number are presented out of chronological order: before, during, and after the events of Hotline Miami (2012), focusing on events in 1985, 1989, and 1991 respectively. After the events of the original game, the player character, Jacket, is arrested, having been manipulated by 50 Blessings—a neo-nationalist terror cell posing as a peaceful activist group—into assassinating the Russian mafia's leadership, which leads to… (Wikipedia)

    Reception

    Reception Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number received generally positive reviews from critics. On Metacritic , it holds an aggregated score of 74 per cent based on 67 reviews for the PC version, 75 per cent based on 18 reviews for the PlayStation 4 Version, and 66 per cent based on 4 reviews for the PlayStation Vita version. The gameplay received a mixed response from critics, who felt the narrative ambition generally led to larger and more challenging… (Wikipedia)

Hotline Miami, head to head

Two entries side by side on score, price, specs and reception:

Hotline Miami vs Hotline Miami 2: Wrong NumberScores, price and specs side by side

Common questions

How many Hotline Miami games are there?

We hold 2 Hotline Miami games in the catalogue, released between 2012 and 2015. 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 Hotline Miami game is best?

By the GamingPickz Score, Hotline Miami rates highest at 8.3. 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 Hotline Miami games in?

Release order is listed below, from 2012 to 2015. 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.