Every Payday game, ranked
All 2 Payday games we hold, spanning 2013 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 739,623 Steam reviews.
Where to start
- For the best-reviewed: Payday 2 (GamingPickz Score 7.9), the highest-rated entry we can score.
The Payday 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.
- Nintendo
- 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 Payday games, ranked
Ordered by GamingPickz Score. Every figure links back to the source that produced it.
- 1
Payday 2
Best for: The safest bet on this list, by weight of evidence
7.9GamingPickz Scorehigh confidencePayday 2 at a glance Released 2013 Studio Overkill Software Player sentiment 89% positive of 674,295 Critics 79/100 Price $9.99 Steam Deck verified Install size 32 GB Accessibility 6 declared features Raw 89% shrinks to 89.0 on 674,295 reviews, then blends with the 79 critic aggregate, giving 7.9.
What the data supports- 89% positive across 674,295 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- Carries in-game purchases. Check what they cost before committing.
- Flagged for mature content on its store page.
PAYDAY 3 at a glance Released 2023 Studio Starbreeze Studios Player sentiment 46% positive of 65,328 Critics 66/100 Price $14.99 Steam Deck playable Install size 45 GB Accessibility 7 declared features Raw 46% shrinks to 46.2 on 65,328 reviews, then blends with the 66 critic aggregate, giving 5.4.
What the data supports- Declares 7 accessibility features, well above the catalogue norm.
- Cloud saves and cross-platform play, so progress follows you between machines.
Worth checking first- Critics rate it well above players, 66 against 46. Worth reading why before buying.
- Carries in-game purchases. Check what they cost before committing.
- Flagged for mature content on its store page.
Best and worst entry
The best-received Payday game we can score is Payday 2 at 7.9. The lowest is PAYDAY 3 at 5.4, a 2.5-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: Payday 2 at $9.99. Prices are read live from Steam and move.
- Best value: Payday 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 Payday entries on Steam:
- Verified: Payday 2
- Playable: PAYDAY 3
Platforms across the series
Where the 2 Payday games have landed, counting every entry we hold:
| Platform family | Entries |
|---|---|
| PC | 2 of 2 |
| Nintendo | 1 of 2 |
The Payday series, game by game
Every Payday 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.
- 2013
Payday 2
7.9PAYDAY 2 is an action-packed, four-player co-op shooter that once again lets gamers don the masks of the original PAYDAY crew - Dallas, Hoxton, Wolf and Chains - as they descend on Washington DC for an epic crime spree. (Steam)
Plot
Payday 2 follows the events of Payday: The Heist , with three of the crew members – Dallas (portrayed by Eric Etebari , voiced by Simon Kerr), Wolf (Ulf Andersson), and Chains ( Damion Poitier ) – as well as their operator Bain (Simon Viklund) returning. Hoxton (portrayed by Josh Lenn, voiced by Pete Gold), the fourth member in the previous game, has been arrested by the FBI and replaced by Dallas' brother Houston (Derek Ray). After a brief hiatus from… (Wikipedia)
Reception
Critical reception Reception Payday 2 has received generally positive reviews from critics with general praise from the cooperative elements, but heavy criticism for the friendly AI. Vince Ingenito of IGN praised its cooperative gameplay, stealth mechanics and sound design, but was not as impressed at graphical quality. David Hinkle of Joystiq was impressed at the depth of customization, level progression and random elements. (Wikipedia)
- 2023
Payday, head to head
Two entries side by side on score, price, specs and reception:
Payday vs other series
How Payday stacks up against other series in the same genre, as a whole:
Also: Payday vs Counter-Strike, Payday vs Orcs Must Die!, Payday vs Anno, Payday vs Sniper Elite, Payday vs Sniper Ghost Warrior, Payday vs Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, Payday vs Tropico, Payday vs Age of History, Payday vs America's Army, Payday vs Beholder, Payday vs Brothers in Arms, Payday vs Call to Arms, Payday vs Chivalry, Payday vs Day of Defeat, Payday vs Door Kickers, Payday vs Dungeons, Payday vs ENDLESS Space, Payday vs Enlisted, Payday vs Europa Universalis, Payday vs Frostpunk, Payday vs Hearts of Iron, Payday vs Insurgency, Payday vs Kingdom, Payday vs Men of War, Payday vs Overcooked, Payday vs Poker Night, Payday vs Red Orchestra, Payday vs Sanctum, Payday vs Slime Rancher, Payday vs Sniper, Payday vs Soda Dungeon, Payday vs Stronghold, Payday vs Stronghold Crusader, Payday vs Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, Payday vs Victoria, Payday vs World of Tanks
Common questions
How many Payday games are there?
We hold 2 Payday games in the catalogue, released between 2013 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 Payday game is best?
By the GamingPickz Score, Payday 2 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 Payday games in?
Release order is listed below, from 2013 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.
More franchises
Browse every game franchise ranked the same way, or head to the full grid.