Every Quake game, ranked
All 3 Quake games we hold, spanning 1996 to 2005: 3 ranked by the GamingPickz Score and plotted below, the rest listed in release order so nothing in the series is missing. Together they carry 30,649 Steam reviews.
Where to start
- For the best-reviewed: Quake (GamingPickz Score 8.4), the highest-rated entry we can score.
The Quake games on the grid
Compare the whole catalogueThe same 3 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.
3 games have both
Axes are fitted to these 3 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.
- Multi-platform
- Xbox
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.
3 best Quake games, ranked
Ordered by GamingPickz Score. Every figure links back to the source that produced it.
Quake at a glance Released 1996 Studio Nightdive Studios Player sentiment 96% positive of 16,302 Critics 94/100 Price $9.99 Steam Deck verified Install size Not stated Accessibility 1 declared feature Raw 96% shrinks to 95.7 on 16,302 reviews, then blends with the 94 critic aggregate, giving 8.4.
What the data supports- Valve has tested it and rates it Verified on the Steam Deck.
- Cloud saves and cross-platform play, so progress follows you between machines.
Worth checking first- Flagged for mature content on its store page.
Nintendo 64PCPlayStation 4PlayStation 5Xbox OneXbox Series X and Series S
Quake II at a glance Released 1997 Studio Not recorded Player sentiment 95% positive of 10,370 Critics No aggregate Price $9.99 Steam Deck verified Install size Not stated Accessibility 6 declared features Raw 95% shrinks to 94.6 on 10,370 reviews, giving 7.9. 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.
- Cloud saves and cross-platform play, so progress follows you between machines.
Worth checking first- Flagged for mature content on its store page.
Quake 4 at a glance Released 2005 Studio Raven Software Player sentiment 88% positive of 3,977 Critics 81/100 Price $14.99 Steam Deck playable Install size Not stated Accessibility 0 declared features Raw 88% shrinks to 87.6 on 3,977 reviews, then blends with the 81 critic aggregate, giving 7.4.
Worth checking first- Flagged for mature content on its store page.
Best and worst entry
The best-received Quake game we can score is Quake at 8.4. The lowest is Quake 4 at 7.4, 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.
How the series scored over time
GamingPickz Score against release year, 1996 to 2005. The later entries score lower than the earlier ones: the series has been trending down.
Cheapest way in, and best value
- Cheapest right now: Quake at $9.99. Prices are read live from Steam and move.
- Best value: Quake, 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 Quake entries on Steam:
- Verified: Quake, Quake II
- Playable: Quake 4
Platforms across the series
Where the 3 Quake games have landed, counting every entry we hold:
| Platform family | Entries |
|---|---|
| PC | 3 of 3 |
| PlayStation | 2 of 3 |
| Xbox | 3 of 3 |
| Nintendo | 2 of 3 |
The Quake series, game by game
Every Quake 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
- 1997
Quake II
7.9You are humanity’s last hope to stop the Strogg, a hostile alien race waging war against Earth. Play this military sci-fi FPS, now upgraded for modern platforms with improved visuals, new campaign content, online multiplayer/co-op, and more. (Steam)
Plot
Quake II takes place in a science fiction environment set against the backdrop of a war between humanity and an alien race known as the Strogg , who capture and convert organic creatures into horrific cyborgs for their war machine. In the single-player game, the player assumes the role of a Marine named Bitterman taking part in "Operation Alien Overlord", a desperate attempt to end the war by launching a counter-offensive on the alien home planet of… (Wikipedia)
Reception
Critical reception Reception Quake II received very positive reviews across all platforms. Next Generation reviewed the PC version of the game and stated that "all in all, id should be commended for the advancement of its technology and improvement in its single-player level design, but it's going to be up to mod designers to provide the necessary additions to the multiplayer game in order to make it stand out from Quake . " GamePro said the game "lives… (Wikipedia)
- 2005
Quake 4
7.4As part of the elite Rhino Squad, you must spearhead Earth’s military invasion of a hostile alien homeworld. But, in this desperate war for humanity’s survival against an unrelenting enemy, you may discover that the only way to defeat them...is to become one of them. (Steam)
Plot
Corporal Matthew Kane prepares to take out the Strogg Nexus with his Rail Gun. The Quake 4 single player mode continues the story of Quake II by pitting the player against cyborg alien race known as the Strogg . The game follows the story of a Marine Corporal named Matthew Kane who is joining the elite Rhino Squad. (Wikipedia)
Reception
Critical reception Reception Quake 4 s PC version received a "Silver" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom. Quake 4 received generally favorable reviews regarding the PC version of the game, with game database Metacritic giving the game an aggregate review score of 81/100. Websites and magazines such as IGN and UGO praised its… (Wikipedia)
Quake, head to head
Two entries side by side on score, price, specs and reception:
Quake vs other series
How Quake stacks up against other series in the same genre, as a whole:
Also: Quake vs Max Payne, Quake vs BioShock, Quake vs Deep Rock Galactic, Quake vs Infestation, Quake vs Killing Floor, Quake vs Left 4 Dead, Quake vs Outlast, Quake vs POSTAL, Quake vs Thief, Quake vs World War, Quake vs Zombie Army
Common questions
How many Quake games are there?
We hold 3 Quake games in the catalogue, released between 1996 and 2005. 3 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 Quake game is best?
By the GamingPickz Score, Quake rates highest at 8.4. 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 Quake games in?
Release order is listed below, from 1996 to 2005. 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.