Every Risk of Rain game, ranked
All 3 Risk of Rain games we hold, spanning 2013 to 2023: 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 410,644 Steam reviews.
Where to start
- For the best-reviewed: Risk of Rain 2 (GamingPickz Score 8.6), the highest-rated entry we can score.
- For canon order: begin with Risk of Rain (2013) (2013) and follow the release-order timeline below.
- For the money: Risk of Rain (2013) gives the most score per dollar right now.
The Risk of Rain 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.
- 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.
3 best Risk of Rain games, ranked
Ordered by GamingPickz Score. Every figure links back to the source that produced it.
- 1
Risk of Rain 2
Best for: The safest bet on this list, by weight of evidence
8.6GamingPickz Scorehigh confidenceRisk of Rain 2 at a glance Released 2020 Studio Hopoo Games Player sentiment 94% positive of 352,120 Critics 85/100 Price $8.24 Steam Deck playable Install size 4 GB Accessibility 6 declared features Raw 94% shrinks to 94.0 on 352,120 reviews, then blends with the 85 critic aggregate, giving 8.6.
What the data supports- 94% positive across 352,120 reviews is a strong signal at that volume, where a few enthusiasts cannot move the number.
- Small install at 4 GB.
- 2
Risk of Rain (2013)
Best for: Players who trust other players over critics
7.9GamingPickz Scorehigh confidenceRisk of Rain (2013) at a glance Released 2013 Studio Hopoo Games Player sentiment 93% positive of 29,833 Critics 77/100 Price $1.99 Steam Deck playable Install size 0.13 GB Accessibility 6 declared features Raw 93% shrinks to 92.9 on 29,833 reviews, then blends with the 77 critic aggregate, giving 7.9.
What the data supports- Small install at 0.13 GB.
Worth checking first- Players rate it well above critics, 93 against 77. Usually a sign it improved after launch, or that it delivers something reviewers undervalued.
- 3
Risk of Rain Returns
Best for: Players who need accessibility options that actually exist
7.8GamingPickz Scoremedium confidenceRisk of Rain Returns at a glance Released 2023 Studio Hopoo Games Player sentiment 90% positive of 28,691 Critics No aggregate Price $7.49 Steam Deck verified Install size 0.34 GB Accessibility 9 declared features Raw 90% shrinks to 89.9 on 28,691 reviews, giving 7.8. 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.
- Declares 9 accessibility features, well above the catalogue norm.
- Small install at 0.34 GB.
Best and worst entry
The best-received Risk of Rain game we can score is Risk of Rain 2 at 8.6. The lowest is Risk of Rain Returns at 7.8, a 0.8-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, 2013 to 2023. It has held roughly steady across the years.
Cheapest way in, and best value
- Cheapest right now: Risk of Rain (2013) at $1.99. Prices are read live from Steam and move.
- Best value: Risk of Rain (2013), 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 Risk of Rain entries on Steam:
- Verified: Risk of Rain Returns
- Playable: Risk of Rain (2013), Risk of Rain 2
Platforms across the series
Where the 3 Risk of Rain games have landed, counting every entry we hold:
| Platform family | Entries |
|---|---|
| PC | 3 of 3 |
The Risk of Rain series, game by game
Every Risk of Rain 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
Risk of Rain is an action platformer with roguelike elements. With permanent death as a primary feature, players will have to play their best to get as far as possible. Fight on a mysterious planet with randomly spawning enemies and bosses, either alone or with 3 friends in online co-op. (Steam)
- 2020
Escape a chaotic alien planet by fighting through hordes of frenzied monsters – with your friends, or on your own. Combine loot in surprising ways and master each character until you become the havoc you feared upon your first crash landing. (Steam)
Reception
Reception Upon its launch into early access , Hopoo Games offered Risk of Rain 2 with a "buy one, get one free" promotion for the first few days. A week from release, Hopoo announced that over 650,000 players had played the game, with about 150,000 of those having taken advantage of the special promotion. Within a month of the game's early access release, it had sold over a million copies. (Wikipedia)
- 2023
Carefully designed, beautifully remastered, and loaded with new ways to play—Risk of Rain is back and better than ever! Dive into the iconic roguelike full of unique loot combinations, enhanced with new Survivors, overhauled multiplayer, fan favorite content from Risk of Rain 2, and more! (Steam)
Reception
Reception Risk of Rain received generally favorable reviews from critics, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic . Fellow review aggregator OpenCritic assessed that the game received strong approval, being recommended by 73% of critics. Risk of Rain was named one of the Student Showcase winners of the 2014 Independent Games Festival , and subsequently won the Student Prize Award. (Wikipedia)
Risk of Rain, head to head
Two entries side by side on score, price, specs and reception:
Risk of Rain vs other series
How Risk of Rain stacks up against other series in the same genre, as a whole:
Common questions
How many Risk of Rain games are there?
We hold 3 Risk of Rain games in the catalogue, released between 2013 and 2023. 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 Risk of Rain game is best?
By the GamingPickz Score, Risk of Rain 2 rates highest at 8.6. 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 Risk of Rain 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.
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