Every S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game, ranked
All 4 S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games we hold, spanning 2007 to 2024: 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 142,098 Steam reviews.
Where to start
- For the best-reviewed: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl (GamingPickz Score 7.1), the highest-rated entry we can score.
- For canon order: begin with S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl (2007) and follow the release-order timeline below.
- For the money: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky gives the most score per dollar right now.
The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 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.
- Multi-platform
- 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.
Every game by critic score
The grid above is built from Steam data, so it can only place the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games that were on Steam. This one uses the Metacritic critic aggregate, which the older console-only entries have too, so the whole series lands on a single chart: critic score against release year.
On Steam (also has a GamingPickz Score) Console-only (Metacritic only)
2 best S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games, ranked
Ordered by GamingPickz Score. Every figure links back to the source that produced it.
- 1
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl
Best for: A consistently well-received pick in this category
7.1GamingPickz Scoremedium confidenceS.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl at a glance Released 2024 Studio GSC Game World Player sentiment 80% positive of 138,669 Critics No aggregate Price $41.99 Steam Deck unsupported Install size 160 GB Accessibility 1 declared feature Raw 80% shrinks to 80.0 on 138,669 reviews, giving 7.1. No critics data, so that weight was redistributed across the rest rather than counted as zero.
Worth checking first- Flagged for mature content on its store page.
- Valve rates it Unsupported on the Steam Deck.
- 2
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky
Best for: Handheld play, small install and Deck verified
5.3GamingPickz Scoremedium confidenceS.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky at a glance Released 2008 Studio GSC Game World Player sentiment 56% positive of 3,429 Critics No aggregate Price $13.39 Steam Deck verified Install size 8 GB Accessibility 4 declared features Raw 56% shrinks to 58.9 on 3,429 reviews, giving 5.3. 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 8 GB.
Worth checking first- Flagged for mature content on its store page.
Only the 2 S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games with Steam review data can be scored and ranked. The complete series, scored or not, is charted in order below.
Best and worst entry
The best-received S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game we can score is S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl at 7.1. The lowest is S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky at 5.3, a 1.8-point spread across the series. The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment, critics and popularity, computed the same way for every game.
Cheapest way in, and best value
- Cheapest right now: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky at $13.39. Prices are read live from Steam and move.
- Best value: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, 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 S.T.A.L.K.E.R. entries on Steam:
- Verified: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky
- Unsupported: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl
Platforms across the series
Where the 4 S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games have landed, counting every entry we hold:
| Platform family | Entries |
|---|---|
| PC | 3 of 4 |
| PlayStation | 1 of 4 |
| Xbox | 1 of 4 |
The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, game by game
Every S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 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.
- 2007
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
Metacritic 82S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl is a first-person shooter video game developed by GSC Game World and published by THQ in 2007 following a long development. It is the first game in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise, set in an alternate reality where a second disaster of mysterious origin occurred at the Chernobyl… (Wikipedia)
- 2008
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky is the prequel chapter of the Legends of the Zone Trilogy. With the ability to directly influence the balance of power through Faction Wars, step into the boots of Scar — a seasoned mercenary, able to somehow survive deadly Emissions. (Steam)
Plot
While guiding a group of scientists through the Zone , Scar faints during a high energy emission. Scar, the only one to survive, is then rescued by Clear Sky, a secret independent Zone faction dedicated to researching and learning about the Zone in their attempt to better understand it and its related phenomena. It is not known how Scar has survived the emission, but it is noted he has suffered damage to his central nervous system and seems to exhibit… (Wikipedia)
Reception
Reception The game received "generally favourable reviews" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic , although not to the extent S. T. A. (Wikipedia)
- 2009
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat
Metacritic 80S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat is a 2009 first-person shooter survival horror video game developed by GSC Game World for Microsoft Windows. It is the third main game released in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series of video games, following S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, with the game's… (Wikipedia)
Reception
Reception Call of Pripyat received "favorable" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic . The game was lauded for its well optimized engine with relatively few bugs and glitches, for example, GameSpot said, "The most stable S. T. (Wikipedia)
- 2024
Enter the Chornobyl Anomalous Zone — a vast open world where anomalies, mutants, and rivals stand in your way. Explore, scavenge, and try to survive in this brutal and dangerous land. Evolving with every update, now overhauled and crowned with UPDATE 2.0. (Steam)
Plot
Yevhen "Skif" Martynenko, a veteran of the Ukrainian Marine Corps , has returned from a 3-year deployment in an unspecified conflict. He awakens to find his apartment has been destroyed by an anomaly that has mysteriously appeared outside of the Zone, leaving an unknown artifact in its wake. Looking to earn money for a new home, he is smuggled into the Zone by a scientist, Professor Hermann, along with a piece of technology called the 'Scanner' that… (Wikipedia)
S.T.A.L.K.E.R., head to head
Two entries side by side on score, price, specs and reception:
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. vs other series
How S.T.A.L.K.E.R. stacks up against other series in the same genre, as a whole:
Also: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. vs Deus Ex, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. vs BioShock, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. vs Homefront, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. vs Killing Floor, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. vs Left 4 Dead, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. vs Outlast, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. vs Sanctum, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. vs Tom Clancy’s The Division, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. vs Town of Salem
Common questions
How many S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games are there?
We hold 4 S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games in the catalogue, released between 2007 and 2024. 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 S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game is best?
By the GamingPickz Score, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl rates highest at 7.1. 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 S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games in?
Release order is listed below, from 2007 to 2024. 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.