Every Sanctum game, ranked
All 2 Sanctum games we hold, spanning 2011 to 2013: 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 17,748 Steam reviews.
Where to start
- For the best-reviewed: Sanctum 2 (GamingPickz Score 7.6), the highest-rated entry we can score.
- For canon order: begin with Sanctum (2011) and follow the release-order timeline below.
- For the money: Sanctum gives the most score per dollar right now.
The Sanctum 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.
- 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 Sanctum games, ranked
Ordered by GamingPickz Score. Every figure links back to the source that produced it.
Sanctum 2 at a glance Released 2013 Studio Coffee Stain Studios Player sentiment 90% positive of 14,389 Critics 77/100 Price $14.99 Steam Deck verified Install size Not stated Accessibility 1 declared feature Raw 90% shrinks to 89.8 on 14,389 reviews, then blends with the 77 critic aggregate, giving 7.6.
What the data supports- Valve has tested it and rates it Verified on the Steam Deck.
Worth checking first- Players rate it well above critics, 90 against 77. Usually a sign it improved after launch, or that it delivers something reviewers undervalued.
Sanctum at a glance Released 2011 Studio Coffee Stain Studios Player sentiment 89% positive of 3,359 Critics 70/100 Price $1.99 Steam Deck playable Install size Not stated Accessibility 1 declared feature Raw 89% shrinks to 88.4 on 3,359 reviews, then blends with the 70 critic aggregate, giving 7.1.
What the data supports- Cloud saves and cross-platform play, so progress follows you between machines.
Worth checking first- Players rate it well above critics, 88 against 70. Usually a sign it improved after launch, or that it delivers something reviewers undervalued.
Best and worst entry
The best-received Sanctum game we can score is Sanctum 2 at 7.6. The lowest is Sanctum at 7.1, a 0.5-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: Sanctum at $1.99. Prices are read live from Steam and move.
- Best value: Sanctum, 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 Sanctum entries on Steam:
- Verified: Sanctum 2
- Playable: Sanctum
Platforms across the series
Where the 2 Sanctum games have landed, counting every entry we hold:
| Platform family | Entries |
|---|---|
| PC | 2 of 2 |
The Sanctum series, game by game
Every Sanctum 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.
- 2011
Sanctum
7.1You think Tower Defense games are all about building? You thought wrong. Sanctum is not your average Tower Defense title. When the havoc starts, you get to join the fray! As one of the world’s first First Person Shooter - Tower Defense games, Sanctum has taken the best of both worlds to deliver an epic, one-of-a-kind experience. (Steam)
- 2013
Sanctum 2
7.6Sanctum 2 is the sequel to the world’s first Tower Defense/FPS hybrid game. Pick from four unique character classes and embark on a mission to protect the oxygen-producing Cores from hordes of deadly aliens who are threatened by their existence. (Steam)
Plot
Sanctum 2 takes place in the future on the planet Loek-III where a major human colony has been established by the Britech Foundation in the city of Elysion-1, a vast elegant metropolis. A previous arboreal settlement, Brightholme, had been set up in the wilderness but had collapsed from repeated attacks by the Lumes, a race of diverse creatures native to the planet. It is hinted that some settlers still survive in the ruins of Brightholme and are part of… (Wikipedia)
Reception
Sanctum 2 received mostly positive reviews from critics. The game holds an aggregated Metacritic score of 77/100 for Microsoft Windows , based on 28 critic reviews, and for Xbox 360 , based on 12 critic reviews. ^ "Sanctum 2 Critic Reviews for PC" . (Wikipedia)
Sanctum, head to head
Two entries side by side on score, price, specs and reception:
Sanctum vs other series
How Sanctum stacks up against other series in the same genre, as a whole:
Also: Sanctum vs Crysis, Sanctum vs Plants vs. Zombies, Sanctum vs Sniper Ghost Warrior, Sanctum vs Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, Sanctum vs Bloons TD, Sanctum vs Brothers in Arms, Sanctum vs Call to Arms, Sanctum vs Day of Defeat, Sanctum vs Frostpunk, Sanctum vs Homefront, Sanctum vs Insurgency, Sanctum vs Killing Floor, Sanctum vs Kingdom, Sanctum vs Left 4 Dead, Sanctum vs Outlast, Sanctum vs Payday, Sanctum vs Red Orchestra, Sanctum vs S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Sanctum vs Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, Sanctum vs Town of Salem
Common questions
How many Sanctum games are there?
We hold 2 Sanctum games in the catalogue, released between 2011 and 2013. 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 Sanctum game is best?
By the GamingPickz Score, Sanctum 2 rates highest at 7.6. 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 Sanctum games in?
Release order is listed below, from 2011 to 2013. 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.