Every Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six game, ranked
All 3 Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six games we hold, spanning 1998 to 2022: 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 1,549,184 Steam reviews.
Where to start
- For the best-reviewed: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege (GamingPickz Score 7.7), the highest-rated entry we can score.
- For canon order: begin with Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six (1998) and follow the release-order timeline below.
- For the money: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction gives the most score per dollar right now.
The Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 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
- 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.
Every game by critic score
The grid above is built from Steam data, so it can only place the Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 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 Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six games, ranked
Ordered by GamingPickz Score. Every figure links back to the source that produced it.
- 1
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege
Best for: Trying the genre without spending anything
7.7GamingPickz Scoremedium confidenceTom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege at a glance Released 2015 Studio Ubisoft Toronto Player sentiment 82% positive of 1,546,025 Critics No aggregate Price Free Steam Deck unsupported Install size 65 GB Accessibility 1 declared feature Raw 82% shrinks to 82.0 on 1,546,025 reviews, giving 7.7. No critics data, so that weight was redistributed across the rest rather than counted as zero.
What the data supports- Free to download, so trying it costs only time.
Worth checking first- Carries in-game purchases. Check what they cost before committing.
- Flagged for mature content on its store page.
- Valve rates it Unsupported on the Steam Deck.
PCPlayStation 4PlayStation 5Xbox OneXbox Series X and Series S
- 2
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction
Best for: Playing through with a friend online
5.6GamingPickz Scoremedium confidenceTom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction at a glance Released 2022 Studio Not recorded Player sentiment 66% positive of 3,159 Critics No aggregate Price $39.99 Steam Deck playable Install size 72 GB Accessibility 1 declared feature Raw 66% shrinks to 68.0 on 3,159 reviews, giving 5.6. No critics data, so that weight was redistributed across the rest rather than counted as zero.
Worth checking first- Carries in-game purchases. Check what they cost before committing.
- Flagged for mature content on its store page.
Only the 2 Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 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 Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six game we can score is Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege at 7.7. The lowest is Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction at 5.6, a 2.1-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: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege at Free. Prices are read live from Steam and move.
- Best value: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction, 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 Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six entries on Steam:
- Playable: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction
- Unsupported: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege
Platforms across the series
Where the 3 Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six games have landed, counting every entry we hold:
| Platform family | Entries |
|---|---|
| PC | 2 of 3 |
| PlayStation | 1 of 3 |
| Xbox | 2 of 3 |
The Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six series, game by game
Every Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 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.
- 1998
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six
Metacritic 85Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six is a 1998 tactical shooter video game developed and published by Red Storm Entertainment for Microsoft Windows, with later ports for the Nintendo 64, PlayStation, Mac OS, Game Boy Color, and Dreamcast. It is the first installment in the Rainbow Six series. Based on the Tom Clancy novel of the… (Wikipedia)
Plot
In 1999, in response to a post- Cold War rise in terrorism, the world's special forces units , police tactical units , and intelligence agencies form "Rainbow", a covert international counterterrorist organization led by John Clark . In 2000, Rainbow responds to a series of terrorist attacks linked to the Phoenix Group eco-terrorist organization. Rainbow's operations against Phoenix are assisted by John Brightling, chairman of the powerful biotechnology… (Wikipedia)
Reception
Reception Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six was met with mostly positive reviews on PC, though the console ports received relatively lower ratings. Review aggregator Metacritic displays a score of 85 out of 100 for the PC version. Video game review aggregator GameRankings displays scores of 82% for PC, 74% for the Nintendo 64, 48% for the PlayStation, 54% for the Game Boy Color, and 73% for the Dreamcast. (Wikipedia)
- 2015
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege is an elite, tactical team-based shooter where superior planning and execution triumph. (Steam)
Plot
Years 1–3 Angela Bassett performed voice works and motion capture for Aurelia "Six" Arnot, the former director of Team Rainbow. Three years after the Rainbow Program's deactivation, there is a resurgence of terrorist activities, with the White Mask being the most prominent. The terrorists' goals are unknown, yet they are causing chaos across the world. (Wikipedia)
Reception
Reception Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator website Metacritic . The game's multiplayer was widely praised by critics. Chris Carter from Destructoid praised the game's open-ended nature, which made each match unpredictable and helped the experience to stay fresh even after an extended period of playing. (Wikipedia)
- 2022
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six® Extraction is a tactical, co-op, PvE first-person shooter where you and your squad face an evolving alien threat. Teamwork, tactics, and flawless execution are key to your survival. (Steam)
Reception
Reception Rainbow Six Extraction received "mixed or average" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator Metacritic . The game attracted three million players within its first week of release. The Washington Post praised the title's extraction mechanic, saying that it "lends the game a layer of drama and, at times, humor. (Wikipedia)
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, head to head
Two entries side by side on score, price, specs and reception:
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six vs other series
How Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six stacks up against other series in the same genre, as a whole:
Also: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six vs Call to Arms, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six vs Day of Defeat, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six vs Insurgency, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six vs Payday, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six vs Red Orchestra, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six vs Sanctum
Common questions
How many Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six games are there?
We hold 3 Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six games in the catalogue, released between 1998 and 2022. 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 Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six game is best?
By the GamingPickz Score, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege rates highest at 7.7. 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 Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six games in?
Release order is listed below, from 1998 to 2022. 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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