Every Watch Dogs game, ranked
All 3 Watch Dogs games we hold, spanning 2014 to 2020: 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 166,428 Steam reviews.
Quick answer: the best Watch Dogs game we can score is Watch Dogs 2 (GamingPickz Score 7.3). The series spans 3 games, from 2014 to 2020.
Where to start
- For the best-reviewed: Watch Dogs 2 (GamingPickz Score 7.3), the highest-rated entry we can score.
- For canon order: begin with Watch Dogs (2014) and follow the release-order timeline below.
- For the money: Watch Dogs gives the most score per dollar right now.
The Watch Dogs 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
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 Watch Dogs games, ranked
Ordered by GamingPickz Score. Every figure links back to the source that produced it.
Watch Dogs 2 at a glance Released 2016 Studio Ubisoft Romania Player sentiment 82% positive of 101,471 Critics No aggregate Price $49.99 Steam Deck unsupported Install size 27 GB Accessibility 1 declared feature Raw 82% shrinks to 82.0 on 101,471 reviews, giving 7.3. 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.
- Valve rates it Unsupported on the Steam Deck.
Watch Dogs at a glance Released 2014 Studio Not recorded Player sentiment 80% positive of 52,443 Critics 77/100 Price $19.99 Steam Deck playable Install size 25 GB Accessibility 1 declared feature Raw 80% shrinks to 80.0 on 52,443 reviews, then blends with the 77 critic aggregate, giving 7.3.
Worth checking first- Flagged for mature content on its store page.
- 3
Watch Dogs: Legion
Best for: Playing through with a friend online
5.2GamingPickz Scoremedium confidenceWatch Dogs: Legion at a glance Released 2020 Studio Ubisoft Toronto Player sentiment 56% positive of 12,514 Critics No aggregate Price $59.99 Steam Deck playable Install size 115 GB Accessibility 1 declared feature Raw 56% shrinks to 56.9 on 12,514 reviews, giving 5.2. 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.
Best and worst entry
The best-received Watch Dogs game we can score is Watch Dogs 2 at 7.3. The lowest is Watch Dogs: Legion at 5.2, 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.
How the series scored over time
GamingPickz Score against release year, 2014 to 2020. The later entries score lower than the earlier ones: the series has been trending down.
Cheapest way in, and best value
- Cheapest right now: Watch Dogs at $19.99. Prices are read live from Steam and move.
- Best value: Watch Dogs, 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 Watch Dogs entries on Steam:
- Playable: Watch Dogs, Watch Dogs: Legion
- Unsupported: Watch Dogs 2
Platforms across the series
Where the 3 Watch Dogs games have landed, counting every entry we hold:
| Platform family | Entries |
|---|---|
| PC | 3 of 3 |
| PlayStation | 3 of 3 |
| Xbox | 3 of 3 |
| Nintendo | 1 of 3 |
The Watch Dogs series, game by game
Every Watch Dogs 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.
- 2014
Watch Dogs
7.3In today's hyper-connected world, Chicago operates under ctOS, the most advanced computer network in America. (Steam)
Plot
The Watch Dogs games take place in fictionalized versions of real-life cities that have implemented ctOS. Watch Dogs is set in the Chicago area , Watch Dogs 2 in the San Francisco Bay Area , and Watch Dogs: Legion in Greater London . While the first two games take place during modern times, Legion is set in the "near future" (circa 2030), depicting significant advancements in technology. (Wikipedia)
Reception
Watch Dogs received generally positive reviews despite criticism aimed at certain technical issues, the discrepancy in graphical quality between marketing and the real game, narrative, and protagonist. It sold more than 10 million copies by the end of 2014. Watch Dogs 2 received generally positive reviews upon release, with critics generally regarding it as an improvement over the original game. (Wikipedia)
- 2016
Watch Dogs 2
7.3Welcome to San Francisco. Play as Marcus, a brilliant young hacker, and join the most notorious hacker group, DedSec. Your objective: execute the biggest hack of history. (Steam)
- 2020
Build a resistance as you fight to take back a near-future London facing its downfall. Welcome to the Resistance. (Steam)
Plot
Setting Watch Dogs: Legion takes place within a fictionalised representation of London in the "near future" (suggested to be the year 2029 or 2030). The setting encompasses notable landmarks, boroughs, and cultural styles of the city, such as the Palace of Westminster , Big Ben , the London Eye , Buckingham Palace , The Shard and more. Since the events of Watch Dogs 2 , technology has undergone a rapid acceleration as a result of the proliferation of… (Wikipedia)
Reception
Critical response Reception Watch Dogs: Legion received "mixed or average" reviews from critics, while the Xbox One version received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator website Metacritic . Electronic Gaming Monthly s Michael Goroff remarked that the game "offers a novel way to experience an open world, with its interconnected NPCs and the introduction of permadeath to the genre", noting that this aspect provided a real… (Wikipedia)
Watch Dogs, head to head
Two entries side by side on score, price, specs and reception:
Watch Dogs vs other series
How Watch Dogs stacks up against other series in the same genre, as a whole:
Also: Watch Dogs vs Dragon Age, Watch Dogs vs DRAGON BALL, Watch Dogs vs Lego Star Wars, Watch Dogs vs Mass Effect, Watch Dogs vs Mount & Blade, Watch Dogs vs Saints Row, Watch Dogs vs Yakuza, Watch Dogs vs ARK, Watch Dogs vs Dishonored, Watch Dogs vs Lego Batman, Watch Dogs vs Marvel’s Spider-Man, Watch Dogs vs Prince of Persia, Watch Dogs vs Risen, Watch Dogs vs State of Decay, Watch Dogs vs The Witcher, Watch Dogs vs Torchlight, Watch Dogs vs ArcheAge, Watch Dogs vs Baldur's Gate, Watch Dogs vs Darksiders, Watch Dogs vs Divinity, Watch Dogs vs Dragon's Dogma, Watch Dogs vs Dungeon Siege, Watch Dogs vs ELDEN RING, Watch Dogs vs EverQuest, Watch Dogs vs God of War, Watch Dogs vs Gothic, Watch Dogs vs Kingdom Come, Watch Dogs vs Kingdom Rush, Watch Dogs vs Kingdoms of Amalur, Watch Dogs vs Lego Harry Potter, Watch Dogs vs Middle-earth, Watch Dogs vs Might & Magic, Watch Dogs vs NARUTO SHIPPUDEN, Watch Dogs vs Pathfinder, Watch Dogs vs Prototype, Watch Dogs vs Red Dead Redemption, Watch Dogs vs RuneScape, Watch Dogs vs Sea of Thieves, Watch Dogs vs South Park, Watch Dogs vs The Lord of the Rings, Watch Dogs vs The Surge, Watch Dogs vs Tom Clancy’s The Division, Watch Dogs vs Two Worlds, Watch Dogs vs Wasteland
Common questions
How many Watch Dogs games are there?
We hold 3 Watch Dogs games in the catalogue, released between 2014 and 2020. 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 Watch Dogs game is best?
By the GamingPickz Score, Watch Dogs 2 rates highest at 7.3. 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 Watch Dogs games in?
Release order is listed below, from 2014 to 2020. 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.