Every Watch game, ranked
All 3 Watch 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 166,471 Steam reviews.
Where to start
- For the best-reviewed: Watch_Dogs 2 (GamingPickz Score 7.5), 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 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
- 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 Watch 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 Player sentiment 82% positive of 101,514 Critics No aggregate Price $49.99 Steam Deck unsupported Install size 27 GB Accessibility 1 declared feature Raw 82% shrinks to 82.0 on 101,514 reviews, giving 7.5. 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 game we can score is Watch_Dogs 2 at 7.5. The lowest is Watch Dogs: Legion at 5.2, a 2.3-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 entries on Steam:
- Playable: Watch Dogs, Watch Dogs: Legion
- Unsupported: Watch_Dogs 2
Platforms across the series
Where the 3 Watch games have landed, counting every entry we hold:
| Platform family | Entries |
|---|---|
| PC | 3 of 3 |
| PlayStation | 2 of 3 |
| Xbox | 2 of 3 |
| Nintendo | 1 of 3 |
The Watch series, game by game
Every Watch 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
7.5Welcome 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)
Plot
In 2016, three years after the events of Chicago , San Francisco becomes the first city to install the next generation of ctOS ( c en t ral O perating S ystem) a computing network connecting every device together into a single system, developed by technology company Blume. Hacker Marcus Holloway , punished for a crime he did not commit through ctOS 2. 0, decides to join the hacking group DedSec (composed of hackers Sitara Dhawan, Josh Sauchak, Horatio… (Wikipedia)
Reception
Reception Watch Dogs 2 received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator Metacritic . Technical issues on consoles were fixed with the Update 1. 04 patch . (Wikipedia)
- 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, head to head
Two entries side by side on score, price, specs and reception:
Watch vs other series
How Watch stacks up against other series in the same genre, as a whole:
Also: Watch vs Dragon Age, Watch vs DRAGON BALL, Watch vs Lego Star Wars, Watch vs Mass Effect, Watch vs Mount & Blade, Watch vs Saints Row, Watch vs Yakuza, Watch vs ARK, Watch vs Dishonored, Watch vs Lego Batman, Watch vs Prince of Persia, Watch vs Risen, Watch vs State of Decay, Watch vs The Witcher, Watch vs Torchlight, Watch vs ArcheAge, Watch vs Baldur's Gate, Watch vs Darksiders, Watch vs Divinity, Watch vs Dragon's Dogma, Watch vs Dungeon Siege, Watch vs ELDEN RING, Watch vs EverQuest, Watch vs God of War, Watch vs Gothic, Watch vs Kingdom Come, Watch vs Kingdom Rush, Watch vs Kingdoms of Amalur, Watch vs Lego Harry Potter, Watch vs Marvel’s Spider-Man, Watch vs Middle-earth, Watch vs Might & Magic, Watch vs NARUTO SHIPPUDEN, Watch vs Pathfinder, Watch vs Prototype, Watch vs Red Dead Redemption, Watch vs Sea of Thieves, Watch vs South Park, Watch vs The Lord of the Rings, Watch vs The Surge, Watch vs Tom Clancy’s The Division, Watch vs Two Worlds, Watch vs Wasteland
Common questions
How many Watch games are there?
We hold 3 Watch 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 game is best?
By the GamingPickz Score, Watch_Dogs 2 rates highest at 7.5. 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 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.