What Best Games Lists Qualify for Video Game Canon?

A Best Games list qualifies for inclusion in the Video Game Canon if it meets three criteria: it contains at least 50 titles, it has some form of editorial oversight (lists made up solely of reader polls or fan voting are excluded), and it places no restrictions on release dates or platforms. The Canon draws from 80 such lists published between 1985 and 2025.

The Three Qualification Criteria

1. Minimum of 50 Titles

Each list must include at least 50 games. This threshold keeps out short, casual roundups and ensures that every source contributes a broad enough sample to be meaningfully compared against the others.

2. Editorial Oversight

A list must reflect some form of editorial control. Lists made up solely of reader polls or fan voting do not qualify. The distinction matters because the Canon is a statistical meta-analysis, and it treats each list as a curated editorial judgment rather than a measure of popularity.

3. No Restrictions on Release Dates or Platforms

Qualifying lists cannot limit themselves by release date or platform. A list confined to, say, one console generation or a single system would skew the comparison, so the Canon excludes any list with those constraints.

How the Lists Are Used

Once a list passes those three checks, its games are fed into the Video Game Canon and ranked against each other using the C-Score. The formula adds a game's Average Ranking across all lists to the complementary percentage of its Appearance Frequency:

Average Ranking + (100 – Appearance Frequency) = C-Score

A lower C-Score produces a higher ranking. Tetris, for example, appears on 94.94% of all lists in the most recent update with an Average Ranking of 17.44, giving it a C-Score of 22.51 — the lowest of any game:

17.44 + (100 – 94.94) = 22.51

What This Means for Coverage

The three criteria define the Canon's scope in a specific way:

• Broad, editorially curated lists only. Reader polls and fan votes are out, so the ranking reflects editorial consensus rather than popular vote.
• No era or platform silos. Because date- and platform-restricted lists are excluded, the Canon compares games across the full history of the medium.
• A long window. The 80 source lists span 1985 to 2025, and more than 1,000 different games have appeared on at least one qualifying list.

If you want to know whether a particular Best Games list counts toward the Canon, check it against the three criteria above: 50+ titles, editorial oversight, and no release-date or platform limits.