What is Video Game Canon?

Updated

Video Game Canon (videogamecanon.com) is a statistical meta-analysis site that ranks video games by aggregating "Best Games" lists published between 1985 and 2025. It is useful if you want a data-driven, cross-publication view of which games critics and editors have consistently placed at the top, rather than a single outlet's opinion. It also functions as a running record of game history and awards news.

What the site does

The core project takes 80 Best Games lists and feeds them into a ranking system. To qualify for inclusion, each list must meet three conditions:

  • 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).
  • It places no restrictions on release dates or platforms.

More than 1,000 different games appear on at least one of those lists, so the site's scope is broad rather than limited to a single era or console.

How the ranking works: the C-Score

Games are ranked against each other using a formula called the C-Score, which combines two measurements:

  • Average Ranking — how a game typically places across all lists.
  • Appearance Frequency — the percentage of lists a game appears on.

The formula is:

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

A lower C-Score means a higher ranking. The site's own example is Tetris: it appears on 94.94% of all lists in the most recent update, with an average ranking of 17.44.

17.44 + (100 – 94.94) = 22.51

That produces the lowest C-Score of any game in the dataset.

The logic worth noting: a game is rewarded both for placing well and for showing up often. A title with a strong average rank but low appearance frequency is penalized by the second term, while a frequently listed game with a weaker average rank is pulled down by the first.

What else is on the site

Beyond the canon ranking, the site publishes ongoing coverage organized around game history and awards:

  • The Adventure Log — updates, game history, and news.
  • Awards archives — winner lists spanning decades, including BAFTA Games Awards (2003 to today), GDC Awards (1996 to today), DICE Awards (1997 to today), and The Game Awards (2003 to today).
  • GOTY tracking — a running scoreboard for the current year's Game of the Year race.
  • Hall of Fame coverage — including the World Video Game Hall of Fame's Class of 2026 (Angry Birds, Dragon Quest, FIFA Soccer, and Silent Hill).

Recent award results covered on the site include Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 taking Game of the Year at the 2025 Game Awards, the 2025-2026 DICE Awards, the 2025-2026 GDC Awards, and the 2025-2026 BAFTA Games Awards.

When to use it

  • You want a consensus view of the most acclaimed games rather than one publication's list.
  • You want to see how a specific game's standing is calculated, since the C-Score inputs are shown.
  • You need historical award winners in one place across multiple award bodies.
  • You are tracking a current GOTY race or Hall of Fame induction cycle.

If you want a single critic's ranking or a reader-voted poll, this is not that — the methodology deliberately excludes fan-voting-only lists.