Steam logoI recently discovered a sub-reddit (community on the website Reddit) called Random Acts of Gaming, which is for donating online game keys. Since I have a large number of Humble Bundle keys sitting around, I decided to give some away to the community with a stipulation: name your favorite game. I did this for a few reasons:

  1. It’s a challenge to select just one. It’s like selecting your favorite artist or album: we all have many artists, albums and games which have deeply impacted us.
  2. It helps me to gauge which games have been most impactful to a large number of people: the sub-reddit has about 60,000 subscribers of what I’d describe as hardcore, knowledgeable gamers.
  3. It is a simple way for me to select a winner to receive the key, which in this case was for The Witness by Jonathan Blow, creator of Braid. After 24 hours of receiving hundreds of replies, I used a random number generator to identify the winner of the key.

Here is the original post on Reddit: post on r/randomactsofgaming

Graphic of Most Popular Entries

Reddit's Favorite Games

List of Favorite Games

Some of the games listed below were mentioned more than once, those are at the top of the list. Everything below those is listed alphabetically. It’s a long list! Interestingly, even some very new games like Zelda: Breath of the Wild were mentioned, which I would attribute to the recency effect).

  • 5- Skyrim
  • 4- The Witcher 3
  • 4- Portal 2
  • 3- Fallout 3
  • 3- Zelda: Link to the Past
  • 3- Zelda: Ocarina of Time
  • 3- Starcraft: Brood War
  • 3- Counter-Strike
  • 2- Civilization 5
  • 2- Deus Ex
  • 2- Dark Souls
  • 2- The Binding of Isaac
  • 2- Terraria
  • 2- Super Mario Sunshine
  • 2- DoTA 2
  • 2- Team Fortress 2
  • 2- Life is Strange
  • 2- Fallout 1
  • 2- Rocket League
  • 2- GTA: San Andreas
  • 2- Red Dead Redemption
  • Spelunky
  • Silent Hill
  • Contra
  • Homeworld: Cataclysm
  • Planetside 2
  • Baldur’s Gate 2
  • Warcraft 3
  • Battlefield 1
  • Mega Man Battle Network 4 Red Sun
  • Guild Wars
  • System Shock 2
  • Metal Gear Solid V
  • Harvest Moon
  • Master of Orion
  • Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
  • Battlefield 4
  • Bioshock
  • Bioshock 2
  • Braid
  • Super Smash
  • Bloodborne
  • Alpha Centauri
  • Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
  • Zelda: Breath of the Wild
  • Super Mario World
  • Super Smash Bros. 4
  • Bastion
  • Kingdom Hearts
  • The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowwind
  • Metal Gear Solid
  • Hidden & Dangerous 2
  • Mega Man Legends 2
  • Starsiege Tribes
  • Portal
  • Hitman: Blood Money
  • Resident Evil
  • Age of Mythology: Gold Edition
  • Assassin’s Creed 2: Brotherhood
  • Xenogears
  • Xenoblade
  • Final Fantasy III / VI
  • Final Fantasy VII
  • Command & Conquer
  • Pokemon Yellow
  • Gran Turismo 4
  • Overwatch
  • Suikoden 2
  • Far Cry 3
  • Mount & Blade: Warband
  • Everquest
  • Diablo 2
  • Planetscape Torment
  • The World Ends With You
  • Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando
  • Secret of Mana
  • Left 4 Dead 2
  • Arizona Sunshine
  • Borderlands 2
  • Fran Bow
  • Kentucky Route Zero
  • Mass Effect 2
  • Titan Quest
  • The Talos Principle
  • Shenmue
  • Kya: Dark Lineage
  • Donkey Kong Country
  • Fallout: New Vegas
  • Half-Life 2
  • Dwarf Fortress
  • Halo
  • Stardew Valley
  • The Last of Us Remastered
  • Europa Universalis 4