{"id":1164943,"date":"2026-02-11T11:19:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T11:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/?p=550231"},"modified":"2026-02-11T11:19:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T11:19:17","slug":"shenmue-is-the-most-influential-game-of-all-time-according-to-new-poll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/shenmue-is-the-most-influential-game-of-all-time-according-to-new-poll\/","title":{"rendered":"Shenmue is the most influential game of all time, according to new poll"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A public poll to determine the most influential video game of all time, held by the U.K. screen arts academy BAFTA, has returned an extremely surprising (if not totally unworthy) result: Shenmue<\/a><\/em>, Yu Suzuki\u2019s wildly ambitious 1999 Sega Dreamcast game about one young man\u2019s search for justice (and capsule toys).<\/p>\n

Shenmue<\/em> beat more routinely canonized classics like Doom<\/em>, Super Mario Bros.<\/em>, Half-Life<\/em>, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time<\/em> to claim the title. Those four games made up the rest of the top five. Minecraft<\/em> came in sixth place, Tetris <\/em>in 11th, Final Fantasy 7<\/em> in 17th, and Grand Theft Auto 3<\/em> placed a lowly 19th.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s evidence that BAFTA\u2019s poll was subject to some brigading among passionate game fans; Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2<\/em>, a (by all accounts very good<\/a>) role-playing game that has barely been out for two months, came in 7th place, just ahead of Super Mario 64<\/em>. Still, there\u2019s no disputing the worthiness of most of the games in BAFTA\u2019s top 21, even if the order is a little\u2026 idiosyncratic.<\/p>\n

Shenmue<\/em> was a passion project for the Sega producer Suzuki, the creator of Out Run<\/em> and Virtua Fighter<\/em>. The most expensive game ever made at the time, it\u2019s a boldly realistic take on the humdrum daily life of Ryo Hazuki, a teenage martial artist out to avenge his father\u2019s murder in the 1980s. It features incredibly detailed environments, a day-and-night system, NPCs who obey their own schedules, dozens of minigames \u2014 and quite a lot of just waiting around<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Shenmue<\/em> was certainly ahead of its time, although it\u2019s debatable how influential it has been on other games \u2014 certainly in comparison to something like GTA 3<\/em>. Conceived as a multi-part epic, it was a commercial failure, and though Shenmue 2<\/em> came out in 2001, it would be 18 years before Suzuki got to continue his story in the crowd-funded Shenmue 3<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Responding to the accolade in a statement, Suzuki said, \u201cI am deeply honoured and grateful that Shenmue<\/em> has been selected as the \u2018Most Influential Video Game of All Time.\u2019 At its inception, we set out to explore the question, \u2018How real can a game become?\u2019, aiming to portray a world and story unprecedented in scale and detail. This distinction serves as a powerful reminder that the challenge we embraced continues to resonate with and inspire so many people even today. It is truly the greatest of encouragement.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbove all, we would like to express our heartfelt thanks to the fans around the world who have continued to love and support Shenmue<\/em>. Your passion and encouragement have guided this journey every step of the way. And the story is not over yet, there is more to come! Thank you very much!\u201d<\/p>\n

BAFTA\u2019s poll was conducted as a prelude to the BAFTA Games Awards<\/a>, which take place next week on April 8. In a similar poll last year, the public selected Tomb Raider\u2019s Lara Croft as the most iconic video games character of all time<\/a>, ahead of Mario, Sonic, and Hitman\u2019s Agent 47.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the full ranking of the top 21 most influential video games of all time, according to BAFTA\u2019s poll:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Shenmue<\/em><\/li>\n
  2. Doom<\/em> (1993)<\/li>\n
  3. Super Mario Bros.<\/em><\/li>\n
  4. Half-Life<\/em><\/li>\n
  5. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time<\/em><\/li>\n
  6. Minecraft<\/em><\/li>\n
  7. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2<\/em><\/li>\n
  8. Super Mario 64<\/em><\/li>\n
  9. Half-Life 2<\/em><\/li>\n
  10. The Sims<\/em><\/li>\n
  11. Tetris<\/em><\/li>\n
  12. Tomb Raider<\/em><\/li>\n
  13. Pong<\/em><\/li>\n
  14. Metal Gear Solid<\/em><\/li>\n
  15. World of Warcraft<\/em><\/li>\n
  16. Baldur\u2019s Gate 3<\/em><\/li>\n
  17. Final Fantasy 7<\/em><\/li>\n
  18. Dark Souls<\/em><\/li>\n
  19. Grand Theft Auto 3<\/em><\/li>\n
  20. The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim<\/em><\/li>\n
  21. Grand Theft Auto<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    A public poll to determine the most influential video game of all time, held by the U.K. screen arts academy BAFTA, has returned an extremely surprising (if not totally unworthy) result: Shenmue, Yu Suzuki\u2019s wildly ambitious 1999 Sega Dreamcast game about one young man\u2019s search for justice (and capsule toys). Shenmue beat more routinely canonized classics like Doom, Super Mario Bros., Half-Life, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time to claim the title. Those four games made up the rest of the top five. Minecraft came in sixth place, Tetris in 11th, Final Fantasy 7 in 17th, and Grand Theft Auto 3 placed a lowly 19th. There\u2019s evidence that BAFTA\u2019s poll was subject to some brigading among passionate game fans; Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2,…<\/p>\n

    Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1164944,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1164943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polygon"],"yoast_head":"\nShenmue is the most influential game of all time, according to new poll | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A public poll to determine the most influential video game of all time, held by the U.K. screen arts academy BAFTA, has returned an extremely surprising\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/shenmue-is-the-most-influential-game-of-all-time-according-to-new-poll\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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