Feature
The Noteworthy 50: how we ranked the biggest games online
Fifty games, one list, and a set of rules we are going to hold ourselves to. Here is what the numbers mean and what we refuse to let them mean.
The Noteworthy 50
See the full ranking →Latest reviews
All 50 reviews →
Review
Roblox
The biggest platform in online gaming, and the least reviewable. Judge the experiences, not the launcher.
Review
Minecraft
The most generous online game ever made, and one of the few where buying it is the last transaction.
Review
Fortnite
The best-executed battle royale there is, wrapped in a metaverse pitch that is finally starting to work.
Review
Counter-Strike 2
Mechanically the best FPS in existence. Everything surrounding it is a mess, and some of it is worse than a mess.
Review
League of Legends
A masterpiece of systems design guarded by the most hostile onboarding in mainstream gaming.
Review
Valorant
The best-run tactical shooter going. It just wants an unreasonable amount of money for gun skins.
Review
Grand Theft Auto Online
An extraordinary sandbox wrapped around an economy designed to make you buy currency. Play it with friends or not at all.
Review
Call of Duty: Warzone
Unmatched gunplay, endlessly undermined by integration churn, file sizes and cheaters.
News & analysis
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Analysis
Kernel anti-cheat: the deal we all quietly accepted
Valorant's lobbies are clean because Riot runs a driver on your machine from the moment it boots. Counter-Strike's are not, because Valve won't. Both positions are defensible. Pick one.
Guide
Seven free games that don't spend the whole time asking for money
Free-to-play is not automatically predatory. These are the games that prove it, and what they give away is remarkable.
Feature
The MMO is not dead, it just stopped pretending to be for everyone
World of Warcraft is 22. Final Fantasy XIV is thriving. EVE Online has outlived three console generations. The genre got smaller and considerably healthier.
Opinion
Mobile is the majority, and Western coverage still writes as if it isn't
Honor of Kings, Mobile Legends and Free Fire have audiences that dwarf most of the PC top ten. They get a fraction of the attention.
Analysis
What Roblox actually pays the people building it
Hundreds of millions of players, millions of experiences, and an earnings distribution so steep that the median creator makes effectively nothing.