Backloggd’s worst games of all time list includes a lot of very recent games

A list of what gamers consider the worst games ever has identified some truly terrible titles but how many people have really played them?

Just as movie fans have Letterboxd to share and curate their opinions on various films, video game fans have Backloggd. Unlike Metacritic, this is purely for members of the public and doesn’t feature any critical reviews from professional outlets.

As such, it’s fascinating to see what the most dedicated and outspoken members of the gaming community think of certain video games; including which ones it considers the best and, perhaps more intriguingly, which ones are thought to be the worst.

Backloggd’s list of the lowest rated video games does have plenty of stinkers, although ordinary gamers are unlikely to have come across many of them, unless they purposefully sought them out.

Some infamous examples include games as recent as 2023’s The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum and as old as 1982’s E.T. game for the Atari 2600 – which was so bad it helped cause the 1983 video game crash in North America.

The number one spot goes to Superman: The New Superman Adventures – better known as Superman 64 – but in second place is 2023’s Silent Hill: Ascension, which is a surprise pick but one that’s unquestionably deserved.

You can view the full user rankings for yourself on Backloggd, but we’ve included a list for the top 10 worst games below.

The problem with any list like this is that most people don’t play terrible games. Even we don’t play the bottom of the barrel stuff on Steam and mobile phones, so the actual worst video game of all time is undoubtedly something nobody has ever heard of.

Superman 64 and Custer’s Revenge are terrible but they were obscure even at the time and it’s hard to believe that everyone that voted for them has actually played them, it’s just they’re famous for being bad.

More understandable inclusions are things like the inane Banana on Steam, or the more high-profile Redfall and Metal Gear Survive. They’re definitely not the worst video games of all time but they are at least something that a reasonable number of people are likely to have come across.

The list was highlighted on ResetEra, where various forum members took issue with some of the inclusions.

‘I’ve played 23 of them. I don’t like any of them, but I don’t think games like Metal Gear Survive and Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric are anywhere near the worst 100 video games ever made,’ says one.

Another is even willing to bat for the Gollum game, arguing it’s ‘nowhere near bad enough to be the 13th worst game of all time. I played it and it’s just a janky kinda bad to mediocre action adventure. That game is only up there because of the memes and I suspect others too.’

That said, Gollum is pretty terrible, and we named it as the worst game of 2023, so no matter how this list has been put together it is actually quite reasonable.

However, more video games are being made now than ever before and if you go dumpster diving through digital storefronts, you will find some incredibly bad games, that make Gollum look like God Of War.

There was a whole thing a couple of months back, of people criticising the Nintendo eShop and Steam for allowing ‘eSlop’ on the storefronts, while the PlayStation store has a similar problem with AI-generated shovelware.

Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter.

To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.

For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.

MORE: The 8 worst Nintendo games ever – from Welcome Tour to Donkey Kong Jet Race

MORE: The 10 best video games of 2025 so far – half year report

MORE: Every new video game for 2025 and 2026 from Sony, Nintendo and major publishers