World of Warcraft

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Forget copies sold, this is about cold hard cash. The games that turned pixels into fortunes, ranked by estimated lifetime gross revenue. Fair warning, free-to-play and arcade earnings are notoriously hard to pin down, so these figures are the best widely-reported public estimates rather than audited accounts, and the order near the top is genuinely up for debate. What is not up for debate is the scale. From a Korean brawler that out-earned Hollywood blockbusters to the mobile match-three game funding itself off your nan, here are the biggest money machines gaming has ever built.

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These are the games that did not just sell, they changed everything that came after. The genre originators, the technical leaps, the cultural earthquakes. From a bat-and-ball in 1972 to the battle royale that swallowed pop culture, every game here moved the entire medium forward and left the rulebook a little different. Listed in order of release so you can trace the whole story, from the arcade to the open world to the online universe. This is not a best-of list, it is a how-we-got-here list. Required reading for anyone who loves games.

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The big one. A lifetime of gaming distilled into 150 essential experiences, the games everyone should play at least once in their life. Ordered from 1978 (year before I was born) to today, this is a guided tour through the entire history of the medium, from the arcade cabinets I used to pump hundreds of 10p pieces into through to the modern masterpieces still being made. Every genre, every era, every must-play. You will not agree with all of it, and that is half the fun. Pick one, start playing, and work your way through a lifetime of greatness.