The Complete Blizzard Games List Ranked From Worst to Best

The Blizzard games list is fairly extensive, but sadly, to say it has gotten worse over the years would be putting it mildly. In a little over a decade, Blizzard went from a company that could seemingly do no wrong to one embroiled in an endless stream of controversies and scandals. Unfortunately, the quality of Blizzard games suffered greatly as a result. With the botched Warcraft III: Reforged and the upcoming Diablo Immortal being a far cry from the big hitters the company used to make back in the 2000s.

But while it’s easy to criticize the current state of Blizzard Entertainment, it’s safe to say that many of the company’s games still hold a special place in our hearts. This is why I decided to take a little trip down memory lane and reminisce about all the Blizzard games put out over the past three decades. Yep, we’re going all the way back to the beginning with this one.

To make things even more interesting, we’re turning this into a ranked list. Similar to our Bioware games list, these rankings are largely based on personal preferences, so just keep that in mind.

I’m ignoring remasters for the purposes of this list. But I will be taking into account any expansions the games may have received since launch. With that out of the way, let’s take a look at the complete Blizzard games list and rank their work from worst to best.

20. RPM Racing

Some might be surprised to learn that Blizzard’s very first title was a racing game. This was back in the early 90s when the company went by the name Silicon & Synapse. What shouldn’t come as a surprise is the fact that the game wasn’t particularly good. Debut titles rarely are, especially during those days.

Originally developed for the SNES, RPM (Radical Psycho Machines) Racing is a very simplistic game that plays exactly how you would expect. You pick a car, pick a course, and try to beat the other cars to the finish line. Not a whole lot of depth beyond that.

RPM Racing was one of the first SNES games to use hi-res textures and had some other interesting features like basic car customization and the ability to build your own courses. However, the gameplay itself is very dull and everything feels way too slow for a racing game. Plus, there are only a handful of vehicles to choose from.

RPM Racing wasn’t something you’d want to play for more than 20-30 minutes even in the early 90s.

19. Justice League Task Force

Justice League Task Force is one of the least known titles on the Blizzard games list. Partially because the company only acted as co-developer on the project. And partially because it was a pretty awful fighting game. The game is essentially an archaic version of Injustice with all the fun sucked out of it.

Justice League Task Force features a very small roster of characters, each possessing an even smaller number of moves. There’s technically a story involving Darkseid, but it’s only there as an excuse to have members of the Justice League fighting against each other.

The animations are bad, the sound design is bad, the controls are bad, and you can beat the story mode in like 20 minutes. The only redeeming quality of the game is the whole Justice League theme. But that’s not nearly enough to recommend it, especially these days.

Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat were already a thing in 1995 when Justice League Task Force came out, so there were much better fighting games to play even back then.

18. Rock N’ Roll Racing

Rock n’ Roll Racing is a sequel to RPM Racing and better than its predecessor in almost every way. Not that that’s saying a lot, mind you. Regardless, there are more cars to choose from, the soundtrack is good and there’s more emphasis on the vehicular combat this time around.

Unfortunately, Rock n’ Roll Racing is overall just as simplistic as its predecessor in scope, with none of the ambition of later Blizzard games. There’s not much to do in the game besides driving around in circles trying to shoot at other cars.

In addition, the graphics and sound effects were downgraded since RPM Racing. Leaving the soundtrack as the only memorable part of the game.

17. The Death and Return of Superman

The Death and Return of Superman is Blizzard’s second DC licensed game and has a bit more to offer compared to Justice League Task Force. Instead of another fighting game for the Blizzard games list, the company decided to try its hand at a side-scrolling beat ‘em up where you get to play as Superman, Cyborg Superman, Steel, and a couple of other characters.

Superman has a long history of starring in terrible games and this one is no exception. Despite featuring a number of superheroes with incredible powers, you’ll spend most of your time punching and kicking generic bad guys like in most other beat ‘em ups.

You do have a handful of interesting moves at your disposal and there are a few sections where you can fly, but there’s not much else to write home about.

At the end of the day, the only noteworthy thing about The Death and Return of Superman is that it was the first game Blizzard worked on as, well, Blizzard. All their previous games up to this point were developed under the label Silicone & Synapse.

16. The Lost Vikings 2

The Lost Vikings 2 is a sequel nobody asked for and I’m pretty sure most people reading this didn’t even know it exists. But it does, and it’s honestly pretty mediocre.

By the time this game came out in 1997, Blizzard had already released Diablo and the first two Warcraft games. So it’s no surprise that The Lost Vikings 2 fell under the radar.

Granted, Blizzard Entertainment only developed the SNES version of the game. With all the other ones being handled by the now-defunct Beam Software. The Lost Vikings 2 was Blizzard’s last console game for quite a while, as the company was already starting to focus its efforts on PC gaming around this time.

There’s not much to say about the game itself since it didn’t really bring anything new to the table. Also, the graphics are noticeable worse compared to the original. Not sure what happened there.

15. Diablo Immortal

Hopefully you guys have phones because Diablo Immortal is finally out. What’s that, do you guys not have phones? Well, don’t worry. As it turns out, the game did eventually make its way to PC and almost instantly become one of the most controversial Blizzard games of all time. Yes, even more controversial than Warcraft III: Reforged, believe it or not.

Unlike Reforged, however, Diablo Immortal isn’t a broken mess or even necessarily a bad game for that matter. Don’t get me wrong, it won’t be up for a Game of the Year award or anything. But if you’re into somewhat generic and repetitive mobile ARPGs you’ll probably have a bit of fun with this one. You may have end up having lots of fun provided you’re willing to spend the big bucks.

As I’m sure you’ve already heard by now, the Diablo Immortal controversy is more about the monetization than the gameplay itself. While you can play the game for about 20 hours or so without feeling the need to spend any money on it, you will need to pull out your credit card if you want to progress at a reasonable rate afterward. Like most mobile games, Diablo Immortal’s main goal is to persuade you to spend a lot of money on it, preferably at a consistent rate.

At the end of the day, Diablo Immortal isn’t a bad game if you’re looking for something to play while you’re on the toilet. But it’s hard to recommend it for anything more than that. And if you’re not comfortable with heavily time-gated content and predatory microtransactions don’t even bother with this one. There are much better games out there even on mobile, let alone on PC.

14. Blackthorne

Blackthorne is another one of those titles from the Blizzard games list that you’re probably unfamiliar with. Launched back in 1994 for the SNES and MS-DOS, Blackthorne is a pretty obvious Price of Persia (the original) rip-off. But with more interesting puzzles and a pretty unique dark sci-fi setting.

The main things that keep Blackthorne from being higher up on this list are slow pacing and repetitive music. The animations, while smooth for a 1994 game, take forever to play out. And things really slow down to a crawl during combat, which is one of the weakest parts of the game.

As far as the music is concerned, it’s a pretty mixed bag, with some of the tracks being fairly decent and others being extremely annoying. The track that plays during the opening level is particularly infuriating and likely to drive you mad after a while.

I have to admit that a modern game set in the Blackthorne universe would be pretty cool. But as far as the 1994 title is concerned, it’s only slightly above average.

13. Warcraft: Orcs & Humans

Although Dune II is often credited with setting up the blueprint that would end up being used by most RTS games for decades to come, Warcraft: Orcs & Humans and its two sequels had an overall much bigger impact on the genre. And a few other genres as well.

Inspired by Warhammer fantasy games, Warcraft: Orcs & Humans revolves around the first contact between the two titular races. In addition to the standard staples of the genre like base building, resource gathering, and unit production, the first Warcraft game featured a number of other, more unique game modes. Along with a random map generator.

At the time, Warcraft: Orcs & Humans was also one of the only RTS games to feature multiplayer. Which was no small feat back in 1994.

In retrospect, Warcraft: Orcs & Humans had just as many issues as it had innovations. This is why I can’t put it higher up on this list. The game aged like warm milk, but it was a very solid RTS at the time and paved the way for greater things to come.

12. The Lost Vikings

Initially launched almost three decades ago, The Lost Vikings is one of the oldest Blizzard games. And also one of the best ones that came out during the company’s early years. To this day, the game still invokes a lot of nostalgia among the developers who worked on it. And it’s easy to see why.

The Lost Vikings is a side-scroller platformer where you take turns controlling three different characters – Erik the Swift, Baleog the Fierce, and Olaf the Stout.

The gameplay is pretty interesting but what really sets this one apart is the setting, which involves aliens and time travel. That’s not really something you would expect to see in most Viking games.

The Lost Vikings have made cameo appearances within the Blizzard games list over the years. Ranging from Rock n’ Roll Racing and Blackthorne to World of Warcraft. The trio was also added as playable characters in Heroes of the Storm.

11. Overwatch

And next up we have what’s likely to be the most controversial pick on this list. Overwatch is a game that received a lot of praise over the years. And a hefty number of awards from everybody and their grandmas, even managing to grab Game of the Year at TGA 2016.

And yet, I always found Overwatch to be one of the most mediocre games made by Blizzard. While I do appreciate the character design and the art style, I’m not a big fan of its formulaic gameplay.

Blizzard was never shy about taking ideas from other games (in this case, Team Fortress 2), simplifying them to make them accessible to everyone, and wrapping everything up in a well-polished, and often cartoony, product. And I do want to emphasize the word product.

While a lot of older Blizzard games were designed to make players happy, Overwatch was primarily designed to make shareholders happy. Blizzard spent a ton of money marketing this game in an attempt to turn it into the ‘next big thing’. And it was, for a little while.

But now that the dust has settled and most players have moved on, I think a lot of people would agree that Overwatch is just an okay game that was overhyped at launch and should have been free-to-play. 

10. Heroes of the Storm

Speaking of free-to-play Blizzard games, next up we have another example of a title designed to capitalize on a popular trend. Only this one failed pretty hard and it hurt Blizzard’s ego more than a lot of people realize.

As I’m sure a lot of you already know, Blizzard is indirectly responsible for creating the MOBA genre. The original Defense of the Ancients (DotA) was a Warcraft 3 mod that ended up spawning Valve’s hugely successful DOTA 2. Not to mention all the other big MOBAs like League of Legends.

Blizzard fought Valve in court over the rights to Dota, but they eventually had to cave in and decided to make a new MOBA instead. One that would feature playable characters from a variety of Blizzard games.

On paper, the idea itself was great. Having iconic characters like Arthas and Jim Raynor going up against Diablo sounded like a surefire way to get players flocking to the game. And it was. However, the enthusiasm for Heroes of the Storm died down as soon as people realized that this MOBA was objectively inferior to the likes of DOTA 2 and League of Legends.

This was one of those rare instances where Blizzard’s philosophy of making games accessible to everyone blew up in their face. Fans of the genre didn’t want a dumbed-down MOBA with simplified mechanics and virtually no challenge.

Being able to play as your favorite Blizzard characters in a MOBA setting is definitely nice. But that’s pretty much all Heroes of the Storm has going on for it.

9. Diablo Iii

If I was to take into account the state of these Blizzard games at launch, Diablo 3 would obviously be much further down on this list.

First off, the game was released in a pretty poor state. Then, it was involved in a fair number of controversies due to the now-infamous real-money auction house. In addition, the change in art direction was the last thing long-time fans of the series wanted. Finally, the lack of offline single-player combined with server issues wasn’t exactly well-received either.

Now, while some of the aforementioned issues, along with a few other ones, were never really addressed, Diablo 3 did end up getting better over time. Thanks in no small part to the Reaper of Souls expansion.

The expansion didn’t fix everything that was wrong with Diablo 3 but it did bring to the table a lot of improvements to the core gameplay. As well as a decent number of new features and content, including a new class and a fifth act.

Diablo 3 remains the weakest entry in the series and is increasingly harder to recommend over free-to-play ARPGs like Path of Exile or Lost Ark. That said, the game does have some redeemable qualities and is worth playing every now and again. Provided you already own it.

If you don’t, it’s honestly better to just wait for Diablo 4 at this point. There are better Blizzard games you can play in the meantime.

8. Hearthstone

I’m a bit conflicted when it comes to Hearthstone. It’s a pretty basic CCG compared to other popular ones like Magic: The Gathering or even Yu-Gi-Oh. That said, Hearthstone can be a very addictive and fun game that anybody can wrap their head around. Hence, why it became so successful.

Hearthstone is a prime example of Blizzard doing what it does best – simplifying an existing formula and making it all nice and pretty. I know I’m mentioning that a lot throughout this list, but it’s true. And there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that. Video games wouldn’t be where they are now without iteration.

Like a lot of other live-service games, Hearthstone got progressively more bloated and objectively worse over time. But for the first couple of years after its release, the game was a real blast to play. In fact, between 2014 and 2015 I spent more time than I would like to admit playing this game.

To tell you the truth, I haven’t really gone back to Hearthstone since and I have no intention of playing it anytime soon. If I were to go back to it now, I imagine I would probably end up placing it much lower on this list.

Hearthstone seems to be in bad shape these days from what I understand. And it’s not really the sort of thing I would enjoy playing again anyway. I guess what I’m saying is that I’m ranking Hearthstone this high on the list for nostalgia more than anything else.

7. Diablo

The original Diablo was a major turning point for Blizzard. While the company was already a force to be reckoned with in the RTS space by the time of its release, Diablo allowed it to expand its reach into the ever-popular RPG genre.

Diablo was pretty unique (and still is) among the full Blizzard games list in that it didn’t try just try to improve upon the formula established by other titles. Sure, it wasn’t completely original. The setting and a lot of the characters were heavily inspired by the Bible and other religious texts. Meanwhile, the gameplay was heavily based on old D&D tabletop role-playing games.

As far as video games are concerned, though, there wasn’t really anything like Diablo out there. At least nothing as fast-paced and exciting.

Diablo is one of Blizzard’s most important titles in terms of its impact on the gaming industry. The game popularized an entire subgenre and spawned terms like “Diablo clone” and “Diablo-like”, which are still used to this day to describe a whole bunch of games. Including the likes of Path of Exile and even Lost Ark.

It’s perhaps a bit ironic that some of these ‘clones’ ended up becoming more popular than the Diablo series. But sometimes that’s just the way the cookie crumbles.

6. Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness

Tides of Darkness is a direct sequel to Orcs & Humans that picks up where the original left off. Warcraft 2 is where Blizzard developers really started to put their storytelling skills to the test.

The game featured better cinematics, better voice acting, and did a much better job than its predecessor at fleshing out its main characters. Some of which, like Khadgar and Uther the Lightbringer, would become instrumental to later games set in the Warcraft universe.

While still running with the humans vs orcs theme, Blizzard added a bunch of new allied races for each of the two factions. Like elves, gnomes, and dwarves for the humans and trolls, ogres, and goblins for the orcs. These will eventually end up becoming the backbone of the Alliance and the Horde, respectively. Another interesting new feature was the addition of air and naval units, as well as new artillery pieces.

Warcraft II was one of the first Blizzard games to sell over 1 million copies and also one of the first games to receive an expansion. Dubbed Beyond the Dark Portal, the expansion expanded the rather generic humans vs orcs theme into something a lot more grandiose and introduced even more important characters like Ner’zhul and Gul’dan.

Of course, just as important was the Dark Portal itself, which was used by Blizzard as a key narrative device time and time again over the years. Predominantly in World of Warcraft.

5. Diablo Ii

Diablo 2 is considered one of the best RPGs of all time by many and it’s easy to see why. The second entry in the series was released during a time when Blizzard was truly at its finest and is a rare example of a sequel that managed to completely outshine what was already a very good first game.

The interesting thing about Diablo 2 is that it didn’t try to reinvent the wheel. There was no need to, after all. The game simply built upon the formula established by its predecessor and gave fans more of what they loved.

There was more item variety, more classes, a more interesting story, and much more emphasis on multiplayer gameplay. In other words, more of everything.

The focus on multiplayer, in particular, was crucial to the success of Diablo 2 and prompted Blizzard to develop most of its following titles with multiplayer in mind. For better or worse. One could argue they went a little too far in that direction with their more recent games at the expense of the narrative.

It’s been over a decade now since we’ve had a Blizzard game like D2 with a good storyline. But hopefully, that will change with Diablo 4. I wouldn’t hold my breath, though.

I mentioned earlier I wouldn’t be taking into account remasters for the purposes of this list. And I won’t. However, I do want to acknowledge that the developers did a better-than-expected job with Diablo 2: Resurrected.

Of course, most of the heavy lifting was done by the folks over at Vicarious Visions, but that’s neither here nor there. What matters is that one of the best Blizzard games of all time was updated competently and looks better than ever before. Which is more than I can say about a certain other remaster.

4. Starcraft

At this point in the Blizzard games list I have discussed a few games I could do without and a handful of worthwhile entries, but now we’re finally getting to my favorite entries.

The original Starcraft was the first Blizzard game I ever played and one of the first PC games I saw that didn’t look like garbage. Some of you might be too young to remember this, but back in the day console games used to look a lot better than PC ones. And not by a small margin either. PC games only started to look halfway decent during the late 90s, around the same time Starcraft came out.

Most RTS games at the time played it safe by relying on familiar themes and settings but Starcraft was different. Not only did the game feature three playable races, which was already a pretty big deal back then, but each of them was wildly different from the other two in terms of looks, sounds and, most importantly, gameplay mechanics.

Of course, you had the obligatory human race in the form of the Terrans. But the insect-like Zerg and the technologically advanced Protoss were completely out of this world. Literally.

Admittedly, I would end up learning years later that Blizzard drew a lot of inspiration (to the point of rip-off, really) from Warhammer 40K when designing Starcraft’s races. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that Starcraft still features some of the coolest races ever made by Blizzard. Especially the Protoss.

In addition to three fully fleshed-out single-player campaigns (six if you include Starcraft: Brood War), Starcraft also featured a fantastic multiplayer component. It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to say that starcrafts multiplayer defined an entire generation of gamers and would end up being instrumental to the birth of eSports. First in South Korea, then everywhere else in the world.

3. World of Warcraft

There was a time when World of Warcraft would have easily topped the list of my favorite Blizzard games. In fact, there was a time when WoW was the only game I would play. And I would play it A LOT. But as Garrosh Hellscream points out in one of the best WoW cinematics, “times change”.

While still one of the best MMORPGs around, these days World of Warcraft is but a shadow of its former self. It would be easy to blame all the recent controversies surrounding Blizzard on the current state of the game; they certainly contributed to it. But the truth is WoW’s problems began long before that.

Blizzard’s obsession with adding unnecessary new systems and grinds with each expansion is one of the main reasons why modern WoW feels more like a job than a video game.

Before you say anything, I know a lot of other games do something similar. But in WoW it’s particularly bad because most of the things you work to acquire become obsolete once the next major patch or expansion rolls around. It’s a very bad design choice and, unfortunately, Blizzard is adamant about sticking with it despite the fact that nobody likes it.

That said, this is a problem you only have to worry about if you’re playing Shadowlands. Or whatever the current expansion is when you’re reading this.

Despite the company’s initial “you think you do, but you don’t” stance, releasing Classic servers was the best thing Blizzard could have done for the game. Between Classic WoW, Classic TBC and retail, there are plenty of opportunities to still have fun in World of Warcraft.

With a new expansion likely to be announced soon and the possibility of Wrath of the Lich King Classic servers in the future, there’s reason to be excited for the future of World of Warcraft. Maybe.

2. Starcraft Ii

Just like World of Warcraft, Starcraft 2 is another one of those Blizzard games I used to play religiously. My Starcraft 2 obsession wasn’t as long-lasting as my WoW obsession, but it was more intense.

You see, SC2 was the only title I tried to become a pro player at. A very poor choice in hindsight considering it was one of the most difficult competitive games around. Needless to say, my dream never came to pass. *cue sad piano music*

Although Starcraft 2’s multiplayer scarred me for life, I still have fond memories of it and consider it one of the best games ever made by Blizzard. Multiplayer aside, the game had very solid single-player campaigns with great characters, both new and returning, and unique mechanics for each of the three races.

A few of the storylines could have been better, but the overall narrative had improved tremendously compared to the previous game. Characters were more fleshed out this time around and you can chat with them between missions to learn more about their past, their goals, and their motivations.

Don’t get me wrong, Starcraft 2 is definitely no Mass Effect in terms of character development. But it does manage to make you feel attached to its characters more than most other RTS games.

My only major gripe with Starcraft 2 is the fact that it was split into three parts. Which was highly unnecessary. And, quite frankly, a bad value proposition for those uninterested in the multiplayer component.

Charging you full price for a campaign and a couple of new multiplayer units was impressively greedy, even for Blizzard. But I bought them all anyway. Joke’s on me, I guess, because they later made Wings of Liberty free-to-play and dropped the price for Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void by a lot.

Ultimately, though, I still love Starcraft 2 in spite of Blizzard’s repeated attempts to ruin it. Just don’t ask me to play the multiplayer.

1. Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos

Ranking the top five best Blizzard games (in my opinion) was quite challenging. Deciding which title should take the number one spot was even more difficult. I pondered things for quite a while before finally basing my ranking on one simple question. “Which Blizzard game ended up upsetting me the least?”

Honestly, I have a lot of good and bad things to say about most Blizzard games. Except for Warcraft 3. I only have good things to say about Warcraft 3.

Those familiar only with Warcraft 3: Reforged might consider this decision outrageous or downright insane. And it would be if I was talking about Reforged. But I’m not. Reforged doesn’t even exist as far as I’m concerned.

The only Warcraft 3 that exists came out in 2002. And it’s a hell of a game. Made even better by the Frozen Throne expansion.

The original Warcraft 3 was the game that cemented Blizzard’s reputation as an elite video game developer. It also paved the way for World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, and just the entire MOBA genre in general. And the Tower Defense genre. And maybe a few other ones, too.

The game also brought us a whole slew of iconic characters like Arthas Menethil, Illidan Stormrage, Thrall, Sylvanas Windrunner, Jaina Proudmoore, and many others.

Not to mention that it was Blizzard’s first game to feature good cinematics. Seriously, just look at the Warcraft 3 cinematics and compare them to those of Diablo 2. Which launched just two years before Warcraft. The difference is night and day.

If there’s one thing everybody can agree on about Blizzard is that the company makes some of the best cinematics in the industry. That reputation started with Warcraft 3.

The fact that Warcraft 3 was such a fantastic original game, and such an important game for Blizzard, is what turned Reforged from a bad remaster into a tragedy.

What makes it even worse is that Blizzard made it very difficult to play Warcraft 3 Classic when they released Reforged. Luckily, they didn’t make it impossible. You can still play the original if you’re willing to jump through a few hoops. And you should because it’s definitely worth it.

If you enjoyed our ranking of the entire Blizzard games list from worst to best make sure to check out some of our other ranked lists down below.

• All Call of Duty Games Ranked from Worst to Best
• All BioWare Games Ranked from Worst to Best
• 114+ Star Wars Games Ranked: The Good, The Bad, And The Hutt Ugly
• Genshin Impact Weapons Ranked: The Master List
• The Best Final Fantasy Characters Ranked: The Protagonists