The best Star Wars games ever made, ranked by the numbers

The only Star Wars game that wins on every measure at once. The highest score the franchise has ever received, 2.77 million copies sold, and still a few hundred people playing on a given evening twenty-three years later. The twist still works and the writing still holds up.

No Metascore, because Metacritic did not exist yet, and the strongest critical record of any game here. PC Gamer named it the best computer game ever released in 1997. IGN still called it the best Star Wars game ever made in 2010. You fly for the Empire, the campaign branches on how well you fly, and the score reacts to the fight around you. Buy the GOG version, which includes the 1995 Collector's CD-ROM. The Steam one does not.

A 91, Computer Gaming World's 1997 Game of the Year, and the game that worked out what a lightsaber should feel like in first person. Everything since, including Outcast below, is built on what this got right. Six dollars today, with Mysteries of the Sith included on GOG.

The best-reviewed Star Wars game since 2004, and our own 9 out of 10. Clone Wars tactics with the best squad customization the licence has produced. Its player number is five days old and still inside the launch spike, so we have ranked it on the reviews and the campaign rather than that figure.

The clearest argument in this entire list for counting players. A 79 in 2006, and today the most played Star Wars game of any era except a brand-new release. Total conversions like Thrawn's Revenge have kept it current for two decades. Our mod guide covers which one to install.

The one people mean when they say Battlefront. Space battles you can fly into and board, and a campaign told from the clones' side. Twenty years on it is still the thing every new Battlefront gets measured against. Now sold only inside Aspyr's Classic Collection, whose reviews are rough, so buy with that in mind.

Darker and stranger than the original, shipped visibly unfinished, and now more played than its predecessor. Install TSLRCM before you start: the fan restoration spent years putting back what Obsidian was not given time to finish. The clearest case in Star Wars gaming of a community completing a game.

The high point of the Cal Kestis trilogy so far, and the best pure lightsaber combat in a modern Star Wars game. It launched in rough technical shape on PC and was fixed over months, which is worth remembering whenever a new release stumbles.

The second-highest score in franchise history and the hardest to act on. A GameCube launch exclusive, never re-released, so unless you own the hardware this is a game you can read about and not play. Factor 5's flight model is the best case anyone has for a remaster that has never come.

Fifteen years old and the second most played game on this list. Eight fully-voiced class campaigns that are free to play and remain the most underrated single-player writing in Star Wars gaming. Our player-count breakdown explains why the real audience is bigger than the number shown.

An 89, and still the saber combat people cite when they complain that modern Star Wars games get it wrong. Almost nobody is playing it on Steam today, which says more about 2002 multiplayer than about the game.

The lowest score on this list and one of its most played games. The 68 is a snapshot of the 2017 loot-box launch. EA removed the microtransactions, rebuilt progression and shipped years of free content afterward, and what exists now is the best-looking large-scale Star Wars shooter ever made.

The game that proved single-player Star Wars still worked after years of shooters. A 79 undersells what rested on it, and seven years later it still outdraws most of this list. Play it before Survivor.

The most cited underrated Star Wars game, and accurately so. Squad tactics, a grim register, and clone troopers written as people rather than scenery. It underperformed on release and its reputation has climbed every year since.

The one that made Factor 5's name and set up Rogue Leader. An 85 and over a million copies sold on N64. The PC version is still buyable; the console version is not.