ABOUT US
Gamerater is on a mission to crown the true GOAT of gaming. Not by critics or sales numbers, but by players, one head-to-head vote at a time.
- 1
Two games face off
You get a matchup from thousands of games, from all-time classics to the newest releases.
- 2
You pick the better one
Click a cover or use the arrow keys. Haven't played one? Skip it.
- 3
The rankings update
Every vote counts toward the community's all-time list.
Why 1v1?
Asking "what's the best game ever?" is impossible to answer. Asking "which of these two is better?" is easy, and fun. Put enough of those answers together and you get a ranking that reflects what players actually think.
How the rankings work
Every game starts at zero. Games climb by getting picked. Once a game has been in 20 matchups, it's ranked by its Win %: how often people pick it when it comes up. Until then, it's ranked by votes. That keeps the list fair to new releases and makes it hard to game the system. See the full list on the Rankings page.
Where the games come from
Game details, cover art and screenshots come from IGDB, one of the biggest video game databases out there.
How Gamerater was built
Gamerater is my idea, and I built it with some amazing tools. I designed it, made every call on how it looks and plays, and tested every piece. The code was written with Claude, an AI assistant by Anthropic, and the game data comes from IGDB. Big thanks to everything that powers it:
- Claude by AnthropicAI assistant (Claude Pro) that wrote most of the code with me
- IGDBGame info, cover art and screenshots (owned by Twitch)
- SupabaseDatabase, accounts and logins
- VercelWebsite hosting
- CloudflareDomain and bot protection
- Next.js, React & Tailwind CSSThe open-source tools the site is built on
Meet the creator
Hey, I'm Josh! Video games are the one hobby that's stuck with me my whole life. It started with a PlayStation 1, given to me by my best friend David, then a GameCube got me hooked on Nintendo (and way more Custom Robo than I'd like to admit).
I'm a huge JRPG fan (Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts forever), grew up on Blizzard games, and have lost countless hours to MMOs like World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XIV.
My GOAT? Final Fantasy VII. I was 7 when it came out in 1997, and I've beaten it 7 times. 777. JACKPOT!
Honestly, I built Gamerater to figure out what to add to my already endless backlog. When I'm not gaming, I'm hanging out with my girlfriend and taking care of my pets. Hope to see you on the Discord!
Join the community
Think the rankings are wrong? Come argue about it on Discord. Questions, ideas or bugs? Email contact@gamerater.io.