# What is the best crime video game of all time?

> Bank jobs, mob dynasties, an undercover cop and one detective who talks his way through it.

*By YPB Team · Published August 23, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-crime-video-game-of-all-time*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Red Dead Redemption 2** — score 1000/1000
   Rockstar's outlaw western about a gang running out of frontier to hide in.
2. **Grand Theft Auto V** — score 914/1000
   Three criminals, one Los Angeles, and the second best-selling game ever made.
3. **Saints Row 2** — score 806/1000
   The gang-war rival that took Grand Theft Auto's formula somewhere stranger.
4. **Max Payne 2** — score 664/1000
   A noir shooter about a New York cop and the crime syndicates that ruined him.
5. **L.A. Noire** — score 652/1000
   A 1947 Los Angeles detective game built on facial-capture interrogations.
6. **Yakuza 0** — score 652/1000
   The Tokyo and Osaka crime saga that finally broke the series in the West.
7. **Hitman: World of Assassination** — score 487/1000
   A contract-killer sandbox where every level is a puzzle box full of targets.
8. **Sleeping Dogs** — score 487/1000
   An undercover cop inside a Hong Kong triad, with the best hand-to-hand combat of its era.
9. **Scarface: The World Is Yours** — score 487/1000
   A licensed sequel that let players rebuild Tony Montana's empire.
10. **Mafia II** — score 384/1000
   A 1940s and 50s mob story told as a straight period crime drama.
11. **Disco Elysium** — score 262/1000
   A murder investigation carried entirely by dialogue, skills and a ruined detective's mind.
12. **Payday 2** — score 262/1000
   Co-operative heist shooter built entirely around planning and blowing a robbery.
13. **Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven** — score 262/1000
   The 2002 original that proved a crime game could be slow, scripted and cinematic.
14. **Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas** — score 115/1000
   A gang story stretched across three cities and the whole of a fictional California.

Tags: games, action, crime, open world