# What is the greatest video game sequel of all time?

> Second acts that buried the original, from quietly tightened classics to total reinventions.

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

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Half-Life 2** — score 1000/1000
   Valve's 2004 sequel, which made physics a storytelling tool.
2. **Resident Evil 4** — score 719/1000
   Reinvented survival horror as an over-the-shoulder action game in 2005.
3. **The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask** — score 660/1000
   A darker, stranger follow-up built in a year on Ocarina of Time's engine.
4. **Red Dead Redemption 2** — score 582/1000
   A prequel-sequel that slowed the western down until every chore mattered.
5. **Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater** — score 513/1000
   A Cold War prequel widely held to be the series' best-told story.
6. **Street Fighter II** — score 434/1000
   The sequel that created the modern fighting game and the arcade boom around it.
7. **Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas** — score 434/1000
   Took Vice City's formula and stretched it across three cities and an entire state.
8. **The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt** — score 434/1000
   The third Geralt game, and the one that made CD Projekt a household name.
9. **Civilization IV** — score 434/1000
   The entry most strategy players still name as the series' peak.
10. **Diablo II** — score 342/1000
   Refined the loot-and-click formula so thoroughly that players never really stopped.
11. **Super Metroid** — score 342/1000
   The 1994 sequel that defined an entire genre's map design.
12. **Super Mario Bros. 3** — score 342/1000
   The 1988 sequel that rebuilt the platformer with a world map and power-up suits.
13. **Mass Effect 2** — score 342/1000
   Cut the first game's tedium and added a cast worth dying for.
14. **Uncharted 2: Among Thieves** — score 233/1000
   The sequel that turned a solid adventure series into a system seller.

Tags: games, franchises, sequels