# Which video game caused the biggest moral panic?

> Games that ended up in front of politicians, newspapers or a court. What they were accused of rarely matched what they actually were.

*By YPB Team · Published September 22, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/which-video-game-caused-the-biggest-moral-panic*

---

## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Mortal Kombat** — score 1000/1000
   The 1992 fighter whose Fatalities were named at the 1993 US Senate hearings that produced the ESRB.
2. **Street Fighter II** — score 927/1000
   Cited alongside Mortal Kombat in early-1990s arguments about arcade violence, and mostly cleared.
3. **Pokémon** — score 800/1000
   Accused in the late 1990s of promoting gambling and, in some communities, the occult.
4. **Hatred** — score 709/1000
   The 2015 shooter briefly removed from Steam Greenlight before Valve reversed the decision.
5. **Doom** — score 709/1000
   Blamed by name in coverage of the 1999 Columbine shooting, and the centre of the 1990s shooter debate.
6. **Death Race** — score 600/1000
   The 1976 arcade game pulled from some locations after a national television segment about it.
7. **Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas** — score 466/1000
   The Hot Coffee content found in the 2004 game's files, which forced a re-rating and a recall.
8. **Postal 2** — score 466/1000
   The 2003 game built entirely around the transgression, and banned outright in New Zealand.
9. **Manhunt** — score 466/1000
   Rockstar's 2003 stealth game, banned in several countries and pulled from shelves in the UK.
10. **Custer's Revenge** — score 466/1000
   The 1982 Atari game protested by women's groups and Native American organisations on release.
11. **Dungeons & Dragons video games** — score 466/1000
   Inheritors of the 1980s satanic-panic argument about the tabletop game they adapt.
12. **Night Trap** — score 0/1000
   The 1992 full-motion-video game hauled before the same Senate hearings for its live-action scenes.
13. **Grand Theft Auto III** — score 0/1000
   The 2001 open-world game that made "you can do anything" a political problem.
14. **Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2** — score 0/1000
   The "No Russian" airport level, cut or gated in several territories in 2009.

Tags: brands, games, 90s, crime