I feel like there will be a problem with adding everyone's top 25 from PSNP because it's going to be skewed... It's going to be skewed because we can see the current results which will no doubt influence how we rank games we feel are underrated and skewed by the fact that trophies will influence our opinion on the game as well.
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# The Top-Rated "Indie" Games of "All Time"

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### TheBlaskar

### TheBlaskar

(edited)

I gathered 25 sources' rankings of their favorite indie games and combined all of the lists to create a more accurate measurement of "the best." These sources ranged from Steam's Top 250 by user rating to just single YouTuber tier lists of their personal 50 favorites. I used rank-based voting here to assign each game's list position with a "point" value (where #100 on the list gets 1 point, and #1 on the list gets 100 points) for all sources. In spreadsheet 1 (Indies Votes), we just have the raw data in Columns B-Z and the point values in column A. In spreadsheet 2, we have a formula =QUERY(FLATTEN('Indies Votes'!B4:Z103),"SELECT Col1,COUNT(Col1) where Col1 is not null group by Col1")  to grab the unique titles and count how many times they appear across all lists as well as the formula =SUMPRODUCT(IF('Indies Votes'!B$4:Z$103=A2,'Indies Votes'!A$4:A$103))  to count how many points each title gets. Across the 25 lists, there are a total of 553 Game Titles, and a total of 1617 total votes, all inputted by hand thanks my lonely life lol

Granted, this method isn't perfect (as I've done it) since not all sources have the same number of entries. The longest 11 lists consist of 100 games, where the shortest one is but 20. This causes issues as games like Gone Home or Firewatch, while appearing in about half of the lists each, average a position of about #40 - so the shorter lists typically don't have them in there, which costs those games points (since 8/25 lists are <40 games). Games like Hades, Hollow Knight, and Stardew Valley benefit from this since they're in just about every list - and near the top of all of them. The obvious fix here is to only accept the top 20 games in all other lists, but that cuts out a lot of good games and nifty data (eg Gone Home and Firewatch).

There are a few other obvious issues, stemming from the very definition of "indie game" to more of a subjective reasoning as to why somebody would or wouldn't play certain games in the first place (platform being one major reason). Of the 25 lists, I've seen some entries that are clearly NOT indie games - they just look and feel like indie games but have a big-ass "EA" on the box art. Regarding platform, some of the lists were PS4/PS5 lists exclusively while others were raw Steam data and included games not on PS at all. There are also games that are, indeed, technically independently developed without the financial assistance of publishers, but were made by a team of a thousand people. And some, by a lone dev. What we get at the end is a list of indies or indie-likes across multiple platforms ranging in budget from shoestring to the GDP of small countries.

The final issue is simply publication date. Some lists don't have titles that are on other lists simply due to this, and some newer titles appear infrequently but with a lot of points due to their recency and quality. They are lower on the overall list but have high average points. To combat this, we can sort by average points as well for fun, although that does lead us to see a random-ass game that somebody put at #1, making it the only game with a 100-point average.

Without further ado, the Top 100 "Indies":

Position

Game Title

Lists

Points

Average

1

Stardew Valley

22

1941

88.23

2

Hollow Knight

21

1727

82.24

3

Celeste

19

1611

84.79

4

Undertale

20

1585

79.25

5

Hades

18

1536

85.33

6

Inside

18

1466

81.44

7

Disco Elysium

16

1373

85.81

8

Hotline Miami

19

1347

70.89

9

Cuphead

17

1306

76.82

10

Dead Cells

18

1299

72.17

11

The Binding of Isaac

18

1283

71.28

12

Papers, Please

17

1272

74.82

13

Shovel Knight

17

1271

74.76

14

What Remains of Edith Finch

16

1107

69.19

15

Minecraft

13

1105

85.00

16

Terraria

15

1102

73.47

17

Subnautica

15

1075

71.67

18

The Stanley Parable

16

1066

66.63

19

Fez

14

997

71.21

20

Limbo

13

964

74.15

21

Braid

13

961

73.92

22

Return of the Obra Dinn

13

958

73.69

23

Outer Wilds

12

951

79.25

24

Journey

12

931

77.58

25

Slay the Spire

14

910

65.00

26

Super Meat Boy

13

891

68.54

27

Night in the Woods

14

875

62.50

28

Darkest Dungeon

13

846

65.08

29

Ori and the Blind Forest

11

815

74.09

30

Enter the Gungeon

12

760

63.33

31

Stray

9

733

81.44

32

Into the Breach

9

690

76.67

33

Katana Zero

10

681

68.10

34

To the Moon

11

663

60.27

35

Cave Story

11

662

60.18

36

Bastion

10

651

65.10

37

Crypt of the Necrodancer

9

647

71.89

38

The Witness

11

643

58.45

39

Inscryption

8

619

77.38

40

Rocket League

8

610

76.25

41

Firewatch

10

609

60.90

42

Spelunky

9

598

66.44

43

Baba is You

10

596

59.60

44

Tunic

8

596

74.50

45

Gone Home

10

591

59.10

46

Factorio

9

583

64.78

47

Hyper Light Drifter

10

581

58.10

48

Don't Starve

8

574

71.75

49

Superhot

10

563

56.30

50

Risk of Rain 2

7

534

76.29

51

Rimworld

8

525

65.63

52

Ori and the Will of the Wisps

7

523

74.71

53

Deep Rock Galactic

8

513

64.13

54

Little Nightmares

8

489

61.13

55

Spiritfarer

7

488

69.71

56

Furi

6

486

81.00

57

Faster Than Light

9

485

53.89

58

Gris

8

476

59.50

59

Vampire Survivors

7

472

67.43

60

Kerbal Space Program

8

467

58.38

61

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

9

462

51.33

62

SteamWorld Dig 2

6

450

75.00

63

Death's Door

8

442

55.25

64

Untitled Goose Game

9

437

48.56

65

Slime Rancher

8

424

53.00

66

Among Us

8

418

52.25

67

Her Story

6

415

69.17

68

Sifu

6

411

68.50

69

Owlboy

6

408

68.00

70

Cocoon

5

389

77.80

71

Pizza Tower

5

386

77.20

72

Doki Doki

6

372

62.00

73

Monument Valley

7

367

52.43

74

World of Goo

6

354

59.00

75

Thumper

6

347

57.83

76

Divinity: Original Sin 2

4

343

85.75

77

Don't Starve Together

5

334

66.80

78

A Short Hike

5

331

66.20

79

Castle Crashers

6

330

55.00

80

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

6

329

54.83

81

Cult of the Lamb

6

299

49.83

82

Soma

5

298

59.60

83

Neon White

5

289

57.80

84

Unpacking

6

281

46.83

85

Oxenfree

5

276

55.20

86

Outlast

4

275

68.75

87

Omori

5

274

54.80

88

The Forest

6

273

45.50

89

Mark of the Ninja

4

273

68.25

90

This War of Mine

5

271

54.20

91

Fall Guys

4

268

67.00

92

Rogue Legacy

5

261

52.20

93

Kena Bridge of Spirits

4

259

64.75

94

Getting Over It

4

255

63.75

95

A Hat in Time

4

252

63.00

96

Machinarium

4

250

62.50

97

TowerFall Ascension

4

249

62.25

98

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

3

242

80.67

99

Life is Strange

3

234

78.00

100

Citizen Sleeper

3

232

77.33

What surprises you with this list? Anything you'd change about the ranking? Curious to see what other people think, and if you'd add any games you don't see here! Hell, send me a Top 25 and I'll add it to the data pool <3

Edited May 20 by TheBlaskar

a slightly more honest title

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### StewartBros

### StewartBros

Is it a bad thing that I've only played 8 of these games?

However, I do have more of them in my backlog...

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### MoreFuego

### MoreFuego

Seeing Hollow Knight, Cuphead and Dead Cells in the top ten brought a smile to my face

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### DrBloodmoney

### DrBloodmoney

Bad at Videogames

(edited)

Good list of game, and TBH, most of the ones I'd expect to see are represented.

Reckon I've played around half of those on the list to completion, and at least played a little or seen some good chunk of another 20 or so, via videos or seeing friends play etc.

There are a few I'm a little sad not to see that I might have thoughts might show up: Hardspace Shipbreaker, Immortality, Invisible Inc, Transistor, Pyre Alan Wake II,  Nex Machina, Resogun etc....

...and a bunch that would easily make my own personal list (and did! 😂), but aren't probably popular enough to make it: Fights in Tight Spaces, Norco, Viewfinder, Curse of the Dead Gods, Dandara, Chants of Sennaar etc.

but overall, it's a list that makes sense for the most part.

Edited May 20 by DrBloodmoney

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### DaivRules

### DaivRules

This is my fundamental issue with compiling anything into lists, especially in this case, but I can ignore that for the intent.

But I can't help but think of this meme whenever I see someone try to compile a list like this, or a list of difficulty ratings, or ratings in general:

i-hate-it-i-hate-it-i-hate-it-v0-feo1rdf4ewoc1.png?auto=webp&s=4e79f0f798ef2562a98cc3dc951c1123b0478098

I appreciate just that there IS a list compiled of a 100 (might be indie, might not be indie) games to drive awareness. "Best indie games of all time" as the thread title is quite the claim as initial glance looks like only maybe the last 20 years of games are considered, and Best isn't defined, nor is indie.

"Top rated (probably) indie games from around the web" is a much more accurate description, and a bit less grandiose.

Regardless, thanks for compiling the list and sharing it, I've only played around 10% of these games and have probably 30% in my backlog, but that still gives me a lot more games to check out.

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### Deceptrox

### Deceptrox

My personal favorite, Spelunky, is way too low in that list. Is the only game I still play from time to time due to its replayability and the fact that you can complete a run in as less as 10 or even less minutes. The trophies, on the other hand take more time. I hope it gets an 15th anniversary (since it didn't get a 10th) release with its respective platinum and more trophies.

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### HuntingFever

### HuntingFever

(edited)

I've played a few of those games but other than DRG and This War of Mine (which should both be in the top 5 IMO), I thought they were either bitterly disappointing or broken garbage I wish I had never clapped eyes on 🤬. I'm also very surprised to see No Man's Sky is nowhere to seen on that list, since it's easily a top 5 or even top 3 game for me :(.

Edited May 20 by HuntingFever

Update.

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### PraiseTheFluppi

### PraiseTheFluppi

フルッピ

I played 11 games on this list, I got around 20 that I still haven't played yet, andI know a bit about a bunch more. I think it's a good list, with many expected games in the top 20 :D

But I'm a bit sad that The Messenger, TOEM, Darkwood, Salt & Sacrifice, and Iconoclasts aren't included at all 😭

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### TheBlaskar

### TheBlaskar

(edited)

This might cheer you up (a little)! Transistor and Pyre barely out of the Top 100, Resogun and Immortality have been represented in some manner, but the others, alas, are not to be found (which I'd attribute partly to recency with Hardspace and Alan Wake 2). I do own Invisible Inc and Nex Machina - also surprised to see them missing from the 500+ games

102

Transistor
7
224

32.0

108

Pyre
3
215

71.7

167

Resogun
2
123

61.5

378

Immortality
2
44

22.0

Wholeheartedly agree with you there. It's impossible to create any sort of objectively accurate list even (and maybe especially) with something of an aggregate system. With indies, they're all relatively small that many of the best may fly under the radar of even a list of 500+ games. That title indeed would be much more honest and accurate haha

107

Toem
3
216

72.0

182

Darkwood
2
105

52.5

467

The Messenger
1
19

19.0

It also surprises me that The Messenger is so underrepresented here, especially considering how it was out (and loved) by the time many of these lists were published, whereas Toem is newer and represented relatively well at #107 overall. Salt and Sanctuary is at #131 but Sacrifice is nowhere to be found (maybe due to it's newer release date). Iconoclasts, also, missing entirely 😕

Edited May 20 by TheBlaskar

added Darkwood

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### TheBlaskar

### TheBlaskar

(edited)

For those curious, here are the Top 25 ranked by average points (of games appearing on 2+ lists)

Rank

Game Title

Count

Points

Average

152

Far: Changing Tides

2

187

93.5

1

Stardew Valley

22

1941

88.2

153

Balatro

2

174

87.0

154

Sea of Stars

2

173

86.5

13

Disco Elysium

16

1373

85.8

95

Divinity: Original Sin 2

4

343

85.8

6

Hades

18

1536

85.3

21

Minecraft

13

1105

85.0

155

Salt and Sanctuary

2

170

85.0

4

Celeste

19

1611

84.8

2

Hollow Knight

21

1727

82.2

156

Runner 2

2

164

82.0

7

Inside

18

1466

81.4

41

Stray

9

733

81.4

67

Furi

6

486

81.0

118

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

3

242

80.7

3

Undertale

20

1585

79.3

27

Outer Wilds

12

951

79.3

119

Life is Strange

3

234

78.0

82

Cocoon

5

389

77.8

28

Journey

12

931

77.6

157

Darkest Dungeon 2

2

155

77.5

49

Inscryption

8

619

77.4

120

Citizen Sleeper

3

232

77.3

83

Pizza Tower

5

386

77.2

(ignore the "Rank" number here - in this one, "Rank" pertains to it's list position if sorted by List Count, not Total Points. My b)

Edited May 20 by TheBlaskar

parenthetical disclaimer at bottom

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### imminent-file5

### imminent-file5

SEN Enabler 6.2.7

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Celeste & Undertale heavily overrated, funny to see them at the top.

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### Breakingthegreen

### Breakingthegreen

Chrysalis

(edited)

I don't see any Road 96, Gnosia or Exocolonist there... It's enough to make someone go insane.

nobody said Road 96 | made w/ Imgflip meme maker

According to a poll I made on this site last month (Small sample size, sue me) about 70% of folks think an indie game is all about it's production, and 30% think there's at least some element of game feel relevent to indie games.

xFmQsNf.png?2

Edited May 20 by Breakingthegreen

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### TheBlaskar

### TheBlaskar

That seems to be a good representation of what the listmakers thought, as well - games produced by Bandai Namco or EA but with the aesthetic of indie games made many lists due to them looking and/or feeling like traditional ..."indie"... games (2/2.5D platformers and whatnot). I'm fine with them being represented just because they bring more attention to similar games, and those similar games are often actual indie titles

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### Jeanolt

### Jeanolt

It's sad Life is Strange is so low, it deserves to be a lot higher.

Probably one of the few ones here that is so good it spawned a franchise.

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### esstee11

### esstee11

Impressive cross-referencing compilation, interesting work thanks for making 🙂

I'm shocked one of my personal favourites 'The Talos Principle' didn't make the cut! 😱

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### TheBlaskar

### TheBlaskar

Thanks for saying that! Had fun compiling everything

105

The Talos Principle
621936.50

211

The Talos Principle 2
19393.00

Talos is a great one! It just barely didn't crack the top 100, just 14 points shy of being #100 overall. Somebody had the sequel as their 7th favorite, I'm sure it would be on more lists but the fact that it's so new means the lists might be slightly outdated

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### mrmivo

### mrmivo

That's a great list! Nearly every title that came to mind when I thought about great indie games was on the list. Not necessarily in the same order, but those are all top games anyway. Even Baba Is You is on there! (I did miss Monster Train on there, but I think it was just overshadowed by Slay the Spire.)

There are some newer indies that I could see making that list eventually, like Balatro and Backpack Battles. Also, Baldur's Gate 3 is technically an indie game too, at least if you count Rocket League as one. It would be very high up on that list.

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### samunrizthym

### samunrizthym

agreed on BG 3 , should be there perhaps in first position, for a lots of reason and one of them for me is the boss of larianstudios speaking out about the greed of big srtudios in the gaming industry

mark of the ninja should be on top 10

my top 3

1  the binding of isaac (lots of copies ,no equal)

2 minecraft (because it is still 15 years after is launch an amazing game even if crosoft doing weird stuff with it)

3 hotline miami because devolver nailed this one in every aspect (music, nervous gameplay and wtf story with old graphics)

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### SuperPatchZ7

### SuperPatchZ7

I think all of those games are great but I find a little sad not seeing Sayonara Wild Hearts o Donut County because those were the games that hooked me in the indie scene.

Maybe I'm out of touch...

No! It's the rankings that are wrong.

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### TheBlaskar

### TheBlaskar

Definitely agree, I think the absence of BG3 can only be attributed to lists being older than BG3. Divinity 1 and 2 were both represented by a few sources so BG3 would be as well. The only problem is that indie game rank lists aren't all that common so some were a few years old and some were shorter than I'd like them to be. But, we work with what we got!

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### JohnCenaSong-

### JohnCenaSong-

I'll give it my best shot, I'll have a crack at as many that are already in the spreadsheet which I've played enough to form a good enough opinion on. I know some may be contentious as whether they're 'indie' and I might be missing out a bunch that aren't already listed but for convenience I'm just using that as a starting block. I'll keep it short and sweet, not gonna review these games lol xD

1) The Binding of Isaac

2) Furi

3) Hollow Knight

4) Darkest Dungeon

5) Shovel Knight

6) Super Meat Boy

7) Cult of the Lamb

8) Gris

9) Rocket League

10) Cuphead

11) Rain World

12) Resogun

13) Helldivers

14) Journey

15) Rogue Legacy

16) Blasphemous

17) Crypt of the Necrodancer

18) Fall Guys

19) Outlast

20) Thumper

21) Ikaruga

22) Talos Principle

23) Trine 2

24) Trine

25) Spelunky

26) Enter the Gungeon

27) Kholat

28) Titan Souls

29) Slime-San

30) Superhot

31) Invisible Inc.

32) My Friend Pedro

33) Super Time Force Ultra

34) Race the Sun

35) Horizon Chase Turbo

36) Game Dev Tycoon

37) Octodad: Dadliest Catch

38) Surgeon Simulator

39) Dust: An Elysian Tail

40) Hyper Light Drifter

41) Minecraft

42) Celeste

43) Broforce

44) What Remains of Edith Finch

45) Steamworld Dig

46) Minit

47) Lonely Mountains: Downhill

48) Deaths Door

49) Ruiner

50) Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime

51) Fez

52) Downwell

53) Rollerdrome

54) Hotline Miami

55) Not a Hero

56) Life is Strange

57) Woah Dave

58) Hotline Miami 2

59) Teslagrad

60) Unfinished Swan

Cut a couple off to round it at 60. With all the different genres and vibes it was quite the task to try and somehow 'rank' a load of games like this and it's not something I'd normally do... but it seemed like fun. If you asked me write this same list tomorrow the order could wildly change so... just the nature of lists like this lol.

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### OuiSomari

### OuiSomari

Very glad to see Machinarium on it!

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### TheBlaskar

### TheBlaskar

Added your Top 60 to the data pool! You can view the updated list with your list included in the spreadsheet currently via the "Ranked v2" sheet, as well as alongside the other 25 lists in the "Data Pool" sheet. Thanks for making that, solid list! and for being the only person to include Invisible Inc haha

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### Beyondthegrave07

### Beyondthegrave07

Filled with Determination

I feel like Neon White and Bloodstained RoTN should be higher as those two would make my top 5, but I'm glad to see them make the top 100, nevertheless. I can't really argue too much at the top 11 as I do believe that those are probably the highest praised "indie" games by reviewers and gamers in general and are honestly ones that get mentioned a bit too much when it comes to indies.

I was a tad surprised to not see Journey and The Witness higher considering they are normally listed highly on lists as well.

Not to mention that House in Fata Morgana is nowhere to be seen, Sifu is better ranked than Lies of P @Copanele, and VA-11 Hall-A is way down at 518.

Most importantly:

I feel like there will be a problem with adding everyone's top 25 from PSNP because it's going to be skewed... It's going to be skewed because we can see the current results which will no doubt influence how we rank games we feel are underrated and skewed by the fact that trophies will influence our opinion on the game as well.

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### Slava

### Slava

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I've only played 8 games from the top 100. Nice to see World of Goo. Don't let the fact that it's not on PlayStation make you avoid this game.

Would've been nice to see Downwell as well, but I'm happy enough that it was mentioned in the comments.

P.S. Minecraft is 15 years old already. Isn't it crazy?

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