Shockbyte is celebrating 10 years of hosting servers for some of the best titles in gaming, but what actually are the ten best games of all time? There are absolute classics such as some of the earliest games available like Pong, Zork, and Asteroids back in the 1970s, but we're all modern gamers, interested in everything at LEAST 2000s and sooner. This list can only include the best of the best, but that doesn't mean there aren't other titles that belong here with the rest. If you don't see your favorite game, that doesn't mean it's not among the best titles; it may have just not fit the amount of time we have for this blog post.
Shockbyte as well has a bit of favoritism for multiplayer games...could you guess why? Playing with family, friends, and communities is at the heart of what keeps gaming a lifelong commitment, and Shockbyte supports the dedication to multiplayer gaming whenever possible! We'll try to keep our favoritism to a minimum for this list if possible!
10th Best Game: Don't Starve
Don't Starve and it's multiplayer equivalent Don't Starve Together have absolutely rocked the indie videogame landscape, releasing in 2013 alongside one other indie game giant of the year: Papers Please. After numerous updates and hundreds of Don't Starve Together servers hosted, it's easy to forget the game is actually an indie title. The game has absolutely changed survival games since it's release, fully integrating mental health into many darker-themed survival games of the modern era.
The two dimensional click-based combat as well is completely unique to Don't Starve, inspiring modding communities and many other indie titles to achieve unique perspectives and combat.
9th Best Game: Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead at it's peak was one of Valve's most well known titles, featuring a packed online mode with plenty of official servers and game modes to play. Left 4 Dead set an unbelievable standard for what it means to be a "run and gun" game, where players need to be shooting and moving at the same time. This style of gameplay continued perfectly into the release of Left 4 Dead 2, which completely revived the series, and brought an entirely new generation of fans to arguably the best zombie title in existence.
Nowadays, grab your friends, throw in some of the craziest mods imaginable, and boot up a dedicated server of your own to enjoy a completely unique Left 4 Dead experience that would have dumbfounded players in 2008.
8th Best Game: League of Legends
This game might not be for everyone, but it's taken the world by storm for a reason. League of Legends and Riot Games have been expanding rapidly since 2009 due to the widespread success of the MOBA genre and specifically the constantly changing game of League of Legends. With a playable cast of over 162 characters and continually growing, Riot Games has situated League of Legends to have a champion everyone will enjoy.
Building from League of Legends, Riot Games took the world by storm in 2020 with the release of Valorant, tapping into the Counter Strike Community perfectly by creating an extremely well crafted tactical competitive shooter.
7th Best Game: Among Us
The incredibly popular social deduction game Among Us took over mainstream media for quite a while (and still dominates memes) since it's initial release in 2018 and widespread explosion of attention that shortly followed after. By following in much of Town of Salem's success in 2014, Among Us deep dove into the social deduction genre of gaming and opened it up to gamers of all levels. By further porting the game to mobile, the game has exploded, and now everywhere we look, everything looks "sus".
6th Best Game: Dark Souls & Elden Ring
Dark Souls and it's most recent award winning title Elden Ring, released in 2022, have come a long way since it's original inception in 2011 where players were uninterested in the gameplay due to it's "difficult nature". This difficulty has been celebrated with the addition of an overworld, allowing for exploration to easier areas of the map instead of addressing directly difficult problems immediately, widely expanding the game's audience. The game rightfully has earned itself almost one of every award possible in terms of gaming.
5th Best Game: PUBG & Fortnite
2017 was a year of explosive multiplayer shooters, with Fortnite and Player Unknown's Battlegrounds absolutely dominating the gaming atmosphere. While some games such as League of Legends and Don't Starve offer multiplayer components, they may not fulfill multiplayer capabilities for absolutely anyone to sit down and get into. Fortnite though simplified the approach, taking over even mainstream media, further showing the world that gaming is not just a unique hobby we gamers have, but a lifelong dedication that isn't going away anytime soon.
4th Best Game: Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress 2 may at first take many players by surprise being in the 4th best game slot, above gaming highlights such as League of Legends and monsters of the shooting-genre such as Fortnite and PUBG. Since Team Fortress 2's original release in 2007 and the following explosion of players online, collaborative team-based objective gameplay has never been the same, spawning numerous AAA titles such as: Rainbow Six Siege, Overwatch, Paladins, and even Valorant in some aspects.
3rd Best Game: Halo
Halo does absolutely everything that Shockbyte loves. Halo brings together communities, families, and friends for gameplay of all different modes. Featuring a wide variety of options, whether it be competitive settings, wacky settings, speed-run settings, or simply hilarious ones, Halo has been a household name for decades due to it's loose style of gameplay since it's original release in 2001. Ever since Halo 2 popularized online multiplayer in 2003, online gaming communities have never been the same.
2nd Best Game: Breath of the Wild & Zelda
Zelda has regularly been one of Nintendo's biggest titles, receiving consistent praise over the years. 2017 was no different with the launch of the Switch console and it's launch-title Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Elden Ring must have taken some tips from BOTW's massive success, including the open-world aspect of the game contributing heavily to it's widespread positivity across international media. Breath of the Wild further pushed Zelda into originally-nongaming communities, reminding the world of the closing gap between gaming and other sources of modern media.
Arguably the Best Game of All Time: Minecraft
Minecraft allows the flexibility that absolutely no modern game has ever allowed before. With the usage of modding, plugins, and dedicated server hosting, Minecraft allows players to achieve absolutely anything you set your mind to. Heck, you can even play other games inside of Minecraft if you so desire! You can even play Minecraft, IN MINECRAFT! Private Minecraft servers have allowed players to build entire virtual PCs, online conventions for their communities or friends, and so much more for multiplayer experiences.
Shockbyte is eager to celebrate this decade of gaming by standing with our players and helping to build the best communities possible, by hosting video game servers that can give a group of players the absolute most flexibility to customize their world exactly as they see fit. Here's to over a decade of gaming... and many more!
About Shockbyte
Shockbyte is a game server host for Minecraft, ARK, Rust and more.
Do you want to start your own Minecraft server? Click here to view our Minecraft server hosting plans.
