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Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →What video games defined the 2000s? No official ranking can settle that question, but a strong answer looks beyond sales or reviews to games that changed what players expected: open worlds, accessible life simulation, console multiplayer, persistent online worlds, motion controls, and more. This is an editorial selection, not a definitive top ten; it draws on the design-and-influence framing of WIRED’s 2009 decade-end retrospective and includes games that represent distinct shifts in how people played.
How these games defined the decade
“Defined” here means cultural reach and influence on design, audiences, business models, or expectations—not simply high sales or critical acclaim. WIRED’s December 24, 2009 retrospective offered one contemporary editorial framework, highlighting games that reshaped big-budget adventures or reset design. The choices below are not a ranked list, and the available evidence does not establish a uniquely correct top ten.
Each entry identifies the original release year and the change it helps illustrate. The selection balances genres and play styles rather than treating one platform or audience as the whole story.
Ten influential games of the 2000s
1. The Sims (2000)
The Sims made everyday life a game: players built homes, managed relationships, and pursued goals they chose for themselves. WIRED’s retrospective describes it as an accessible, open-ended people simulator that broadened the definition of a video game and helped establish casual games. Its importance lies in making self-directed play—and an audience beyond conventional action-game players—feel central rather than peripheral.
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2. Grand Theft Auto III (2001)
Grand Theft Auto III placed players in Liberty City, where they could move through an open world without following the central narrative at every moment. WIRED credits that sandbox structure and freedom with helping establish a template for later open-world games. The form also brought controversy over violence and player agency, a tension that would remain part of the genre’s public conversation.
3. Halo: Combat Evolved (2001)
Released alongside the original Xbox, Halo: Combat Evolved became a rallying point for console first-person shooter players. WIRED’s retrospective emphasizes its controls and its role in console multiplayer. Its legacy is not that it invented the shooter, but that it helped show how the genre could work as a defining console experience, including networked local play.
4. Metroid Prime (2002)
Metroid Prime translated a familiar series into first person without reducing it to a conventional shooter. On GameCube, it combined exploration, puzzle-solving, platforming, and story. WIRED highlights this blend as an example of how an established game identity could be reworked for a new perspective while retaining its emphasis on discovery.
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5. World of Warcraft (2004)
World of Warcraft helped move massively multiplayer online role-playing games from a niche pursuit toward mainstream popularity. WIRED describes it as a genre benchmark. Persistent online worlds, guilds, and subscription-based play made participation social and ongoing: players returned not only for new content, but to meet and progress with others in a shared world.
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6. Guitar Hero (2005)
Guitar Hero paired music-game play with a guitar-shaped controller, turning familiar songs into an accessible party activity. WIRED credits the game with helping music games grow from a niche into a major genre. Its impact also showed how a dedicated peripheral could make a game’s central action immediately legible to people watching as well as playing.
7. Wii Sports (2006)
Wii Sports made motion controls understandable through simple activities such as tennis and bowling. WIRED argues that its mini-games helped consumers grasp the Wii’s control scheme and made the game central to the system’s appeal. It represents a major push toward approachable, physical play that could be demonstrated quickly to newcomers.
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8. Portal (2007)
Portal built a distinctive puzzle game around a compact set of rules and a portal device that let players rethink space. WIRED praises its concise design and points to its effect on expectations about how games could be sold. It demonstrated that a focused, relatively short experience could be memorable and influential without relying on blockbuster length.
9. Half-Life 2 (2004)
WIRED’s retrospective highlights Half-Life 2 for its physics-based puzzles and narrative. Its place in this list complements Portal: both show how environmental interaction and problem-solving could carry an experience, rather than serving as a break from action. WIRED’s selection is an editorial assessment of influence, not a sales comparison.
10. Bejeweled (2001)
Bejeweled represents the rise of accessible casual puzzle play. WIRED included it among games that helped reset expectations in the decade, complementing the larger console and PC adventures elsewhere on this list. Its significance is the way a simple, repeatable matching game could fit shorter sessions and broaden the idea of who counted as a regular player.
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The platform and sales context
The PlayStation 2 launched in Japan in March 2000, followed by North America in October and Europe in November. Sony Interactive Entertainment’s timeline reports that 100 million PS2 systems had sold worldwide by November 2005. These milestones help explain the scale of the decade’s console market, but they do not prove that any particular game defined it. See Sony Interactive Entertainment’s company timeline.
Sales figures can anchor a specific example, but they are not interchangeable with cultural influence. Microsoft Game Studios and Epic Games announced that Gears of War sold more than two million copies worldwide in its first six weeks in 2006; the same announcement said more than 80 publications named it best next-generation game of the year. Those are publisher-reported figures and award counts, not a common measure of decade-long impact. Microsoft’s announcement.
Likewise, Konami’s SEC-filed 2009 annual report says Metal Gear Solid 2 had sold seven million units as of March 31, 2009, while Metal Gear Solid 3 had exceeded 3.6 million and Metal Gear Solid 4 had exceeded four million. These company-reported title figures cover different games and are not a uniform comparison of the decade. Konami’s annual report filed with the SEC.
What the list says about the decade
- More than one kind of player: The Sims and Bejeweled help show how life simulation and casual puzzle games expanded the audience and range of play.
- Freedom and exploration: Grand Theft Auto III and Metroid Prime illustrate different approaches to moving through worlds and choosing how to engage with them.
- Play as a social activity: Halo, World of Warcraft, and Guitar Hero made multiplayer, persistent communities, or party play central to their appeal.
- New ways to interact: Wii Sports and Portal made motion and spatial puzzle-solving approachable through clear, distinctive mechanics.
Other strong candidates could replace entries depending on the criteria. WIRED’s retrospective also singled out Brain Age, Silent Hill 2, and Metal Gear Solid 2, among others. A different list might put more weight on handheld play, horror, or storytelling; this one prioritizes breadth across audiences, genres, and design changes.
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