The best PS2 games by critic score are Grand Theft Auto III and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3, which share a Metacritic score of 97, the highest any PlayStation 2 title has reached. Resident Evil 4 and Metal Gear Solid 2 sit one point behind on 96, and the three Grand Theft Auto games all land inside the top six.
This ranking uses the Metacritic score of the PlayStation 2 version of each game, read in October. Where two games tie, the Metacritic user score decides the order, and if that ties too the game with more user ratings goes first. The table lists all 10 with both scores so you can see exactly how close the calls are.
Best PS2 Games: Metascore and User Score for All 10
| # | Game | Year | Developer | Metascore | User score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Grand Theft Auto III | 2001 | DMA Design | 97 | 7.9 |
| 2 | Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 | 2001 | Neversoft | 97 | 7.6 |
| 3 | Resident Evil 4 | 2005 | Capcom | 96 | 9.1 |
| 4 | Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty | 2001 | Konami | 96 | 8.9 |
| 5 | Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas | 2004 | Rockstar North | 95 | 9.1 |
| 6 | Grand Theft Auto: Vice City | 2002 | Rockstar North | 95 | 8.6 |
| 7 | Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec | 2001 | Polyphony Digital | 95 | 8.4 |
| 8 | Madden NFL 2003 | 2002 | EA Tiburon | 95 | 6.4 |
| 9 | Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence | 2006 | Konami | 94 | 9.1 |
| 10 | God of War | 2005 | SCE Santa Monica | 94 | 8.8 |
How the Scores Were Read
Metacritic assigns every PS2 game a weighted average of professional reviews, shown as a whole number out of 100. The same game can carry different scores on different consoles, so only the PlayStation 2 entry counts here. Resident Evil 4 scores 96 on both PS2 and GameCube, but Grand Theft Auto III has no GameCube version at all, which is why console-specific scores matter.
Ties are common at the top. Eight games sit on 94 alone, and only two of them could make the list. The user score, a separate average of ratings submitted by players, breaks those ties. Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence and God of War took the last two places on user scores of 9.1 and 8.8, ahead of Devil May Cry and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4, which both sit on 8.2.
Guinness World Records separately lists Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 and Grand Theft Auto III as the most critically acclaimed PS2 games, both on 97 percent, a record it verified in January 2022. Nothing released since has moved them, because the console’s last games shipped more than a decade ago.
The 10 Best PS2 Games, Ranked
Each entry carries its Metacritic score, the number of critic reviews behind it, its user score and the studio that built it.
1. Grand Theft Auto III: The Open World Template
Metascore: 97 from 56 reviews · User score: 7.9 · Developer: DMA Design · Released: October 2001
Grand Theft Auto III moved the series from a top-down view into a fully 3D Liberty City that you could drive, walk and shoot through in any order. Missions were optional in a way that was new for a console game in 2001, and the radio stations, pedestrians and police response gave the city a life of its own.
It takes first place on the user-score tie-break ahead of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3, 7.9 against 7.6. It also sold 11.60 million copies, the fifth-highest total on the console, as our ranking of the best-selling PS2 games shows.
2. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3: The Revert Changed Everything
Metascore: 97 from 34 reviews · User score: 7.6 · Developer: Neversoft · Released: October 2001
The third Tony Hawk game added the revert, a trick that let you link vert combos into manuals and keep a line going indefinitely. That one addition turned a two-minute run into a puzzle of routing, and it is the reason the series peaked here for many players.
It was also the first PS2 game with online play in North America. Activision revisited it in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4, released on July 11, 2025 for PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC, which is the easiest way to play these levels on modern hardware.
3. Resident Evil 4: Over-the-Shoulder Horror
Metascore: 96 from 38 reviews · User score: 9.1 · Developer: Capcom · Released: October 2005
Resident Evil 4 arrived on PS2 nine months after the GameCube original and brought the camera over Leon Kennedy’s shoulder, with aiming that stopped you in place and enemies that flanked in groups. Almost every third-person shooter made since borrows that framing.
The PS2 port added the Separate Ways campaign for Ada Wong, which later editions kept. Its 9.1 user score is the joint highest on this list, shared with San Andreas and Subsistence, and it beats Metal Gear Solid 2 for third place on that number.
4. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty: The Bait and Switch
Metascore: 96 from 42 reviews · User score: 8.9 · Developer: Konami · Released: November 2001
Sons of Liberty opens on a tanker as Solid Snake, then hands most of the game to a new character, Raiden, a swap Konami hid from pre-release coverage. Guards radioed for backup, lockers could hide a body or you, and the plot turned into a commentary on information control that still gets written about.
It is included in Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 alongside Snake Eater, the original Metal Gear Solid and the two MSX games, which Konami sells for PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC.
5. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas: Three Cities in One State
Metascore: 95 from 80 reviews · User score: 9.1 · Developer: Rockstar North · Released: October 2004
San Andreas scaled the series up to a whole state with three cities, countryside and desert between them, and added stats for driving, swimming, weight and respect that changed how CJ moved and fought. It was the longest and most varied game on the console by some distance.
At 80 critic reviews it is the most reviewed game on this list, and its 9.1 user score from 6,783 ratings is the largest sample here. It sold 17.33 million copies on PS2, the best of any game on the system.
6. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City: 1986 on Repeat
Metascore: 95 from 62 reviews · User score: 8.6 · Developer: Rockstar North · Released: October 2002
Vice City came one year after GTA III and added a voiced protagonist, motorcycles, property purchases and a licensed 1980s soundtrack that ran across nine radio stations. The Miami-styled setting was smaller than Liberty City in area but far denser.
It sold 14.20 million copies on PS2. Among the three GTA games here it sits in the middle on both the critic and user score, above the original and below San Andreas.
7. Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec: The Launch-Year Showpiece
Metascore: 95 from 54 reviews · User score: 8.4 · Developer: Polyphony Digital · Released: July 2001
Gran Turismo 3 was the game Sony used to show what the PlayStation 2 could draw in its first year, with reflections, heat haze and rain that no other racer matched in 2001. More than 150 licensed cars and a licence-based career gave it the same long tail as the PS1 games.
It is the highest-scoring racing game on the console and sold 14.89 million copies, second only to San Andreas on PS2. Gran Turismo 4, its 2004 sequel, is not on this list because it scored 89.
8. Madden NFL 2003: The Sports Game Critics Rated Highest
Metascore: 95 from 25 reviews · User score: 6.4 · Developer: EA Tiburon · Released: August 2002
Madden NFL 2003 added online play on PS2, a Mini-Camp mode of skill drills and the first version of the EA Trax licensed soundtrack. Reviewers at the time treated it as the complete football package, and three different Madden editions scored 94 or better on the console.
Its 6.4 user score is the lowest here by a wide margin, which is typical of annual sports games on Metacritic: each edition is rated against the one before it rather than on its own. It makes the list on its 95 and stays eighth because the three 95s above it have higher user scores.
9. Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence: Snake Eater With a Free Camera
Metascore: 94 from 53 reviews · User score: 9.1 · Developer: Konami · Released: March 2006
Subsistence is the 2006 re-release of Snake Eater with a fully controllable third-person camera, online multiplayer and the two MSX Metal Gear games on a second disc. The camera alone fixed the main complaint about the 2004 original, whose fixed overhead view fought the jungle it was set in.
It wins its place on a 9.1 user score, the joint highest on this list. The version in Master Collection Vol. 1 is the HD Collection build of Snake Eater, which uses the Subsistence camera.
10. God of War: Kratos Arrives
Metascore: 94 from 75 reviews · User score: 8.8 · Developer: SCE Santa Monica · Released: March 2005
The first God of War paired chained blades with fixed cinematic camera angles and boss fights built around button-prompt finishers. The Hydra opening on the Aegean Sea was the kind of set piece that had only existed in cutscenes before.
It takes the last spot ahead of Devil May Cry and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4, which share its 94 but sit on 8.2 user scores. God of War II, released in 2007, scored 93, one point short of this list.
Where the PS2 Library Peaked
Four of the top 10 came out in 2001, the console’s first full year in North America, and all four launched within four months of each other that autumn. GTA III, Tony Hawk 3, Metal Gear Solid 2 and Gran Turismo 3 set the critical bar before most developers had learned the hardware.
The second wave came in 2004 and 2005 with San Andreas, Resident Evil 4 and God of War, games that pushed the machine well past what its launch titles managed. The best-selling console of all time shows a similar shape, with the biggest sellers landing in the first two years and the long tail carrying the console past its 160 million units.
Rockstar has three of the 10 and Konami two. No role-playing game or platformer makes the cut: Final Fantasy X scored 92 and Kingdom Hearts 85, so the top of the PlayStation 2 library is skewed towards open-world, stealth and action games.
Critics Versus Players on PS2
The two rankings disagree most on Madden NFL 2003, which critics put level with San Andreas and players put last. They disagree least on Resident Evil 4, San Andreas and Subsistence, all of which players rate at 9.1.
The games with the biggest user samples, San Andreas at 6,783 ratings and God of War at 3,815, are the ones still being bought and replayed. Madden 2003 has 75 ratings in total, a reminder that annual sports games are retired rather than revisited.
How to Play the Best PS2 Games Today
Six of the 10 have a current-generation route. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 remakes the second entry. Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 covers both Metal Gear games. Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy carries the three GTA titles. Resident Evil 4 has a 2023 remake and a separate port of the 2005 version on later PlayStation consoles.
Gran Turismo 3, Madden NFL 2003 and the original God of War have no modern release, so they need a PlayStation 2, or a PlayStation 3 model with hardware backwards compatibility, and an original disc. Prices for working consoles and common discs remain low because the console sold in such numbers.
- Remade or remastered: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3, Resident Evil 4, GTA III, Vice City, San Andreas
- In a collection: Metal Gear Solid 2, Metal Gear Solid 3
- Original hardware only: Gran Turismo 3, Madden NFL 2003, God of War
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the highest-rated PS2 game on Metacritic?
Grand Theft Auto III and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 share the top score of 97. Both were released in October 2001. GTA III ranks first here because its user score of 7.9 is higher than Tony Hawk 3’s 7.6.
Why is Madden NFL 2003 ranked above God of War?
Madden NFL 2003 scored 95 from critics and God of War scored 94. This list ranks on the critic score first and uses the user score only to break ties, so a one-point gap in the Metascore outranks any difference in player ratings.
Is the best-selling PS2 game also the best-rated?
No. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is the best seller at 17.33 million copies but ranks fifth on critic score. GTA III, the top-rated game, is fifth on sales. The two lists overlap on six games.
Which of these games can I play on PS5?
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4, Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1, Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy and Resident Evil 4 all have PlayStation 5 versions. The others need original PS2 hardware or a backwards-compatible PlayStation 3.
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