It’s that time of year again when wrestlers point to the big WrestleMania sign and fans complain incessantly online about booking. Yes, WrestleMania season is in full swing with the grandest stage of them all about to head to Las Vegas for a showdown between the legendary John Cena in the midst of a retirement tour and reigning WWE champion Cody Rhodes. So it’s also a great time to revisit a WWE game and see how some dream matches of your own will play out. But if you’re not a hardcore pro wrestling fan, it can be hard to know where to begin. There have been dozens of WWE games released since the 1980s, but which are jobbers and which are Hall of Fame material? To help clear things up for you, these are the 15 best WWE games ever made. 15. WWE 2K16 (2015) WWE games were notoriously uneven throughout the 2010s, with WWE 2K15 in particular being a sluggish, glitchy mess that was widely panned by critics and fans alike. Thankfully Yuke’s took the criticism to heart for the follow up and fixed almost everything with the follow-up. The 2K16 edition of the It also has one of the better Showcase modes in the franchise with a fantastic collection of matches charting the legendary career of Stone Cold Steve Austin. Yuke’s even added a very good second Showcase featuring 2015 WWE Hall of Famers as part of the game’s season pass. 14. WWF WrestleMania: The Arcade Game (1995) While most WWE games have been traditional wrestling games, the franchise has occasionally experimented with different genres, usually with terrible results. Many a 2000s kid is still dealing with the trauma of getting the vehicular combat game WWE Crush Hour as a gift from an unsuspecting relative. The one WWE game that mixes up the formula that’s actually quite good is WWF WrestleMania: The Arcade Game. Released at the height of the fighting game craze of the ‘90s, The Arcade GameMortal Kombat?” and just runs with it. Doink the Clown hits opponents with a mallet. Razor Ramon’s arms turn into literal razors. Or you can just straight uppercut people like in Mortal Kombat. It’s ridiculously over the top and just an awesome idea we’d love to see the WWE revisit. 13. WWE Day of Reckoning 2 (2005) Instead of porting a single WWE game across all platforms in the early 2000s, publisher THQ would release a different WWE title for each console. The PS2 was blessed with the Smackdown titles, and the Xbox received some truly dreadful wrestling games. And in between there was the humble GameCube, which received WWE Day of Reckoning 2, one of the more underrated WWE games. While the core gameplay is based on the beloved N64 wrestling games, a few tweaks like the addition of a stamina meter keep it from being quite as good as its predecessors. The in-ring action is still solid, and the story mode is one of the best of any WWE game. The roster is admittedly small (only 45 wrestlers), but all of the greats from the Ruthless Aggression era are here, and it’s worth checking out for an interesting alternate vision of where WWE games could have gone. 12. WWE All Stars (2011) More than any other wrestling game, WWE All Stars captures the feeling of playing with action figures of your favorite wrestlers. Character models are huge and cartoon-like, and moves are way over the top with punches sending opponents across the ring, and top rope moves launching characters 30 feet in the air. Actually, it’s kind of like that Hulk Hogan/Shawn Michaels match where Michaels just oversold everything.  Admittedly, WWE All Stars isn’t as feature rich as a lot of other wrestling games, but the Fantasy Warfare mode is another great reason to check the game out, as it features dream matches like John Cena vs. Hulk Hogan and CM Punk vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin with some really amazing video packages. 11. WWF WrestleMania 2000 (1999) The Nintendo 64 was the undisputed console of choice for wrestling fans in the ‘90s. AKI corporation and its revolutionary grapple-based gameplay system had forever changed how wrestling games played after releasing two beloved WCW games for the system. So expectations were understandably high when the developer was tasked with its first WWF title. They absolutely nailed it. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! WWF WrestleMania 2000 just tweaked the gameplay of those WCW games a little, then added a lengthy Road to WrestleMania mode, higher production values like actual theme songs and entrances, and then included some new match types like cage matches and first blood. It’s still freaking awesome more than two decades later. 10. WWF WrestleFest (1991) Frankly, most early wrestling games were terrible. The technology wasn’t really there to approximate how wrestling works, and developers were still feeling out how to make sports entertainment in video games. One of the few exceptions is WWF WrestleFest, released exclusively in arcades in 1991. The game is just plain fun with its big sprites, an awesome Royal Rumble mode, and even commentary and pre-match intros, a rarity at the time. Admittedly, the roster is quite small, but it packs enough heavy hitters of the era that it’s hard to complain about who is included. Sadly a planned 2012 remake with modern wrestlers was never released on PC or consoles, and it was only briefly available on iPhone before being delisted due to the bankruptcy of publisher THQ. 9. WWE 2K19 (2018) After a few rocky years, Yuke’s seemed to be turning things around with WWE 2K19. The game is absolutely jam packed with content, with a massive roster of more than 200 wrestlers, retooled MyCareer Mode, the addition of 2K Towers, and another top tier Showcase, this time focusing on the career of Daniel Bryan. The flow of matches just felt right here, and it seemed like the series was on track for a renaissance. Unfortunately, the follow-up, WWE 2K20 was an abject disaster that put the series on a brief hiatus, but 2K19 is still a great example of how good the series could be during the PS4 era. 8. WWE ‘13 (2012) When the Smackdown vs. Raw series wound down following the 2011 edition, THQ revamped the franchise with a nice graphical facelift, though much of the core gameplay remained the same. And if we’re just talking about grappling, WWE ’13 is good but doesn’t do much to distinguish itself from other WWE games of the time. The big draw is the Attitude Era mode, with multiple different superstars to play as in some of the most iconic matches of what’s still widely considered to be the WWE’s best era. Almost every big name from the late ‘90s and early 2000s is in the game, plus some more obscure wrestlers. Even Gangrel and Val Venis were included as DLC. It’s probably the closest thing to an official remake of the N64 WCW and WWF games we’ll ever get. 7. WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2007 (2006) While initially viewed more as just another respectable annual entry in the series, the reputation of Smackdown vs. Raw 2007 has improved immensely over the years. Some tweaks to the engine made grappling much more flexible than its immediate predecessors, there are a ton of different modes and match types, and the soundtrack is still widely praised by fans online. This was also the very first WWE game with HD graphics thanks to an Xbox 360 port. And while the roster isn’t as deep as later games, there’s an eclectic mix of legends like Jim Neidhart and Mr. Perfect and superstars of the period like Chris Benoit and Ken Kennedy that will likely never be recreated in another game. There’s really no better wrestling game for Ruthless Aggression era fans.  6. WWE 2K24 (2023) Since taking some time off following the debacle that was WWE 2K20, the series has been on an impressive upswing. Building on the previous two games that fixed the controls and physics and upgraded the overall presentation, WWE 2K24 also brought back a few fan favorite gimmicks like ambulance matches and special guest referee matches. There is a ridiculous amount of content here between MyRise, MyUniverse, and MyGM, and the 21 matches in the new Showcase of the Immortals that spans the first 39 WrestleManias is a really fascinating trip through the history of the WWE, even if there are some notable omissions and a couple baffling inclusions. 5. WWF Smackdown! 2 Know Your Role (2001) The N64 might be known as the go-to console for Attitude Era-wrestling fans, but the PS1 was no slouch either. Know Your Role Really, the only negative about Know Your Role 4. WWE 2K25 (2024) Maybe there’s some recency bias in putting WWE 2K25 so high on the list, but there is so much to do in the game, and so many innovations, that it seems destined to go down in history as a fan favorite. Quite simply this is the best playing wrestling game ever. Each move hits hard, the animation is beautiful, and each wrestler truly looks and feels unique. And there are a lot of wrestlers here, with more than 300 superstars (including variations for many) included. The Showcase mode, focusing on the Bloodline and presented by the legendary Paul Heyman, is an outstanding mix of historic matches and fantasy booking. And while the new Island can feel like a cash grab, it’s a really interesting (and addicting) way to play a wrestling game and continually upgrade your character. 3. WWE 2K14 (2013) After years of ups and downs, 2K14 was the title where everything came together for Yuke’s to create one of the greatest wrestling games ever. First, let’s talk about the roster. Several big names like the Ultimate Warrior, Goldberg, and Yokozuna returned to the series for the first time in years here. You had all the staples of early 2010s WWE, plus it was the video game debut of the Shield. Oh, and there was also a terrific New World Order DLC pack featuring NWO versions of Randy Savage, Curt Hennig, and The Giant. This is arguably the greatest roster in any wrestling game ever, even if it’s not the biggest. And there’s a good reason for the large roster, because a lot of these superstars are featured in the 30 Years of WrestleMania mode, a 45-match trip down memory lane featuring some of the most memorable matches from the first 29 WrestleManias. It’s actually a much better version of what was done in WWE 2K24. Then there’s “The Streak” mode where you can re-live the Undertaker’s then-unbroken ‘Mania streak, or attempt to break it against a suped-up version of the Phenom. Combine all that with a faster game engine that better portrays the flow of matches, and it’s easy to see why this is still such a beloved entry in the series. 2. WWE Smackdown! Here Comes the Pain (2003) Pro wrestling fans are a finnicky bunch. We generally want wrestling games that let us book dream matches and pull off insane stunts that real wrestlers would never even attempt, but at the same time, we want a certain sense of realism that doesn’t treat the business like a complete joke. It’s a fine line to walk, but somehow, Here Comes the Pain pulled it off perfectly. This is the game where Rey Mysterio can’t just body slam the Big Show because of the size difference, but then they can head to Times Square, and Rey has no problem hopping on a helicopter and jumping onto Big Show from 50 feet in the air. Yeah, it gets crazy, but it’s a hell of a lot of fun, and perfectly captures the spirit of where the WWE was in the early 2000s. 1. WWF No Mercy (2000) Since the release of WWF No Mercy back in 2000, WWE games have added dozens of new features, rosters have doubled and even tripled in size, and graphics have improved to the point of almost being photorealistic. And still, this humble N64 classic is widely considered the pinnacle of pro wrestling games. A lot of it comes down to the gameplay. The grappling system is easy to learn but difficult to master, yet also offers enough flexibility that you can put together a great standard, hardcore, ladder, or cage match. The 60-plus superstars in the game are an impressive collection of Attitude Era talents, but the create-a-wrestler is deep enough that you can easily create legends from the ‘80s, or wrestlers who made it to WWE years after the game came out. Quite simply the game doesn’t get old, and with mods floating around online that focus on WCW, AEW, and the entire history of WWE, you don’t even really need any other wrestling game once you go down the No Mercy rabbit hole.