Top 10 multiplayer FPS games of all time
While some indulge themselves in MMORPGs, at the other side of the spectrum of multiplayer games, first person shooters have had players battling in fast paced action for a far longer time — no quest reading or storytelling here, it’s guns blazing and the laws of headshots. Here’s our top 10 pick of the greatest multiplayer first person shooters of all time.
10: Team Fortress 2 (2007)
Valve’s successor to Team Fortress not only received a complete visual overhaul, it also became one of the most stylized multiplayer shooters of today, complete with its own sense of humor. The continuous (free) updates from Valve have kept players involved for a long time, with new weapons and maps added frequently.
9: Battlefield 1942 (2002)
Swedish developer DICE broke on to the gaming scene with Battlefield 1942, which would go on to become one of the most popular online shooters for the next few years. For the first time, gamers could participate in large scale, 64 player matches with big assortment of classes, tanks, planes, jeeps, battling over huge maps — it was warfare like never seen before, and it took the FPS scene by storm.
8: Halo 3 (2007)
Microsoft’s first Halo game on the Xbox 360 was received with one of the biggest launches in gaming history, and the polished multiplayer, which offered a ton of modes, detailed rankings, achievements and maps, have secured the game a top spot in the most played Xbox 360 games ever since. On top of that, the new The Forge mode made it possible to edit the maps as well, adding a new layer of gameplay.
7: Quake 2 (1997)
Quake 2 is widely considered the game that popularized the multiplayer shooter on the PC, and was one of the first to offer custom created content, such as maps, to be shared among fans and modders. It was also one of the first games to be officially selected in the Cyberathlete Professional League, a testament to its legacy.
6: GoldenEye 007 (1997)
While Quake opened the eyes of the general gaming crowd to the PC multiplayer first person shooters, GoldenEye 007 did it for the console crowd. It wasn’t the first console FPS game to offer multiplayer, but it was by far the first hit and a major breakthrough. Released in 1997 on the N64, the multiplayer part wasn’t originally a part of the game, and developer Rare assigned the job to a single programmer, Steve Ellis, who created the multiplayer version virtually by himself from the single player mode.
5: Unreal Tournament 2004 (2004)
Following the release of UT 2003, which received a mixed reception from the fans, Epic Games almost started from scratch and created what would become the most popular UT game ever, especially among modders, who were given the tools not only to create new maps, but completely different games, like Red Orchestra and Frag-Ops.
4: Tribes (1998)
In terms of multiplayer shooters, Tribes was a huge success, and was a game that pioneered some multiplayer FPS aspects that exist to this day. The game had a ton of exciting modes, revolutionary gameplay, not to mention 40 maps, some of which were huge, even by today’s standards.
3: Quake 3 Arena (1999)
Quake 3 Arena is perhaps one of the most fast paced multiplayer shooters ever made, and is generally considered the “founding father” of all the frag fests. It was the first Quake game that was exclusively multiplayer-oriented, and was minimalist in eye candy and aesthetics, only focusing on what really matters: gameplay.
2: Battlefield 2 (2005)
DICE brought the chaos and large scale warfare of WW2 into a modern day scenario, and Battlefield 2 became and instant classic, perfectly balancing the line between realism and accessibility — far better than any other military multiplayer shooter had done before. Or since. And despite being considerably buggier than competing games, the sheer quality of the gameplay — not to mention the detailed statistics and awards system — has meant that the game is still one of the most popular online shooters, despite being 4 1/2 years old.
1: Counter-Strike (1999)
Originally released as a mod to Half-Life, Counter-Strike immediately took the world by storm and has since consistently been the most played multiplayer shooter in the world. And with the update coming with Half-Life 2, CS: Source, the new visuals have kept it at the top spot. A proper sequel, Counter-Strike 2, is expected to be released with HL2: Episode 3 next year, and will most definitely continue the reign on the online multiplayer FPS scene.
October 9th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
no killzone? you need youre ass slapt
October 9th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
No COD eh, some people will be angry.
October 9th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
COD4 is the best selling FPS & MW2 is predicted to follow & even surpass it, yet its not on the list? FAIL
October 9th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
I remember playing Tribes. It truly did lay the ground work for multiplayer shooters – it was incredible during it’s days! Glad to see it got recognized
October 9th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Well i agree with COUPLE of the games on that list and im happy that CS made it to #1 BRING ON CS2!!!!
people who complain about Killzone 2 or CoD4 didnt make it to this list is because… (1)Killzone 2 has unbalanced MP and (2)CoD4 isnt a challenging FPS. The only CoD game that has challenge is the original CoD and its expansion CoD:UO
and finally… the title of this article is called”Top 10 multiplayer FPS games of all time”
its not “Top 10 best FPS graphics / best selling / etc…”
October 9th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
how do u not put any COD on this list at all esp. COD4?
October 9th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
This list was about as ridiculous as you can make it. Tribes is higher than goldeneye. There no killzone(any), CoD4, Perfect Dark (N64)… at least you got halo up there. featuring battlefield & quake twice is a no-no, thats almost half the list.
October 9th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
CS 1st place?
Halo 7th??
GOLDENEYE 6th??????
WTH kind of list is this?
this article is full of fail.
Modern Warfare is God of FPS right know.
October 9th, 2009 at 8:25 pm
how can u ppl even disagree with counter strike being no1 it is hands down the biggest multiplayer fps and it always was its sold almost 5 million and retail….and i dont know the steam number but u can rest assured that they will be higher i’ve played cod4 online its amazing but cs was and always will be special
October 9th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
PERFECT DARK, Where is it? Why is Golden Eye only number six? CS lol. Fail list is fail.
October 9th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
Sooo….a “of all time” list for Multiplayer first person shooters – and you don’t mention DOOM or Wolfenstein in deathmatch? Seriously – they were the FIRST. Apparently, being the first ever isn’t good enough to be on the “of all time” list.
October 9th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
IMO the original Quake Team Fortress did more for multiplayer/co-op than any of these games did. Person who wrote this must be 15
October 9th, 2009 at 10:10 pm
I agree with the list… but my eyes must be mistaken: where is cod4???
October 9th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
THAT LIST SUCKS, AND THE GUY WHO MADE IT SHOULD FEEL BAD.
THIS IS ALSO A BAD WEBSITE.
October 9th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
Those “top 10 list” are getting worst and worst.. its only a quick n dirty way to get some traffic.
October 9th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
No DOOM>>? the first multi player FPS???
list is no good without DOOM
October 9th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
Where’s Return to Castle Wolfenstein and ET?
October 9th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
cod4 could replace team fortress 2… and they should at least mention tribes 2 with the first tribes both are some of the best online ever- but tribes 2 is my all time fav.
Yea Doom should be there somewhere 2.
err.. whoever said Killzone r u on crack? I think socom would be on there before that and that aint that good either.
October 9th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
This list is very poor, I would not expect alot of people to be happy with this as a list, your missing alot of classics tbh i suspect this list may have been created by a “new age” gamer, the young gamers atm someone who is 21-30 should have created this list, their is no way halo should be on this list.
COD4 in my opinion should not be on this list, it was poorly design to be a console shooter, badly ported to PC and then played by the “lame” gamers because of its “populatirty”
October 9th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
UR LIST IS BAD AND U SHOULD FEEL BAD
October 9th, 2009 at 10:31 pm
..perfect dark should just be mentioned with goldeneye as it was just goldeneye on crack- no need to add it though.
But Halo does need to be on here as it is the biggest console shooter and the first one gave the xbox life.
October 9th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
I hate Counterstrike – but agree that it is one of the biggest games, so #1 counterstrike doesnt really upset me.
If the entire halo series is going to be represented by one game, then im sure Quake could go for the same purpose -altho imo q1 and q2 were much more influential than q3 arena which imo sucked ass – too much unreal in my quake
games you are missing -
Rainbow Six (original) – one of the first realistic shooters, squad combat and (SUPER) detailed squad instructions. should be on the list
Call of Duty 2 – Not the first ww2 shooter, but imo the one that redefined the genre. Battlefield 1942 was fun, but it was sure as hell no Call of Duty
October 9th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
yea rainbow six series would be a good addition and I don’t like counter strike either but I know why its on there- but where the hell is Half-Life 2?
October 9th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
This list was pretty good from a PC gamer perspective. Granted Halo 3 and GoldenEye are console games, they are still games that PC gamers have probably played and would agree are awesome. COD4 is fun and a great game, but not really deserving of top 10 of all time. Also, whoever is saying killzone? seriously? that game is no where near top 10 of all time. Maybe if you’ve only owned sony consoles your whole life…
Oh and Battlefield 2 is great, glad to see it on this list.
October 9th, 2009 at 10:38 pm
I hate to see all these negative comments, its obviously one person’s opinion on what they think the best games are. Rather than tear it down you could offer some positive feedback or even create a list of your own. In response to COD 4 not being on the list, it is one of the few FPS games I play multiplayer, but I don’t believe it (or Halo 3) have been around long enough to truly define themselves as the best, but I suppose I’m just being hypocritical now. Kudos on the list.
October 10th, 2009 at 12:18 am
This list was clearly established by someone who plays mostly pc games. If the author didn’t, then we would find Perfect Dark, TimeSplitters 2 on this list.
October 10th, 2009 at 1:10 am
@ asddasads
How long have you been playing FPSs?
I have a ps3 and i have killzone 2 and i love killzone 2, but it deffinetly shouldnt be on this list.the games on the list are classics. Killzone 2 is an awesome game but the multiplayer experience isnt as great in comparison with these games…..COD shoulda made the list though
October 10th, 2009 at 1:36 am
Quake is there and no COD4? Fail, fail, fail, FAIL. Cod4 on all platforms is one of the mist widely played and enjoyable MP FPS’ of all time. Personally I would put it first, to not even put it on the list……
October 10th, 2009 at 5:48 am
rainbow six raven shield
October 10th, 2009 at 6:17 am
TF2 should be higher up the list tbh, defo ahead of Halo 3.
October 10th, 2009 at 9:11 am
list without COD4 is definitely not credible.
October 10th, 2009 at 9:26 am
Wow.. CoD doesn’t deserve to be on the list, this is a very good list actually. Welcome to gaming BEFORE this generation idiots.
October 10th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
This guy put killzone 2 on a best 1st person shooter list and leave out cod4. You can’t be very bright. Killzone is a very bad mp game imo.
October 10th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Laughing at oSaKx, “welcome to gaming before this generation”.
You must be on something which i need to have. Dude you can’t be serious cod4 comes out before killzone 2.
October 10th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
your ass! COD 4 IS THE BEST FPS! then goldeneye and then halo 3 ! you are nuts!
October 10th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
This list is right, I agree with you and hope you prosper as a journalist.
Though 2 quakes and BF games but no CoD4 seems a bit weird, even if it does suck.
October 10th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
WTF. this list is bullshit. no cod4 means this person sucks at it
October 10th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
NO COD4??!!! U R CRAZY!!? BIG FAIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLL LIST!!
October 11th, 2009 at 11:49 am
Ehmmmmm excuse me? No PERFECT DARK???
shame on you! this is a FAIL top 10…
October 12th, 2009 at 6:01 am
This article was a complete waste of space / my time on this normally interesting site(well, blog) that I am now forced to remove from my bookmarks.
To OP: Your general opinion is NOT news, if you wanna post it, do it on a forum rather than a game-news site, jackass.
October 15th, 2009 at 3:05 am
Nicely done as for the whole CoD4 one of the reasons i can think of is that it always battled Medal Of Honor i found myself putting a CoD game down back in the days to play a Medal Of Honor thus it was not entirely unique. the game play was great but to be honest it doesn’t call you to play much on mp. Because if i’m not wrong pretty much all the games on the list were recognized for their multiplayer mode.and Golden eye? please 80% of all gamers played Goldeneye with friends on multiplayer not a great game when it comes to graphics but sure was unique when it came out. As for Cs I’m glad it is on the very top is fame is huge and i believe most of us have played it. Again most of this games were chosen on a genre i guess Battlefield 1942 is the one who raped CoD4 here becasue it relates to it not that i agree but i think it was how it rolled. peace
October 17th, 2009 at 6:41 am
Without Tribes, Quake and Goldeneye, CoD4 would not even exist. So SHUT THE FUCK UP
October 17th, 2009 at 8:03 am
IMO The Delta Force and Joint operations series deserves mention if alone fer the size of the maps with no invisable bariers you can skirt around the combat and hit em from any angle
October 25th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
If some one say cod4 fail or anything like that ur the biggest faggot its the best seller/best graphic/and the second best game (wow on top)
October 26th, 2009 at 7:38 am
CSS is still nr1. Check how many servers there are, more then 30.000 servers. And CoD 4 + CoD 5 wont even reach that, more then the half of their servers are empty. CSS has lots more players.
October 31st, 2009 at 8:26 am
I agree with this a little… quake Unreal and CS but its missing Doom 1 and Half life 1!
Doom 1 was the first MP fps, and Counter strike wloudnt have exixted without half life (has mp too)
November 1st, 2009 at 1:40 pm
This list is ridiculous!!!
Where is COD4?
Where is Half Life 1 and 2?
Where is Doom 3?
Why “Battleshit” twice?
November 16th, 2009 at 9:41 am
WTF no COD on the list?!?!?! this is the bigest fail list i ever seen (i mean it)
November 16th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
You’re missing the most influential multiplayer FPS of all time, Team Fortress aka QW:TF aka what all the other “fortress” based mods spawned from, and the first multiplayer game that encouraged and rewarded teamplay.
Predates all of these, the magic will never be re-created: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_Fortress
How many other mods have had 10+ mods based on them, ported across multiple engines and with a community you can still find 13 years later if you look hard enough (try #fortress.uk on Quakenet)
Including Tribes was a good move though, it was way ahead of it’s time.
#1 Team Fortress 1
#2 Tribes
#3 Counter-Strike
Fragster
November 16th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
As an addentum, people could do far worse than read this: http://www.planetfortress.com/tf/history/clans/spicegirls.shtml
It was written in 1998, TF was in it’s heyday, the gaming community, well, see for yourself but I like to think of it as a more mature time.
November 19th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
Dude, COD4, and Perfect Dark Aren’t on Here?
-Ep1c Ph4iL
November 21st, 2009 at 6:12 pm
My friend turned me onto a site that is a must for every FPS player. scrimz.com has free tourneys for Combat arms and COD and upcoming events with admin to stop or atleast try to stop the hackers. They have other events for other games as well. Just found the site to be cool and thought i would share.