Summary
Games often fall into predictable patterns. There’s the game you expect to be amazing, and then is, garnering great sales and critical acclaim.Final Fantasy 7 Rebirthis a great example of that. Sometimes a game is expected to be great, but players quickly discover problems.Cyberpunk 2077is probably the best example of this in recent memory, although the game is now in incredible shape.
The rarer, and more exciting possibility, is a game that exceeds all expectations. You may or may not have thought it would be good, but suddenly everyone realizes it’s amazing, an awards contender. We thought it would be interesting to look at some of these success stories and remember how special they are.
Updated on July 24, 2025:We’ve added our video list for you to check out, just in case you want to take a closer look at some of the games that absolutely blew us away - and might just do the same to you.
8Stardew Valley
Over 30 Million Copies Sold
No one could have predicted just how successfulStardew Valleywould be. It showed all the signs of being great, and had very strong initial sale numbers, but over 30 million copies sold for an indie game developed mostly by one person is astronomical.
Sales aside, the game continues to exceed player expectations. Developer ConcernedApe just will not stopupdating the gamewith new content. Not only is all the new content for the game welcome, it’s all completely free.
Middle-earth: Shadow of Warperfected the formula, butMiddle-earth: Shadow of Mordorcaught everyone by surprise. It felt like a true sleeper hit at the time, whenLord of the Ringshad been a mixed bag for so long. The smooth gameplay was a lot of fun, but that wasn’t what made it exciting.
The Nemesis System was a dynamic feature that caused enemy Uruks to react to events, developing traits and gaining strength based on their experiences. The fact that this was then copyrighted and hasn’t been used since Shadow Of War is one of the great tragedies of gaming; it’s too good a system to sit on the shelf.
Until Dawnhad an unusual road to launch, first announced as a PlayStation 3 game that would focus on using the Move controllers. Thankfully, that version of the game isn’t what we eventually ended up with; instead, it’s a choose-your-own-adventure cinematic treat.
Until Dawn was, and is, so good that it ended up raising the profile of Supermassive Games… well, supermassively. It’s built a catalogue of similiar offerings since 2015, and while none have been quite as good as Until Dawn, they each have their own dark charms.
You have to admit that, even now, this is one of the strangest games to ever actually turn out to be good. The initial response toMario + Rabbids Kingdom Battlebefore its launch was far from positive. The art style was critiqued, people were done with Rabbids, and the idea of a Mario gamein the style of XCOM 2seemed beyond bizarre.
And yet, the game is good.Reallygood. The gameplay is fun, holding its own identity within the genre, and the humour almost always lands. Credit where it’s due, Ubisoft hit a target no one even knew existed with this game.Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hopeis also wonderful, but it wasn’t the shock success that its predecessor was.
4Pokemon Red & Green
The Entire Series, Really
Pokemonis a pop culture behemoth. Games, anime, movies,a collectible card game,action figures- if you can think of it, Pokemon has done it. When you cast your eye back to the original games, Pokemon Red & Green in Japan, no one could have predicted the success this series would go on to have.
It’s especially incredible when you realize the games barely got made at all. A turn-based RPG based on the developers obsession with bug collecting doesn’t sound like a great pitch, and developer GameFreak barely skirted bankruptcy during the development. Yet here we are today, with Pokemon one of the most dominant franchises in the world.
Pokemon Red & Green first released in 1996, but it still hassecrets being discovered— a testament to the passion of the developers.
There are always trends in gaming that publishers and developers scramble to jump on. Battle royales, live-service games — whatever is popular and successful becomes all the rage until something new comes along. For a time, this was open-world games designed to capture the success of Grand Theft Auto.Some of these ‘GTA clones’spawned their own series, like Saints Row.
Arguably the best of the bunch was Sleeping Dogs, set in Hong Kong, where you took on the role of an undercover cop. This gave it a different narrative spin than other games of its type, and added a flowing martial arts combat system. A sequel would have been amazing, but we’ll just have to let Sleeping Dogs… well, you get the idea.
Everyone expectedHadesto be good. Supergiant Games had a proven track record with the genre, and bringing Greek Mythology into the mix is usually a good way to pique people’s interest. No one expected Hades to be as unbelievably good as it is, though.
Incredible artwork meets the perfect roguelite experience as you battle through the Underworld, all backed by a story that is far more compelling than it has any right to be. It can’t be stressed how hard it is for a game everyone thinks will be a winner to smash the glass ceiling of already high expectations, but Hades did exactly that.
Final Fantasy 14is a game with a development story like no other. When it first launched, it fell far, far short of expectations and required the development team to split its efforts in two, working to improve the game that existed while also working on a brand-new version of the game.
Relaunched as A Realm Reborn, Final Fantasy 14 then exceeded the expectations it had set for itself with its own poor launch, going on to become one of the most successful and popular MMORPGs of all time. No one expected it to make such a miraculous recovery, salvaging a badly tarnished reputation and surprising us all.
