Over the last two decades or so, there have been a plethora of Harry Potter video game releases. While not all of these have gone down in history for the right reasons, there’s certainly more to like than there is to hate, and at their best, some Harry Potter games have even managed to stand the test of time, becoming some of the most beloved licensed games ever made.
RELATED: Hiding Hogwarts Legacy’s Dark Arts Battle Arena in the Deluxe Edition is a Mistake
S-Tier
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: The first genuinely great Harry Potter game, and one of the first great movie tie-in games ever made, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is a PS2 classic that’s only continued to grow in popularity over the years. Letting players free-roam around Hogwarts for the first time, Chamber of Secrets set the bar for whimsical exploration in the Wizarding World, something which fans are skeptical even Hogwarts Legacy can outdo. LEGO Harry Potter: Two of the best Harry Potter games of all time, LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 and LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7 manage to capture the magical, lighthearted nature at the heart of the franchise perfectly, with plenty of LEGO charm and humor along the way. While its tone absolutely nails it, it’s LEGO Harry Potter’s mechanics that seal the deal, applying the LEGO games’ usual exploration formula to an expansive Hogwarts hub world filled with collectible trinkets.
A-Tier
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (PS2): Releasing two years after the PS1 version, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone for PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube is a much better game than its predecessor. Essentially taking the groundwork of Chamber of Secrets and re-skinning it for the events of the first movie, Sorcerer’s Stone is still a great game, but it does feel a little repetitive and cash grab-y when looking back. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: In many ways an improvement over its predecessor, and in some ways a step-back, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is a highly subjective entry in the history of Harry Potter games. While some fans criticized the game’s lack of open-world exploration and its linear approach to level design and structure, some fans preferred Azkaban’s more refined gameplay and its introduction of fun collectibles. Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup: A different breed of Harry Potter game altogether, Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup is a whole game purely focused on the Wizards’ favorite pastime. Players can choose from a wide selection of teams, with plenty of well-known Harry Potter faces on each roster. The core mechanics of Quidditch World Cup are surprisingly great, with a decent amount of complexity baked into the core loop to keep things fresh and exciting. Throw on some splitscreen multiplayer and Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup quickly becomes one of the most beloved games in the franchise.
RELATED: An Azkaban Sequence in Hogwarts Legacy Would Relish Its Horror Tones
B-Tier
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (PS1): Releasing in 2001, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone for PlayStation 1 is an iconic game, but not necessarily for the right reasons. Featuring some blocky graphics, rough voice acting, and gameplay that focused more on throwing exploding crackers than casting spells, Sorcerer’s Stone is a solid attempt at adapting the first book in the series, but it’s pretty rough to play nowadays, with the only real reason to check it out being PS1 Hagrid. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: A return to form after the disappointing Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was an ambitious title that tried to make the most out of the console hardware of the time. Though its visuals managed to capture the essence of its movie counterpart perfectly, Order of the Phoenix’s open-world was a bit empty, and its gameplay was a little too lackluster for it to be considered one of the better Harry Potter entries. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Essentially just a further iteration on the groundwork laid by Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince offers a few slight improvements over its predecessor, allowing players to take to the skies on their brooms, albeit in a limited, linear way. The minigames are still fun, and the controls are more refined, but Half-Blood Prince is essentially just Order of the Phoenix again but with different plot beats.
C-Tier
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and 2: A duology that’s infamous for essentially being “Gears of War with wands,” Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and 2 are two disappointingly short games that are actually pretty fun. It’s certainly ridiculous to see Harry fire out a barrage of magical bullets at his opponents, but the mechanics themselves are engaging enough, and some boss battles help to keep things interesting for all three hours of each campaign.
D-Tier
LEGO Creator: Harry Potter: Technically the first Harry Potter game ever made, this marks the third entry in LEGO’s iconic Creator series of PC titles. This game sees players explore four different Harry Potter locales, and allows them to mess around with each environment as they see fit, placing various real-world Harry Potter LEGO sets around and dropping in minifigures. It’s a fun game for kids, but not much more than that. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: The first truly disappointing Harry Potter game, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire traded in third-person exploration and adventure for a top-down, Diablo-esque dungeon crawler that forces players to replay every mission multiple times if they wish to succeed. Though it follows the events of the movie closely, Goblet of Fire’s clunky gameplay, awful AI, and lackluster level design lets it down.
MORE: Hogwarts Legacy’s Alohomora May Have Tiered Upgrades for Certain Locks
