The Hardest Games of 2015

HDII Top 100

Hardest games by genre

Hardest games by era

More from HDII

How Hard Is Phantom Blade Zero

The Easiest Games Ever Made, Ranked by Player Votes

Every Castlevania and Igavania Ranked From Hardest to Easiest

The Hardest Survival Games of All Time, Ranked by Player Votes

The hardest games released in 2015, ranked by community difficulty votes. 43 titles have enough ratings to qualify, led by Bloodborne at 8.7/10, ahead of Skullgirls: 2nd Encore and Tekken 7. Scores are averaged from player votes, with a five-rating minimum to appear.


1	Bloodborne	2015	8.7	8.4	51
2	Skullgirls: 2nd Encore	2015	8.8	8.2	27
3	Tekken 7	2015	8.6	8.2	34
4	BlazBlue: Central Fiction	2015	8.7	8.2	28
5	Environmental Station Alpha	2015	8.4	7.9	29
6	Touhou Kanjuden: Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom	2015	8.6	7.8	20
7	Mortal Kombat X	2015	8.0	7.6	29
8	Darkest Dungeon	2015	7.9	7.5	35
9	Snakebird	2015	8.3	7.5	17
10	Crypt of the NecroDancer	2015	7.9	7.5	32
11	N++	2015	8.6	7.5	11
12	Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator	2015	8.5	7.4	11
13	TIS-100	2015	8.1	7.4	18
14	Caves of Qud	2015	8.2	7.3	13
15	Flywrench	2015	8.3	7.2	10
16	Infinifactory	2015	7.7	7.1	19
17	ADOM: Ancient Domains of Mystery	2015	8.1	7.1	11
18	The Talos Principle: Road to Gehenna	2015	7.6	7.1	20
19	The Age of Decadence	2015	7.8	7.1	14
20	Human Resource Machine	2015	7.5	7.0	20
21	The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth	2015	7.6	6.9	13
22	Nuclear Throne	2015	7.4	6.9	18
23	Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest	2015	8.2	6.7	6
24	Ark: Survival Evolved	2015	7.0	6.7	31
25	Chunithm	2015	7.0	6.7	28
26	Stranded Deep	2015	7.0	6.7	26
27	Pillars of Eternity	2015	7.0	6.6	21
28	Jamestown+	2015	7.0	6.5	17
29	Rocket League	2015	7.7	6.5	6
30	Superbeat: Xonic	2015	6.7	6.5	28
31	Steredenn	2015	7.0	6.4	13
32	The Room Three	2015	6.6	6.3	22
33	Barony	2015	6.6	6.2	13
34	Ori and the Blind Forest	2015	5.7	5.5	15
35	Picross 3D: Round 2	2015	5.7	5.5	19
36	Undertale	2015	5.7	5.5	15
37	Rhythm Heaven Megamix	2015	5.5	5.5	26
38	Halo 5: Guardians	2015	5.4	5.3	21
39	Musynx	2015	5.1	5.1	30
40	Call of Duty: Black Ops III	2015	4.8	4.8	13
41	The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	2015	4.6	4.7	37
42	Refunct	2015	4.3	4.5	11
43	Fallout 4	2015	4.1	4.3	35

RPGs Platformers Indie Games Shooters Puzzle Games Turn-Based Strategy Games Hack-and-Slash & Beat 'em Ups Arcade Games Simulators Strategy Games

2020s 2010s 2000s 1990s 1980s

HDII voters have Phantom Blade Zero at 6.15/10, below Onimusha and nowhere near Sekiro. No death penalty, enemies that stay dead and boss phase checkpoints mean even Hellwalker lets you off easy, and the real test is locked behind your first clear.

Read article

Stardew Valley is the easiest game on the site, and four Animal Crossing games crowd the top six. Pokémon takes more than half of the top 25, two 3D Marios sneak in, and a game about watching paint dry still is not the easiest thing players have rated.

Read article

Haunted Castle, a 1988 arcade cabinet most people have never played, takes the top spot at 9.13/10. All twelve of the hardest entries are classic stage-based Castlevanias, only Order of Ecclesia cracks the top half for the metroidvanias, and Symphony of the Night lands second from the bottom. Filter the list to metroidvanias only or Castlevanias only.

Read article

The Long Dark takes the top spot at 8.38/10, tied on score with a free Finnish simulation from 1992 that beat it on nothing but sample size. Valheim, Subnautica and Minecraft all rate too low to make the list at all, and Minecraft posts the largest sample and the lowest score of the lot.

Read article

Release Year

Weighted RatingWtd

Number of RatingsRatings

Difficulty Rankings

Find the most difficult, or the easiest, games as rated by players. Games must have at least 5 difficulty ratings to be ranked.