Researchers have ranked the best Star Wars video games of all time after the Ubisoft announcement of Star Wars Outlaws, the first open-world Star Wars game of its kind.

The team at Solitaired.com used gross first-year sales, Twitch followers, IGN and Metacritic scores to determine the best Star Wars game of all time.

As the hype builds towards Star Wars: Outlaws – an open-world adventure set between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi – fans may be wondering if this could be the best Star Wars video game yet. However, there have been plenty of classic Star Wars games over the past 20 years, so this ranking looks at some of the best to grace the controller.

Despite being released 20 years ago, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic has topped the list as the most popular Star Wars game ever. Set thousands of years before the Star Wars movies, this critically-acclaimed role-playing game has had multiple spin-offs and even a comic book series released since its debut.

Praised for its rich storyline and impressive interwoven character building, it is the only game on the list to receive a 10/10 rating from IGN, and it also achieved the highest Metacritic score with 94/100. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic received an index score of 71.7/100.

The second-best Star Wars game of all time is Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, with an index score of 69.2/100. This 2019 release follows the story of Cal Kestis on a mission to restore the Jedi order. It has the highest number of Twitch followers on the list at 411,000 and was also given a 9/10 by IGN.

From The Phantom Menace to Return of the Jedi, this humorous twist on the Star Wars universe ranked as the third-best Star Wars game ever. LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga became an instant classic amongst fans of all ages and still holds its value today, with 62,700 Twitch users following the game. Across all metrics measured, LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga received an index score of 43.3/100.

The second instalment in the Battlefront series released in 2005 became a cult classic amongst fans which prompted a highly-requested follow-up series of games ten years later sharing the same title. Star Wars Battlefront II currently has 50,700 Twitch followers, so it’s clear this nostalgic title holds a special place in the hearts of fans to this day. Star Wars Battlefront II ranked number four on the list with an overall index score of 36.8/100.

The latest release in the Star Wars universe came from this gripping single-player adventure set in a post-apocalyptic universe, which ranks at number five. Star Wars: Jedi Survivor, released earlier in 2023 and has sold the fewest copies in the top ten, at 1 million. It has fewer Twitch followers than Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, a game twenty years older. However, it did receive the second-highest Metacritic score on the list, with 85/100 and an overall index score of 34.1/100.

Ranked as the sixth best Star Wars video game by experts is the 2015 edition of Star Wars Battlefront. The large-scale multiplayer game sold 1.5 million copies within its first year, the sixth highest on the list. It has the second-highest Twitch followers in the top ten, with 260,000. IGN gave the game an 8/10, whilst Metacritic awarded it 76/100; overall, it received an index score of 32/100.

Taking the number seven spot on the list is LEGO Star Wars 2: Original Trilogy, with an index score of 31.7/100. Featuring the episodes A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, this classic collection sold just over a million copies in 2011. It has the highest Metacritic score out of the three LEGO games on the list but the fewest Twitch subscribers in the top ten at 9,000.

The third LEGO game to make its way into the top ten is LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars, based on the animated TV series of the same name. The 2011 release ranked eighth and is the only standalone film-based game to enter the top ten, with an overall index score of 26.9/100. It was also the second-highest-grossing game in its first year on the list, with 3.2 million copies sold. The game has 50,000 fewer followers on Twitch than LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga.

The immersive Starfighter game, Star Wars: Squadrons, is the ninth-best Star Wars game of all time, according to the data, with an index score of 12.2/100. The space warfare-style game, released in 2020, sold 1.1 million copies and received a Metacritic score of 79/100 and an IGN score of 7/10.

In tenth position, with an overall index score of 9.5/100, is Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, the 2008 game that follows Starkiller, Darth Vader’s apprentice, on a journey across the galaxy. Available across all platforms – including IOS – the game sold 1.7 million copies in the first year and garnered ratings 73/100 and 7/10 across Metacritic and IGN, respectively.

A spokesperson for Solitaired.com said: “Star Wars is one of the most well-loved franchises in the world, and over the years, there have been some fantastic video games.

“It’s always interesting to see older games make it into the top ten, especially when consoles have developed so much within the last twenty years.

“From the data, we can see that Knights of the Old Republic and Battlefront II have more than 130,000 combined Twitch followers, which is a testament to the quality of these games all these years after the initial release. Our research shows nostalgia value has become increasingly prevalent in modern gaming.”