The best RPGs can be hard to find. The long-running staple of the video game landscape is home to some of the most memorable games of all time, but by their nature, role-playing games tend to be a big time investment compared to some other genres. That’s why we want to help you narrow them down and make the very best use of your gaming hours and dollars.

The RPG genre is so large that there are multiple subgenres that some games can fall into depending on where they were created or their gameplay mechanics. You’ll often see RPG elements pop up in games that otherwise largely fit into other genres; action-RPGs like the Diablo series have long been popular, while RPG-style character building have worked their way into shooters, action games, and numerous others. And the worlds, characters, and stories that developers create in RPGs have been turned into movie and TV franchises as well.

While there are hundreds of RPGs that are worth your time, we’re going to shoulder the difficult task of ranking the 25 best RPGs to play in 2025. As a note, this list only features one game from a given RPG franchise so that more specific titles can be included. However, that rule doesn’t apply to developers, so you’re going to see some entries from the same devs. Our selections are listed alphabetically. For more, be sure to check our picks for the best games on PS5, best games on Switch, and best games on Xbox.