Video game adaptations have only been considered "potentially good" for a little under a decade at this point. There's still plenty of room to level up. The best of this subgenre falls into three tiers.

At the bottom are shows that leave a little to be desired in terms of narrative ingenuity, but have nonetheless faithfully captured the visuals of the game for TV. In the middle are series that capture the world and the overall feeling of playing the game.

The best of the best are such great television that they're worth watching even if you've never picked up a controller.

Tom Clancy Overview & Context

Tom Clancy's "Splinter Cell" games are risky to adapt into a TV series. The franchise still has plenty of fans, though over a decade of distance from the last new installment has greatly reduced enthusiasm.

They're also games that rely on stealth mechanics, which is difficult to translate to a story, much less in such a way that it feels more engaging and thrilling than when the player themselves is in control of the action.

Admittedly, Netflix's "Splinter Cell: Deathwatch" avoids the latter problem to its detriment. "John Wick" writer-creator Derek Kolstad turns an older Sam Fisher (Liev Schreiber) into a Reevesian gun-fu martial artist. While this may disappoint some of the games' fans, the series does reverently restrict its narrative, pacing, and action set pieces to the source material's spy thriller tone.

There aren't many animated series that capture this subgenre so effectively. Like most anthologies, "Secret Level" has its highs and lows.

Creator Tim Miller knows this all too well, having also created the acclaimed Netflix sci-fi anthology "Love, Death + Robots." His love letter to video games is just as ambitious, even if it pales in comparison to the previous series.

The Amazon Prime Video Overview & Context

The Amazon Prime Video series' inclination toward grim-dark science fiction and fantasy fundamentally undermines adaptations it isn't suited for — the "Pac-Man" and "Mega Man" episodes fall especially flat. But when it works, it works beautifully.

"Unreal Tournament: Xan" turns a lesser-known first-person shooter into a bombastic and action-packed techno-robo thrill ride; "Warhammer 40,000: And They Shall Know No Fear" is one of the best pieces of "Warhammer" media of all time, and re-inspires hope that Amazon is the right studio to adapt this franchise fully .

The two best episodes, in our opinion, are "Armored Core: Asset Management," which features a committed performance from guest star Keanu Reeves, and "Sifu: It Takes a Life," which emphasizes the original game's unique resurrection mechanic as a manifestation of the toll exacted Innersloth's 2018 multiplayer online party game "Among Us" was a culturally ubiquitous phenomenon for about six months during the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020.

There's no story or overt lore, making this adaptation seem like a cash grab from the get-go. Now that it has finally dropped (albeit unceremoniously on Paramount+), the worst thing you could say about the "Among Us" series is that it arrived about five years too late.

It's pure, stupid cartoon fun in a way that feels refreshing for the adult animation medium.

Creator Owen Dennis worked with CBS and animation studio Titmouse to perfectly translate the game's unique visual style for storytelling. If your personal game of "Among Us" had cut scenes, this is what it would look and feel like — complete with the haphazard accusations, unconvincing defenses, and laugh-out-loud derailments.

"Among Us" isn't groundbreaking entertainment, but it improbably recaptures the cozy, creepy amusement that the game provided to many of us in 2020.

It's also overloaded with many "Oh, hey! It's that person from that thing!" actors, which genuinely adds to the complicated nostalgia of lockdown content consumption. "Halo: Combat Evolved" is one of the most influential shooters of the 21st century.

It's up there with "Modern Warfare" and "Counter-Strike" in terms of initial success, contemporary relevance, and long-term industry impact. What has always made the "Halo" franchise stand out even further in this already extraordinary crowd was its unique and engaging story, world-building, and narrative development.

Suffice it to say, expectations for a "Halo" TV adaptation were as high as they could possibly be — and Paramount+ didn't immediately deliver.

But after that first middling effort, its second season did more than enough to prove the show's potential. It took itself more seriously as a dystopian action-slash-war thriller, bringing the combat and the overall gravity of the narrative to the same level as the already impressive visuals (the fidelity to the games can't be denied) and Pablo Schreiber's consistently compelling work as Master Chief.

Though it was somewhat understandably canceled (a show this expensive can't weather such ambivalence for long), it really was on its way to becoming a great series in its own right. This might be our most controversial placement on this list. For many video game fans, the "Pokémon" anime is the definitive video game TV show.

All 25 seasons perfectly translate the subtly evolving visuals and tone of Nintendo's massive global gaming franchise. There's also a solid argument to be made that the show — which, among other original creations, introduced the now-iconic player-stand-in character of Ash Ketchum — did more to expand the brand than the games themselves. None of this is in dispute here.

It's nearly impossible to overstate the impact of "Pokémon." That being shared, its longstanding cultural ubiquity compensates for its overwhelmingly uneven quality. The series aired 1,200 episodes across a quarter of a century — most of them aren't worth watching as an adult, save for the nostalgia they might offer longtime fans.

Aside from a relative handful of great standalone episodes earlier in the show's run and the more climactic episodes sprinkled throughout, "Pokémon" is repetitive (and often obviously toyetic) children's entertainment.

It's the kind of show new fans should watch specific, exceptional episodes of, rather than grit their teeth through the whole thing. For how much it narratively diverges from the video game series upon which it's based, Netflix's "Devil May Cry" summons enough of its flashy, violent charm to satisfy anyway.

The streamer debuted the anime in 2025, garnering over 20 million hours of watch-time in the first few days.

That immediate excitement reinforces how much enthusiasm there is for a high-quality anime adaptation of these games, even if they aren't translated one-to-one. We got three seasons of a British "Grand Theft Auto" knock-off before "GTA 6." It's mostly surprising that it's actually pretty great television.

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"Gangs of London" is a game few grew up playing as religiously as its Rockstar-made inspiration.

This gave creators Gareth Evans (the acclaimed action director of "The Raid" duology) and Matt Flannery a full runway to do whatever they wanted with the "Getaway" games' basic premise. Evans wisely convinced his studio bosses to support him in producing a TV show rather than a series of films, so that he would be able to flesh out the world — a fully lived-in, faction-driven criminal underworld that resembled the games.

That decision allows "Gangs of London" to grow into a multi-layered, ensemble-driven drama that resembles shows like "Peaky Blinders." Sope Dirisu is particularly great as undercover cop Elliot Finch. Of course, there's also the fight choreography.

You don't hire Gareth Evans if you don't want blood spilled and bones broken in a fashion so stylistically thrilling and technically perfect that the violence becomes art.

There isn't a TV show currently running with fight choreography this strong. The original "Twisted Metal" game series began in the '90s with a simple idea — wouldn't it be fun for the entire point of a video game to be driving recklessly and blowing stuff up?

The Peacock series became great when it realized it didn't need to reinvent the wheel.

The first season was fine but forgettable, using "Twisted Metal" as a skin on a tired post-apocalyptic narrative we've seen before. Anthony Mackie stars as "John Doe," a courier who is sent on a mysterious life-or-death delivery mission. Mackie and the rest of the cast save the series In Season 2, the story completely catches up with them.

Anthony Carrigan blows in as Calypso, kicking off the tournament storyline "Twisted Metal" needed to feel alive. That tone now has a real engine behind it, kicking the action and (shockingly) emotional depth into high gear. It's become one of Peacock's most successful shows yet, and is currently awaiting a third season .

It needs to be emphasized that, strictly speaking, "The Witcher" is not a video game adaptation. Lauren Schmidt Hissrich's TV series is technically another major adaptation (alongside the CD Projekt Red games) of Andrzej Sapkowski's fantasy stories. That being shared, the series borrows visually and aesthetically from the games.

Both adaptations benefit from the rich world of magic and monsters that Sapkowski built. What the show has over the games (at least for the first three seasons) is Henry Cavill, a dedicated champion of the franchise who spares no effort in bringing Geralt of Rivia to life.

The role is a complete reversal from his ill-fated tenure as Superman, from his harsh, cynical demeanor to his brutal talent for swordplay.

His work is largely what elevates the first season above standard fantasy fare. On the cusp of its fifth and final season, it has become deliciously expansive in terms of its storytelling and world-building. If nothing else, "The Witcher" is a gift for dark fantasy fans in a "Game of Thrones"-dominated media landscape.

The formula of the mainline "Pokémon" video games has not meaningfully changed in three decades. That stagnation has made spin-offs more exciting — a dynamic that is mirrored "Detective Pikachu" showed that a successful "Pokémon" story can be told without gym badges and training arcs. "Pokémon Concierge" does the same in a quieter, yet more impressive way.

In this stop-motion animated series, "Pokémon" is deliberately and logically matured. We've seen for years that — around the constant existential battles and events — this world is filled with normal people who work with Pokémon on a day-to-day basis.

"Pokémon Concierge" focuses squarely on one of these people — Haru (Karen Fukuhara), a Pokémon Resort concierge whose entire arc is learning how to take care of beings she can't easily communicate with.

It's peak lean-back entertainment, built around transfixing stop-motion animation and light emotional storytelling. It draws parallels between Haru's difficulties navigating her job at the resort and the personal conflicts she struggled to navigate before arriving, inviting the viewer to meditate on what it means to feel at home.

When it premiered in 2017, Netflix's "Castlevania" was considered It made headlines as the first to break the Rotten Tomatoes "Fresh" barrier, and was praised as evidence that a competent team with enough creative freedom can make it work.

Controversial writer Warren Ellis created the series and wrote all 32 of its episodes, having been attached to the project for a decade There are no peaks and valleys here — just four seasons of excellent television, each episode relentlessly building on the last. The dialogue effortlessly keeps the viewer apace with the enjoyably unwieldy plot, endearing them to the characters and the world without breaking immersion.

The violence, drama, and mythology of the games work perfectly together throughout in ways no one could've predicted at the time. The series took an unquestionably influential but narratively bare side-scroller and transformed it into an anime fantasy epic.

"Castlevania" may have broken the video game adaptation curse, but it was "The Last of Us" that demanded to be seen as prestige television.

Immediately after making the proto-apocalyptic historical masterpiece that is HBO's "Cherno The second season lost some of its verve toward the end, but overall remained consistent with Season 1 in terms of quality . Season 3 is currently in production .

"Arcane" didn't change this dynamic broadly, but it's incredibly impressive regardless that it built such a compelling, mature TV show from loose pieces of lore.

It turned a never-ending battle structure into a story about what constant conflict does to people fighting for something they're willing to sacrifice everything for. Anyone can resonate with it, even if they've never touched the games.

The real selling point across the board is Fortiche's animation style, combining 2D and 3D techniques to create intimate character moments and explosive, dazzling action sequences.

"Fallout" stands out as the only successful video game adaptation to exist as a direct, worthy extension of the games themselves. Rather than fight the losing battle of trying to recreate the story or gameplay experience of the Bethesda franchise, Amazon Prime Video's adaptation brilliantly functions like a definitive sequel installment.

The decision to bring new fans into the canon rather than recreate it for them is the single greatest creative decision made Though we want no part of its wickedly entertaining dystopia, "Fallout" is the future of video game adaptations.