Study reveals the most successful video game to TV adaptations

• The Last of Us is the most successful adaptation, with the highest average rating of 9.5 across the video game and TV series.
• The Witcher came second, and League of Legends adaptation Arcane came third.
• The Sonic the Hedgehog series was rated higher than Mass Effect and The Legend of Zelda.

A new study has revealed the top-rated video game adaptations of all time, with The Last of Us coming out on top.

Online casino guide 6Takarakuji compared the IMDB ratings of popular video games with their equivalent TV series adaptations to find out which have been the most successful. The user ratings of both the video game and the TV series for each title were averaged, with only the first game installment and series taken into account. For example, season one of The Witcher was compared with the original video game.

The results showed that The Last of Us is the best video game to TV adaptation of all time, with an average IMDB user rating of 9.5 across the video game and TV series. The TV show, which debuted on HBO in January earlier this year and stars Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, has taken the fanbase by storm and received an overwhelmingly positive user rating of 9.3 on IMDB.

The Last of Us series was found to be rated 0.4 stars less than the video game source material, according to IMDB. The original game, which sold 1.3 million copies during its first week of release in 2013, is rated an impressive 9.7 on IMDB. The Last of Us is one of only two TV adaptations ever to be rated higher than nine stars on IMDB, the other being Arcane: League of Legends.

Henry Cavill’s The Witcher came second with an average IMDB star rating of 8.3 across the video game and TV series. It is one of several adaptations where the TV series was rated more highly than the original game, with the game scoring 8.1 and the first installment of the TV series scoring 8.5 on IMDB. The show, which follows Geralt, a mutated monster hunter, broke Netflix records when it achieved 76 million views in its first four weeks of streaming.

Arcane: League of Legends came third with an average IMDB star rating of 8.1 between the video game and TV show. The show, which has a rating of 9.0 stars on IMDB, was the highest rated ever Netflix original show, shortly after its 2021 release. In fact, Arcane achieved a higher rating than the MMORPG League of Legends, which only scores 7.2 stars on IMDB.

Castlevania comes in fourth place with an average IMDB user rating of 8.05. Castlevania isn’t just one of the longest-running game franchises on this list, with more than 30 games, but it also earned a rating higher than the original title. The original 1986 game received an IMDB star rating of 7.8, surpassed by an 8.3 star-rated TV show.

The Paramount+ original TV show Halo ranked fifth place, with an average IMDB rating of 7.95 across the video game and TV adaptation. The 2022 show scores 7.1, which is lower than the 8.8 IMDB star rating for the original game. This is still higher than the average TV series adaptation rating across the other titles in the analysis, which is 6.8 stars. When released in March 2022, Halo was Paramount+’s most watched series premiere globally in its first 24 hours.

Tron comes in sixth place with an average 7.85 star user rating from the 1982 arcade game, which is rated 7.5 stars on IMDB, and the TV show released in 2012 which was rated 8.2 stars.

Dragon Age: Absolution comes in seventh place. This animated action series received an IMDB rating of 6.4 stars, much lower than that of the 9.1 star rated Dragon Age: Origins video game. Together they produce an average IMDB star rating of 7.75.

British crime drama Gangs of London, starring Peaky Blinders actor Joe Cole, comes in eighth place with an average IMDB star rating of 7.7 across the game and TV show. The show was rated an impressive 8.1 on IMDB, while the original Sony PSP game received an IMDB rating of 7.3.

Ninth place is a three-way tie between groovy cult classic Earthworm Jim,  Sonic the Hedgehog, and Mass Effect. All three have an average rating of 7.45 stars on IMDB when combined with their original games.

Tenth place goes to The Legend of Zelda with an averaged IMDB rating of 7.3. The 1986 retro classic, which follows mystical character Link as he tries to save the land of Hyrule, has an IMDB user rating of 8.6 stars. The Legend of Zelda TV series, which was released three years later in 1989, received a lower rating of 7.3.

Across the titles studied, TV show adaptations tended to be rated lower on average than their original video games. In fact, the video games had an average IMDB rating of 8.01 stars, while their TV show equivalents scored 6.96 stars on average.

Rank	Original Video Game	IMDB Rating(Video Game)	Adaptation	IMDB Rating(TV Series Adaptation)	Average IMDB Rating
1.	The Last of Us (2013)	9.7	The Last of Us (2023)	9.3	9.5
2.	The Witcher (2007)	8.5	The Witcher (2019)	8.1	8.3
3.	League Of Legends (2009)	7.2	Arcane (2021)	9	8.1
4.	Castlevania (1986)	7.8	Castlevania (2017)	8.3	8.05
5.	Halo: Combat Evolved (2001)	8.8	Halo (2022)	7.1	7.95
6.	Tron (1982)	7.5	Tron: Uprising (2012)	8.2	7.85
7.	Dragon Age: Origins (2009)	9.1	Dragon Age: Absolution (2022)	6.4	7.75
8.	Gangs of London (2006)	7.3	Gangs of London (2020)	8.1	7.7
9.=	Earthworm Jim (1994)	7.5	Earthworm Jim (1995)	7.4	7.45
9.=	Sonic (1991)	8.1	Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)	6.8	7.45
9.=	Mass Effect (2007)	9.1	Mass Effect:Paragon Lost (2012)	5.8	7.45
10.	The Legend of Zelda (1986)	8.6	The Legend of Zelda (1989)	6	7.3

Commenting on the findings, a spokesperson for 6Takarakuji.com said:

“When analyzing the IMDB ratings of the titles that were studied, it’s clear that studios often struggle to find stable ways to appease long-term video game fans. There are a few exceptions to this, including The Last of Us which only recently hit screens and is already the highest-rated TV adaptation ever. Fans are quick to share their thoughts, and a site like IMDB empowers them to do so.”

Credit to 6takarakuji.com who carried out the research and supplied the above post