Video game franchises have been around since the 1970s, and in the intervening decades, most have had a few bad titles. There are Mario and Zelda games that fans hate, and they’re hardly alone. Sooner or later, a franchise will release a spinoff or poorly-made entry that doesn’t match up to what came before. As a result, there aren’t many gaming franchises that have been consistently excellent from start to finish … At least, there aren’t many that have been around for a long time. Still, there are exceptions, and these three long-running franchises have never released a bad game.
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3) God of War
The God of War franchise launched on the PlayStation 2 in 2005, and it quickly stood out as one of the platform’s best titles. The first three games in the franchise focused on Kratos fighting against the Greek pantheon of Olympian gods before shifting in 2018 to Norse mythology, ushering in a blockbuster new direction for the series. This was followed by another entry focusing on Norse gods, and every mainline game in the franchise has been a hit. The quality of each entry has improved over the last, resulting in a reliable franchise that’s yet to have a crummy title in its 20+ years of existence.
2) DOOM
Doom launched all the way back in 1993 on IBM-compatible computers, and it was a pioneering entry in the first-person shooter genre. The games that followed improved on the genre’s mechanics, establishing many of the norms found in FPS games today. As of writing, there have been eight mainline Doom games with another 18 tied to the franchise. With each new entry, Doom raises its quality, remaining in publication for more than 32 years with consistently good games, one after the other. It’s also the go-to for porting to unimaginably weird screens and a staple of popular culture decades after its introduction.
1) Civilization
The Civilization franchise is easily the best to have never released a crummy title in its more than 34-year history. It launched in 1991 on MS-DOS and quickly became the best turn-based strategy game on the market. In 2025, the seventh mainline title arrived, and it improved in numerous areas over its predecessors. That’s what makes the franchise great — it doesn’t flood the market, and instead takes time to improve each new release. It takes an average of five years for a new Civ game to arrive, and each is better than the last, technologically, strategically, and through its content.
Which long-running franchise is your favorite? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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