When the gaming industry began to flourish in the arcades, they were seen as a great way to escape the troubles of life with some mindless fun. Few would have predicted that, one day, a popular genre of gaming would involve players voluntarily taking on the role and stresses of management.
1994’s Theme Park and 1999’s Rollercoaster Tycoon were pioneers of the management genre. Although it is likely a nightmare job in real life, the games let players experience the imaginative fun of managing a theme park. The games inspired many similar titles like SimCity and Zoo Tycoon, and, in 2008, a new management series began in the form of Farming Simulator 2008.
Farming Simulator 2008 and subsequent games took the unusual step of focusing more on realism than fun. The games became something of a meme for this reason, but have had multiple main console releases since. Despite the focus on realism, the games have been praised for their highly addictive gameplay that has amassed a loyal fanbase. Subsequently, the farm management series has inspired many other games based on everyday jobs. Over the years, the management genre has developed a collection of excellent games. Some focus on realism, others on fun, but all games on this list are the best in the management genre according to Metacritic.
10 The Sims 3 (86)
The Sims series doesn’t let players manage a farm or theme park, but instead characters lives. Players have a wealth of customization options available to them in the series. They can choose their characters’ appearances, build and decorate their homes, choose their career paths, and much more.
The series is known for not giving players any set goals, instead letting them create their own stories and adventures. The third game added a trait system to the series through which player’s could give their sims up to five traits that ranged from Artistic to Genius, to Athletic, to Insane.
9 Football Manager 2013 (86)
Football Manager 2013 is just one of an impressive four Football Manager games that feature on this list. Sega and Sports Interactive’s Football Manager withstood the competition that EA posed with Fifa Manager. EA’s Fifa Manager 2014 was the companies last soccer management title.
Football Manager 2013 was one of the key entries in the series that won Sega the battle over EA. Today, the series lets players manage a team from one of 54 different countries. Despite the huge array of teams, the series is known for its detailed scouting of individual players, as well as its deep tactical gameplay. FM lets the player control their selected team’s transfers, staff, training, tactics, team selection, and much, much more.
With each entry into the series offering more and more features for players to manage, Football Manager 2013 made the smart decision of offering a classic mode. The classic mode offered a more streamlined experience that cut out some of the excess features, allowing the series’ causal players to just manage their club’s key components.
8 Football Manager 2019 (86)
From Football Manager 2014 onwards, the series got stuck in a bit of a rut. None of the games were considered bad, the lowest being Football Manager 2015, which still had a respectable score of 80. However, players began to compare the series to the Fifa games, criticizing them for a lack of innovation.
Commendably, Sports Interactive listened to these criticisms and returned to form with Football Manager 2019. The game expanded and improved upon many of the game’s mechanics, the most notable improvement being the training, which had become lackluster over the years. The training feature had become so stale, in fact, that many players were opting to simply let their assistant take charge of the team’s training. FM 2019 completely overhauled the series’ training feature, swiftly turning it into one of the game’s best and most detailed features.
7 RimWorld (87)
One of the few games on this list that isn’t Football Manager or The Sims is RimWorld. The crowdfunded game was an early access title for almost five years before finally releasing in full at the back-end of 2018.
RimWorld tasks players with building a thriving colony that ensures the survival of stranded survivors. Unlike many management games, RimWorld can end. The game will end if all of the characters die, or if they manage to leave the planet on a spaceship, adding a tangible weight to proceedings.
6 Stardew Valley (89)
Stardew Valley tasks player with managing a farm. The game has no set objectives and countless options available to players. They can mine, maintain livestock, or grow and sell crops to earn money.
Players can also manage their character’s personal life. Marriage and raising children, for example, are both possible in the game. Stardew Valley is one of the highest-selling indie games ever. Furthermore, the game’s sole programmer, Eric Barone, won the Golden Joystick Breakthrough Award in 2016.
5 Worldwide Soccer Manager 2005 (89)
Worldwide Soccer Manager is an alternative title to Football Manager that was used in North America up until Football Manager 2010. The 2005 iteration was the first game in the Football Manager series. Developers Sports Interactive had been working on the popular Championship Manager series up until this point with Eidos Interactive. After the companies parted ways on less than friendly terms, Sports Interactive teamed up with Sega to begin the Football Manager series while Eidos partnered with Beautiful Game Studios to make the next Championship Manager title.
Sports Interactive hit the ground running with the excellent Worldwide Soccer Manager 2005. Their game was a significantly superior product to Beautiful Game Studios’ Championship Manager 5, which was criticized for its numerous bugs.
4 Worldwide Soccer Manager 2006 (89)
Sports Interactive and Sega didn’t rest on their laurels after the success of Worldwide Soccer Manager 2005. Instead, they tweaked many of the game’s mechanics from the first game, improving them in multiple ways. Despite these improvements, the game didn’t surpass the 89 score of the previous game, likely due to the game lacking any significant new features.
Interestingly, the Championship Manager series also received a new title. However, after a consistent poor run of games the series ended with Championship Manager 2017. A mobile game released by Square Enix.
3 The Sims 2 (90)
The Sims 2 differentiated itself from the original game by ditching the predecessor’s restrictive camera angle. The game also added pregnancy and the subsequent raising of a child, cutscenes, and new social interactions.
Like other games in the series, The Sims 2 had numerous expansions packs. Expansion packs included The Sims 2 Pets, Nightlife, and University. There was also a spinoff game, The Sims 2: Castaway, and, as the name suggests, the game shipwrecks players on a deserted island.
2 The Sims (92)
The one that started it all; the original Sims game only narrowly misses out on the list’s top spot. Retrospectively, the game doesn’t hold up to its successors. However, the game earns its high spot on this list for being the spark behind one of the gaming industry’s most successful series.
The game’s huge commercial success led to numerous expansions packs, something that is now synonymous with the series. Starter packs included The Sims: House Party, Superstar, and Hot Date.
1 Factorio (94)
Despite Football Manager and The Sims dominance over the management genre, Sega and EA haven’t managed to make a game on par with Wube Software’s Factorio.
Factorio is the second game on this list that was an early-access title before releasing in full many years later. Similarly to RimWorld, players fight to survive by gathering and managing resources. These initially primitive resources are used to build more advanced machinery and technologies. Another similarity to RimWorld is that the game has an end goal. Victory is achieved if players advance their technology to the point where they can launch a rocket. However, doing so is completely optional, and the game can continue if the player wishes.
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