Top 10 most popular movies that come from video games
A recent study, conducted by the online gaming platform Yahtzee Craze, analysed the last 20 years of video game-inspired movies, to see which came out as the most popular.
These films are adaptations of video games, reimagined for the big screen.
Below, we’ve ranked the top 10 most popular movies that come from video games, based on the numbers of searches that they achieve across the world.
10 Detective Pikachu
In this movie adaptation of the immensely popular global Pokemon franchise, Warner Bros. brought the beloved characters to life, in intricately detailed GGI.
Despite its relatively low IMDb ranking (6.5/10) the movie brought in $433.9mn at the box office.
Release year: 2019
Average monthly searches: 247,000
9 Warcraft
Directed by Duncan Jones, the Warcraft film saw a partnership between orcs and humans, to battle an invading orc horde.
The film followed the game’s classic historic fantasy style, and featured some pretty exceptional battle scenes. It also did exceptionally well at the box office, making $439mn.
Release year: 2016
Average monthly searches: 338,000
8 Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City
Despite only receiving a rating of 5.2/10 from IMDb, the Resident Evil film still achieved $42mn at the box office.
The film sees Claire and Chris fighting a zombie apocalypse in Raccoon City, in an extremely gory thriller.
Release year: 2021
Average monthly searches: 404,000
7 Silent Hill
Despite being released back in 2006, the Silent Hill film still generates over half a million searches a month.
This psychological horror film - which is an adaptation of Konami's video game of the same name - featured a star-studded cast, including Sean Bean, and achieved $100.6mn at the box office.
Release year: 2006
Average monthly searches: 501,000
6 Rampage
With Dwayne Johnson starring as Davis Okoye, it’s hardly surprising that Rampage ranks highly on this list.
This action film - based on the Midway Games video game of the same name - was directed by Brad Peyton.
In fact, a teaser trailer has already been released for Rampage 2 (which is due to be released in 2023).
Release year: 2018
Average monthly searches: 522,000
5 Hitman
The second oldest movie on the list, Hitman was based on the game series of the same name, which was originally developed and released in 2000.
Echoing the success of the game franchise, Hitman scored an impressive $101.3mn at the box office.
Release year: 2007
Average monthly searches: 532,000
4 Monster Hunter
Coming in at fourth, Monster Hunter achieves a marked popularity jump, with 719,000 average monthly searches.
Its inspiration (a game of the same name) is an action role-playing title, which has been around since 2004.
Release year: 2020
Average monthly searches: 719,000
3 Need for Speed
Need for Speed also achieves a big leap in search volume, with 901,000 average monthly searches - more than three times the film in tenth spot.
The movie, starring Aaron Paul and Dominic Cooper, was released in 2014. In comparison, the game on which the movie is based made its debut in 1994, and has released a number of follow-up titles since, with its last instalment having been released in 2019.
Release year: 2014
Average monthly searches: 901,000
2 Sonic the Hedgehog
The two Sonic the Hedgehog films - obviously based on everyone’s favourite blue hedgehog - were released in 2020 and 2022.
The first movie still registers an average of 1.83 million monthly searches worldwide.
Interestingly, before its release, the first Sonic movie was heavily criticised for the way the hedgehog was originally designed, with humanoid features that did not resemble its video game counterpart.
So, due to Sonic’s re-design, the movie was then delayed to its 2020 release.
Despite the initial hiccups, the film did immensely well, achieving $320mn at the box office.
Release year: 2020
Average monthly searches: 1,830,000
1 Uncharted
And, securing top spot is Uncharted, which was released in February 2022.
The film stars Mark Wahlberg and Tom Holland, and boasts more than four million average monthly searches worldwide - which is more than double the searches of Sonic the Hedgehog.
The movie is based on the action-adventure Uncharted video game. This was originally released in 2007, and has since become hugely popular all over the world.
The movie was originally planned for a 2016 release but, due to problems during its production, it was moved numerous times until its final release date this year.
Release year: 2022
Average monthly searches: 4,010,000
