Every Batman: Arkham Video Game, Ranked

It’s safe to say that the Batman: Arkham franchise is one of the most beloved superhero video game series ever made. The amount of critical praise, financial success, and wonderful storytelling make this universe something truly special, a fresh take on the Dark Knight that still includes everything fans have come to expect from his stories.

However, many may not realize there are more titles in this long-running franchise—nine games with “Arkham” in the title, to be exact. This series has video games on home consoles, mobile phones, and VR devices, making it present on far more devices across generations than many ever get to see. This expansive approach not only makes the Batman: Arkham Asylum franchise unique, but it further enhances its staying power and reception because of how great a job it does hooking you in.

9

‘Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate’ (2013)

Everyone loves a good prequel, and, in 2013, fans of this wonderful series got one of their own via Batman: Arkham Origins. The same year, though, they got even more content under the Arkham Origins banner with the 2.5-D game, Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate, a companion game to the main title and was released on both handhelds and home consoles.

This game is a sequel to the iconic prequel, and while it received mostly mixed reviews, it still had the Arkham charm that everyone loves the original four titles for. Following Batman (Roger Craig Smith) as he attempts to quell a gigantic riot within Blackgate Penitentiary, being taken over by the three iconic Batman villains: Penguin (Nolan North), Joker (Troy Baker), and Black Mask (Brian Bloom). While not essential to the overarching story—akin to most of the spinoff Arkham titles—it is still a relatively fun title.

8

‘Batman: Arkham City Lockdown’ (2011)

Batman being chased by Solomon Grundy in Batman: Arkham City Lockdown

If a game franchise is popular, there’s a good chance it’ll find itself making its way to mobile screens in some way, shape, or form, and the Arkham series is no different. In 2011, Batman fans got the title, Batman: Arkham City Lockdown, a mobile fighting experience that serves as a prequel story to the ever-famous Batman: Arkham City.

With the story taking a step away from Joker (who this franchise just loves to use in every game) and making Poison Ivy (Amy J. Carle) the (mostly) main villain, Batman: Arkham City Lockdown sets itself apart immediately… until Joker (Mark Hamill) shows up again. While there’s a good number of things to enjoy about this game, there isn’t a ton to actually love. It’s a pretty basic experience that feels repetitive, despite it having good vocal performances and an entertaining-enough story.

7

‘Batman: Arkham VR’ (2016)

Batman looking at himself in Batman: Arkham VR

The 2010s were the era of VR gaming. In 2016, three years before the Meta Quest entered to dominate the space, PlayStation players were treated to the PlayStation VR System. It would serve as one of the first modern VR gaming experiences, and the same year, Batman would get a story to accompany it.

Batman: Arkham VR was an immersive experience, to be sure. However, this title is held back by the fact that, at the time, VR gaming was still so new. So, while it is immersive, there are technical restrictions that keep it from being better or just as good as other VR games that would come after.

6

‘Batman: Arkham Underworld’ (2016)

An occupied criminal base in Batman: Arkham Underworld

Of all the side story Arkham games to have a dedicated fan base after years of being generally forgotten, nobody would’ve expected it to be Batman: Arkham Underworld. This 2016 mobile game strays from the typical formula of this series completely, taking a base-building game approach and giving players the chance to play as all the classic Batman villains.

Players are given the task of building their own underground Gotham City villain base, where they could play as all of Batman’s best villains, fight the Caped Crusader himself, and generally felt like a Clash of Clans-but-Batman game. There is a genuine cult following for this game, which is wild, given the fact that it shut down just a year after its release. While it may be extremely different from the rest of the series, Batman: Arkham Underworld is still a project worth looking back at fondly.

5

‘Batman: Arkham Shadow’ (2024)

Batman with his hands up for a fight against a criminal in Batman: Arkham Shadow

After having a pretty successful start in the VR gaming space, Batman returned to it in 2024 with Batman: Arkham Shadow. Where Batman: Arkham VR lacked in quality, Batman: Arkham Shadow improves tenfold. Yes, it has the advantage of being made almost a decade after its predecessor, but there’s no denying that VR games—especially AAA spinsoffs like this—in general, can lack in quality, at times.

Batman: Arkham Origins takes that assumption of VR games and steps on it. There’s phenomenal quality at play here, and some even claim that this could very well be one of the most well-produced VR games, period. This time, the experience is exclusive to the Meta Quest, and Batman needs to stop Gotham City’s Rat King cult. It’s a super fun side story that’s more than worth spending precious dollars on.

Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz
Which Action Hero Would Be
Your Perfect Partner?
Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt

Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn’t work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back.

🎖️Rambo

🍸James Bond

🏺Indiana Jones

🔧John McClane

🎭Ethan Hunt

FIND YOUR PARTNER →

You’re dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner?
The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you.

ASomeone who already has three contingency plans running and is calmly working through all of them.
BSomeone who reads the terrain instinctively and knows exactly how to use it against the enemy.
CSomeone who keeps their nerve and their sense of humour when everything is falling apart.
DSomeone who knows the history of wherever we are and what we’re walking into.
ESomeone with the right contact, the right cover identity, and the right exit already arranged.

NEXT QUESTION →

You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel?
How you get there is half the mission.

AOn foot through terrain no one else would attempt — I move where vehicles can’t follow.
BOn a motorcycle, a cargo plane, or anything else that gets me there before I think too hard about it.
CIn something that belongs to someone else — borrowed, stolen, or improvised under fire.
DFirst class, with a cover identity and a gadget that does something I won’t explain until it’s needed.
EBy whatever means are available — I’ve driven, flown, and once arrived by camel. The destination matters, not the method.

NEXT QUESTION →

You’re pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do?
This is when you find out what someone is really made of.

ADisappears into the environment, flanks them silently, and ends it before I’ve reloaded.
BCracks a one-liner, grabs a fire extinguisher or a chair, and improvises something that somehow works.
CProduces a gadget specifically designed for this exact scenario and uses it with infuriating precision.
DPulls out a whip, a pistol, and an archaeological insight that somehow gets us out alive.
ENeutralises the threat with maximum efficiency and minimum words — they were already three moves ahead.

NEXT QUESTION →

The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest?
Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are.

AA bar with terrible lighting, cold beer, and absolutely no questions about feelings.
BThe finest restaurant in the city, a bottle of something expensive, and a conversation that is equal parts brilliant and exhausting.
CA local dig site, a museum after hours, or a long story about why that particular artefact matters to human civilisation.
DPizza. Bad TV. Falling asleep halfway through a movie neither of you were watching anyway.
EA debrief that turns into three hours of contingency planning that somehow becomes the most fun you’ve had all week.

NEXT QUESTION →

How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission?
Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability.

APrecise and minimal — tell me what I need to know and nothing else. Every word has a cost.
BDeadpan and dry — keeping it light keeps me sharp, even when everything is on fire.
CEnthusiastic and slightly chaotic — but always with useful information buried somewhere in the noise.
DCalm and controlled through an earpiece, with a plan that covers every variable I haven’t thought of yet.
EBarely at all — silence is a language and they speak it fluently.

NEXT QUESTION →

Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them?
The approach to the enemy defines the partnership.

AInfiltrate their inner circle, learn everything, and dismantle them from inside out before they know we’re there.
BStudy the historical pattern — every villain of this type has a weakness written somewhere in the past.
CGet them talking. The more they monologue, the more time I have to figure out how to beat them.
DGo through them. Directly. With as much force as the terrain allows.
EFind the one thing they haven’t accounted for — there’s always one thing — and make sure we’re holding it.

NEXT QUESTION →

Things go badly wrong and you’re captured. What do you trust your partner to do?
Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters.

ACome in alone, quietly, and get me out before anyone knows they were there.
BHave already been working on the extraction since the moment I disappeared — the plan is already running.
CCome in loud, come in fast, and worry about the collateral damage later — I’d do the same for them.
DUse every resource, every contact, and bend every rule until I’m out — they don’t leave people behind.
ECharm their way in somehow, bluff through the hard part, and still manage to look good doing it.

NEXT QUESTION →

What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn’t replace?
A great partner fills the gap you didn’t know you had.

ATechnology that shouldn’t exist yet and the training to use it under any conditions.
BSurvival instinct so refined it borders on supernatural — and the scars to prove it’s been tested.
CKnowledge of history, language, and culture that makes them invaluable in places where force is useless.
DThe ability to walk into any room in the world and immediately become the most trusted person in it.
EStubbornness that refuses to accept a situation is hopeless — and the improvisational skill to back it up.

NEXT QUESTION →

Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with?
No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together.

AA partner who never fully switches off — always watching exits, always calculating threats, even at dinner.
BA partner who gets the job done brilliantly but has the emotional availability of a locked filing cabinet.
CA partner who makes everything ten times more complicated than it needs to be — but who always comes through.
DA partner who gets personally attached to every relic, ruin, and artefact we encounter, which slows everything down.
EA partner who was not built for this and knows it — but shows up anyway, every time, without being asked.

NEXT QUESTION →

It’s the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now?
The last question is the most honest one.

AOne line. Absolutely dry. Delivered like the world isn’t ending. Then we move.
BNothing said at all — just a look that means we both already know what has to happen.
CA plan I don’t fully understand that somehow accounts for everything, delivered in thirty seconds flat.
DA piece of historical context that reframes the entire situation and tells us exactly what to do next.
ESomeone who steps forward instead of back — because that’s who they’ve always been.

REVEAL MY PARTNER →

Your Partner Has Been Assigned
Your Perfect Partner Is…

Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.

Rambo

Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.

James Bond

Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.

Indiana Jones

Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.

John McClane

Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.

Ethan Hunt

Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

4

‘Batman: Arkham Origins’ (2013)

Batman with his cave waving in Batman-Arkham-Origins

A good prequel can bring a series together more than people would initially expect, which can easily be proven with Batman: Arkham Origins. While it may not be made by Rocksteady Studios, this prequel story still fits within the Arkham universe. It was criticized quite a bit upon release, due to many people considering it very unpolished in comparison to the other Arkham mainline titles. But there’s still plenty to love about this game — it has Deathstroke (Mark Rolston), for crying out loud!

This criticism would bring a pretty dour reputation for the game, but many years later, people actually look back on it quite fondly and believe the amount of negativity it received was overdone, keeping people from seeing the good in the game. Sure, the original Arkham series cast didn’t return for this installment, but the new cast did a wonderful job, regardless. While things like the subplot of the eight assassins was abandoned, the main storyline is written quite well, and makes this game more than worth playing, despite its flaws.

3

‘Batman: Arkham Knight’ (2015)

Arkham Knight in front of a base in Batman: Arkham Knight

Being the finale to the main Arkham storyline, Batman: Arkham Knight had a lot to prove to audiences. How does one end such a successful and beloved franchise like this one without disappointing people—people with very high standards post-Batman: Arkham City? Thankfully, for the most part, Rocksteady Studios did a pretty decent job with this fourth mainline title..

It has its issues, though. The overreliance on the new Batmobile mechanic really holds it back from being the masterpiece it could have been. Some players have an issue with the writing, thanks to the seemingly new and original villain actually being Jason Todd (Troy Baker), but all of that kind of falls to the side when taking the amazing combat mechanics, absurdly great-looking graphics, and, as per usual, vocal performances that bring the script to life excellently.

2

‘Batman: Arkham Asylum’ (2009)

Batman standing in front of Arkham Asylum and a large moon in Batman: Arkham Asylum — Batman standing infront of Arkham Asylum and a large moon in Batman: Arkham Asylum

A great legacy needs to start somewhere, right? This iconic franchise began all the way back in 2009 with the now-legendary Batman: Arkham Asylum. Everything that makes the Arkham franchise so great and well-renowned started right here. The combat, storytelling, and voice performances here set the standard for everything to come after (and superhero video games in general).

The combat specifically is what put Batman: Arkham Asylum on the pedestal it has remained on for 17 years. It’s about as simple as it comes when explaining why the first Arkham game works so well and is so enjoyable. The standards set here would go on to impact gameplay in other superhero games like Marvel’s Spider-Man. Batman: Arkham Asylum isn’t just great, but it’s culturally important, too.

1

‘Batman: Arkham City’ (2011)

Batman looking to the distance in Batman Arkham City — Batman in Batman Arkham City

Despite how amazing the first game is, there’s no denying that Batman: Arkham City is not only the best Batman game of all time, but one of the best superhero video games of all time, as well. Everything that made the debut entry great is improved on here, and even added to. When people claimed that it was going to be hard to pass up Batman: Arkham Asylum, Rocksteady Studios said, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”

Batman: Arkham City is not only a project with phenomenal gameplay, but stellar writing, as well. The story within this sequel is excellent and makes playing the game so much better of an experience. Fans keep replaying the game to this day, and still regard it as one of the best there is. There’s absolutely no question that Batman: Arkham City was one for the books.

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9 ‘Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate’ (2013)

8 ‘Batman: Arkham City Lockdown’ (2011)

7 ‘Batman: Arkham VR’ (2016)

6 ‘Batman: Arkham Underworld’ (2016)

5 ‘Batman: Arkham Shadow’ (2024)

4 ‘Batman: Arkham Origins’ (2013)

3 ‘Batman: Arkham Knight’ (2015)

2 ‘Batman: Arkham Asylum’ (2009)

1 ‘Batman: Arkham City’ (2011)

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9

‘Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate’ (2013)

8

‘Batman: Arkham City Lockdown’ (2011)

7

‘Batman: Arkham VR’ (2016)

6

‘Batman: Arkham Underworld’ (2016)

5

‘Batman: Arkham Shadow’ (2024)

4

‘Batman: Arkham Origins’ (2013)

3

‘Batman: Arkham Knight’ (2015)

2

‘Batman: Arkham Asylum’ (2009)

1

‘Batman: Arkham City’ (2011)