The best game mods, according to hackers
8 game mods were recommended on Hacker News between November 2025 and November 2026. We rank them by how many separate people recommend each one, and 2 earn the Hacker Approved badge.
Top picks
The two most recommended game mods with the badge. Each figure is one person. RecommendsCriticizes One comment
Striking architecture and visuals
A fan-made single-player total conversion for Quake, recommended for its striking architecture, clever ideas and fun play, with a few reports of loading and missing-file errors.
Polished and well maintained
Polished, long-running Minecraft modpack with many quality-of-life fixes and realistic energy and oil processing. Its most common caveat is that a large AE2 craft can still break.
All 8 game mods, ranked
Select a column heading to sort. Approval share is recommenders out of everyone who gave an opinion; the tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs. Months counts the months, out of 13, in which someone recommended it.
| Rank | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Quake Brutalist Jam III | 12 | 2 | 86% | 5 | — | Approved |
| 2 | GregTech: New Horizons | 11 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | Approved |
| 3 | Arcane Dimensions (Quake mod) | 8 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | — |
| Tied 4 | Tamriel Rebuilt | 7 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
| Tied 4 | IKEA Skyrim mod | 7 | 3 | 70% | 1 | — | — |
| Tied 6 | Team Fortress | 5 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
| Tied 6 | Forged Alliance Forever | 5 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
| Tied 6 | DFHack | 5 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
How we rank
Rank is the number of separate people who recommend a product in a Hacker News comment over the past year. Someone who praises the same game mod in five threads counts once.
The badge goes to game mods that at least 10 people recommend, with recommenders outnumbering critics at least 2 to 1, recommended in at least 4 of the 13 months.
Rankings are never for sale. We may earn a commission when you buy through our links. It never changes the order.