Journey by thatgamecompany
Hacker ApprovedRanked 22 of 78 video games by recommenders
People recommend it as a masterpiece of game storytelling and emotional design, one that left at least one player nearly in tears.
People recommend it as a masterpiece of game storytelling and emotional design, one that left at least one player nearly in tears.
10 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Cited as a video game masterpiece
“All masterpieces that take various approaches to Diegetic, Non-Diegetic and meta-Diegetic storytelling”
Comment from 26 Jan 2026 in “Video Games as Art” “Ikaruga and Journey should be mentioned in the same conversation”
Comment from 27 May 2026 in “The Melancholy of Slaying Monsters” “consider Journey and probably a list of others”
Comment from 27 May 2026 in “The Melancholy of Slaying Monsters” Beautiful world and emotional impact
“a beautiful landscape that you traversed with other nameless ones”
Comment from 15 Apr 2026 in “'Seeking connection': video game where players stopped shooting, started talking” “Journey nearly made me weep with joy and sadness”
Comment from 9 Sep 2026 in “No Man's Sky Cosmos”
Other video games people recommend
The four most recommended other video games, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Helldivers 2 | 50 | 34 | 60% | 10 | 1.9 yrs3 owners | — |
| GPU building game | 49 | 16 | 75% | 2 | — | — |
| Triple-A Minesweeper | 40 | 25 | 62% | 1 | — | — |
| Quake II | 33 | 8 | 80% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Journey by thatgamecompanyThis page | 10 | 0 | 100% | 6 | — | Approved |
What people said
7 of the 10 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Journey nearly made me weep with joy and sadness”
“consider Journey and probably a list of others”
“Ikaruga and Journey should be mentioned in the same conversation”
“a beautiful landscape that you traversed with other nameless ones”
“neither of us had even heard of Journey until well after their popularity had faded”
“my long-term R&D project to understand modern rendering pipelines and system architecture constraints”
“All masterpieces that take various approaches to Diegetic, Non-Diegetic and meta-Diegetic storytelling”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.