NHL 23 to NHL 19 has certainly been a bumpy road for EA Sports. From a lack of new content and game modes, to glitches and rough gameplay, these last 5 games according to fans have been some of the stalest and least developed games seen in the NHL series. Even though they've been cause for criticism, they really have been the only ice hockey games fans can reach to when looking for a modern NHL game. While there are other ice hockey games out there, majority if not all of them struggle to bring the authenticity EA's installment brings due to their licenses with the National Hockey League. But have the last 5 games really been that bad?
We'll be taking a dive into the last 5 installments of the NHL series, NHL 23, NHL 22, NHL 21, NHL 20, and NHL 19, and rating them from worst to best. To rate these games, we'll use both the official IGN ratings for each game, as well as their recommended percentage score as voted on by those who have reviewed the game. From there, we'll combine both rankings to give us our final result. The final tallies may surprise you.
5th Place: NHL 22
To start off in last place we have to no surprise to anyone, NHL 22. The game was tied for the lowest IGN rating out of our contestants with a 6 out of 10, while it's recommended rating is only at 76%. Overall the game felt like an uneven mess. Choppy commentary, unbalanced X-Factors, and a lack of impact with their new Frostbite engine lead this game to being a big disappointment from players. As a result, it takes last place in our rankings.
3rd Place: NHL 21 and NHL 20 (two-way tie)
In third place we have a two way tie between NHL 21 and NHL 20. Interestingly enough with this tie we have two different spectrums for each game. NHL 21 scored a 6 out of 10 from IGN, but had a 82% recommended rating. Meanwhile, NHL 20 had a 7.9 from IGN, but a significantly less 67% recommended rating. This leads us to assume that NHL 20 was more liked by rating companies like IGN, while NHL 21 was more liked by fans of the game. It also signifies a two year window in which there was maybe a bit more "staleness" when it came to NHL.
2nd Place: NHL 23
Now this one was quite surprising; NHL 23 takes second place on our rankings with a IGN score of 8 out of 10, and a recommended percentage of 85%. Out of both the IGN scores and recommended percentage, it firmly slots into 2nd best on each category. This tells us that as frustrating as NHL 23 was, both fans and reviewers believe this game was a step up from the three previous versions. While that might not be saying much, it stills helps NHL 23 rank high on our board, only bested by the following game.
1st Place: NHL 19
Probably the last "good" NHL for most, NHL 19 tops our leaderboard as the best NHL made in the last 5 years. The game scores a 8.9 out of 10 from IGN as well as a 90% recommended percentage, topping the rest of the participants by quite some margin. One positive from this game that helped it achieve a favorable ranking was the extensive customization features that were a significant jump from NHL 18. Combine this with solid gameplay, solid game modes, and a style of play for all skill levels, and you understand why NHL 19 was very well recieved.
NHL 24 Rank Prediction
Just as a little bonus, we're throwing in where we think NHL 24 will rank on this list. While a lot of the game is still unknown, there is optimism that NHL 24 will at the very least be a step up from the last few games. Developers already confirmed that NHL 23 was in some ways a "beta" for NHL 24. If we assume NHL 24 drops with full cross play, better physics, and less glitchy animations, we wouldn't be surprised to see NHL 24 slot in somewhere between 2nd and 3rd on this list.