Live-service games are rich with crossovers, often with other IP in games, but these collaborations have also branched outside of the medium on a number of occasions. Fortnite now features basically every character ever created, and Overwatch 2 is cornering the market of disenfranchised anime players via collabs with properties like Cowboy Bebop, One Punch Man, and, most recently, the Persona franchise.
While some games like League of Legends have avoided too many of them, preferring to build their own vast worlds and media empires, it’s undeniable that the crossover is en vogue these days and live-service games, which are riddled with microtransactions, love to sell these to their players seemingly every other week. So we figured, why not sit down and rank these collabs from the very worst offenders to the very best examples of them? Here’s what we managed to dig up.
13. PUBG Battlegrounds and PUBG Mobile
A quick glance at the state of crossovers in the PUBG Universe reveals some deeply distressing stuff. For example, did you know that there was a crossover with Godzilla a few years ago for some apparent reason? Or worse, that Neon Genesis Evangelion is in PUBG Mobile of all games? Third Impact has happened in the world of PUBG and they’re still fighting over chicken dinners.
Forgive my lack of awareness as I’ve never been big on PUBG Battlegrounds or its mobile version–the latter of which seems to be abundantly more popular these days–but what the hell are we doing anymore, folks? PUBG, at least the version of it that I remember, sprung from the desire for another military-sim-like battle royale in the vein of ARMA and H1Z1 in the late 2010s. In fact, its emphasis on tight tactics and realism seemed to give PUBG an edge that its competitors couldn’t quite take away from it, even if it was eventually outlapped by much more polished titles that eventually consumed most of the air in the room. It seems like in order to adapt, much of that thinking was tossed out the window some years ago in favor of some amorphous blob of a live-service game.
The numbers seem to indicate that players are still having fun with it though, so who am I to judge too harshly? But even on the outside looking in, it’s just jarring to watch a game violently mutate into something completely unrecognizable.
12. Rainbow Six Siege
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, a game that I once loved very dearly and played competitively, is one of the latest live-service titles to fall victim to the crossover bug. Unfortunately, having borne witness to the actual products of these crossovers has made me less than enthused with the shooter, which has long been heralded as one of golden children of the live-service bubble.
I’ve talked a bit about cohesion during this ranking, and Rainbow Six Siege suffers from perhaps the biggest disconnect in its tone and the nature of its crossovers. This is a game that begs players to meaningfully communicate with one another, and uses highly-advanced (and often nonsensical) technology to strategically take one another out with laser precision. So you tell me why it has not just one, but several Rick and Morty skins in this game. It’s pretty devastating, if I’m being real. Sure, some of these skins are more lowkey than others, but no one should have to suffer the fate of seeing Morty’s head peeking a corner before being domed by a well-placed headshot. That should be a criminal offense.
10. Call of Duty
Call of Duty is one of the worst offenders of the crossover. Yes, Fortnite likely features the most of these collaborations, but Call of Duty is guilty of having some of the weirdest implementations of them, not to mention just some of the most wacked-out and out-of-place character skins in the whole live-service sphere. For every Squid Game crossover, which had a fun Red Light, Green Light mode, there’s some new skin on the shop like Nicki Minaj: largely irrelevant, doesn’t really fit the vibe of the game, and weird (derogatory). It has since thrown in characters like Cheech and Chong, and has even featured Seth Rogen, which is huge news for anyone who’s ever wanted to hotbox a humvee in the middle of a Warzone match.
Unfortunately, Call of Duty also has some really ugly-as-sin skins that try to introduce some vibrancy to things only to look garish in execution. My mind immediately jumps to a video of Beavis (or was it Butthead)kicking The Terminator in the nutsat the command of a Ninja Turtle and my brain just kind of melted at how ugly it all looked in this game that otherwise passes for a mil-sim title. The Call of Duty skins are fully out of hand these days, so much so that even Activision is addressing how it ispivoting away from themin its future games. Talk of out-of-place skins has already motivated conversations about crossovers in upcoming live-service titles, like the forthcomingBattlefield 6, and hownotto handle them, which can’t be a kind legacy to leave behind.
11. Destiny 2
Destiny 2 has only featured crossover collaborations for the last few years, making it one of the fresher faces on the block, and it shows in both good and bad ways. One of the best things about Destiny 2’s approach is how it generally adapts the properties from these collabs, like Ghost of Tsushima and The Witcher, into its own sci-fi/fantasy style. So even though I can often tell if a person is sporting gear inspired by Geralt of Rivia’s look, it still feels subtle, tasteful, and fits in the universe just fine.
The bad news is that, as Destiny continues to try to reinvent itself and find its footing as of late, these collabs have gotten more frequent and egregious. It has gotten so bad and blatant that an upcoming expansion is liberally borrowing elements wholesale from Star Wars, and the game currently features armor that looks like bad copy-and-paste jobs of a number of characters from the films. Though Bungie has assured players the crossover includes an original story set in the Destiny 2 universe, there’s no denying the influence a galaxy far, far away has had on the event.
At some point, Destiny 2 crossed a line that I hoped it wouldn’t, and I don’t know how likely it is to go back behind it in the future.
9. Rocket League
With many of these crossovers, the content of the collaboration is largely irrelevant to the game into which it’s being dropped. Sure, the developers bend over backwards to make these things fit, but what do any of these properties really have to do with one another? Rocket League doesn’t magically solve this problem, but it does do a better job approaching it.
Although you can’t really fit random characters into a game all about rocket-powered cars playing soccer, you can fit their vehicles–and that’s what we in the business call ludonarrative resonance, baby.
Since the days of its earliest collabs like the DeLorean from Back to the Future all the way up to the most recent introduction of the TMNT’s van, Rocket League has always been precise about what it adds to the game. If it isn’t a vehicle for players to use, there have at least been decals, flags, and musical tracks that have been added to make up for it. The nature of Rocket League’s collabs are hardly setting the world on fire, but at the very least, they’re fine enough.
8. Among Us
Among Us is cute, even if its crewmates now strike me as gaming’s very own Minions, and the most admirable aspect of its crossovers is that the developers never forget that core tenet. Among Us is an uncomplicated party game: Crewmates complete tasks while imposters try to kill them off and survive being found out. Therefore, it likely doesn’t need convoluted and dense crossovers by way of huge events, mechanics, or new maps.
Instead, it gets cosmetics that are layered atop the crewmates in such a way that they look more like Halloween costumes than adapted looks. And that’s actually a smart play with Among Us, which places vibrancy and fun above anything else. Also, I will simply always be a sucker for a crossover with the Yakuza/Like A Dragon games, and not only does Among Us feature one such collab, but it has one of the most amazing videos to accompany it.
7. Overwatch 2
The original Overwatch didn’t really feature crossovers, but an increasingly obvious part of Overwatch 2‘s strategy so far seems to be leaning into them. Maybe it’s because the controversial sequel got off on the wrong foot, or maybe it’s because its developers recognize the powerful appeal of a brand collab, but Overwatch 2 has been awash with crossovers and to be honest … they look good from afar.
Like Destiny, I think Overwatch 2 has actually done a pretty excellent job of making its crossover skins feel like a part of its own world, which can especially be seen in the now-famous collaborations (emphasis on the pluralization there) with K-pop group LE SSERAFIM. As a matter of fact, I think its diversity of characters of all shapes and sizes, as well as Overwatch’s global emphasis, really allows Overwatch to swing for the fences and pull from all kinds of mediums and IPs with relative ease. This makes for some really awesome crossovers, like Reinhardt dressed as Optimus Prime; Orisa as everyone’s favorite Sky Bison, Appa; or Moira as Diablo IV’s own baddie, Lilith.
I only wish that buying into any of these collaborations felt remotely affordable. The very best of these enticing crossovers often runs players a pretty penny. The aforementioned Lilith skin, as an example, ran players about $40, while netting all the goodies from Overwatch 2’s recent Street Fighter collab set folks back about $100. The cost of these crossovers is too damn high!
6. Final Fantasy XIV
Have you heard of the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV? With an expanded free trial, you can play through the entirety of A Realm Reborn and the award-winning Stormblood expansion up to level 70 for free with no restrictions on playtime! And if you jump in now, you can even get in on some of its exciting crossovers!
Sorry for the meme; it just felt appropriate. In reality, Final Fantasy XIV has had a great deal of crossovers, typically within the Square Enix brand, so properties like Dragon Quest, Nier, and other Final Fantasy games have made the leap. There are ones outside of Square’s catalog too, like Yo-Kai Watch, an upcoming Monster Hunter collab, and Fall Guys, and collectively they really all run quite the gamut.
Most of these crossovers come to FFXIV by way of limited-time events, which usually run for a few weeks before being phased out. The most common format consists of a couple of quests that eventually reward players with stuff like armor and mounts inspired by the games, such is the case with the game’s Final Fantasy XVI crossover. Others, however, are far more ambitious in scope, with Nier’s raid series being a prime example. And somewhere in between, there is room for the Fall Guys collab, which erected a similar obstacle course in the popular MMO and rewarded glams that were reminiscent of its bean-like characters. We have fun in Eorzea, guys.
5. Minecraft
Minecraft, perhaps the second-longest-kicking live-service game of the bunch, also boasts some of the breeziest crossovers. Primarily, it features skin packs that let players dress like blocky versions of many popular characters from more IP than I can possibly count, though it has most recently featured the likes of Dungeons and Dragons and The Smurfs, to name a few.
As the years have gone on, Minecraft’s DLC offerings and crossovers have grown more ambitious than just skin packs. Nowadays, in a move akin to what Fortnite and Roblox do, it releases custom-made adventures to accompany them, and while they seem quaint compared to the levels being made by some of its competitors, there’s no denying that there’s a charm to Minecraft’s sweet and simple offerings.
4. Roblox
Roblox has been around since time immemorial (otherwise known as 2006) and has grown into one of the single biggest gaming platforms of all time. As a result of both its age and size, it has perhaps the most crossovers of any game on this list, and is maybe(?) the first live-service game to ever feature crossover events like in-game concerts, tie-in promos with movies, and more.
Over time, Roblox collaborations have grown parallel to the platform, and what started as small giveaways for cosmetics have ballooned into what the game will often dub “Roblox experiences,” wherein whole levels and mechanics are built in-game for players to enjoy. The scale of this stuff is equally impressive and frightening, much like Roblox itself, and is, in all actuality, too much to possibly sift through in order to provide a comprehensive evaluation. Suffice to say though, no one (not even Fortnite, which is its closest competition) is doing it like Roblox.
3. Dead by Daylight
Of all the games on this list, I am perhaps most surprised about the quality of Dead by Daylight‘s crossovers, which are frequent and of a caliber that many other games could learn a thing or two from. Dead By Daylight’s major content updates often consist of a brand-new killer, as well a pack of new survivors, and by and large they are themed after popular horror properties outside of games. That means that killers like Ghostface from Scream, or the Demogorgon from Stranger Things, are often hunting down the likes of Ripley from Alien or Rick from The Walking Dead.
Most recently, it has also featured more explicit crossovers within games, like Resident Evil, meaning that these killers are also hunting down beloved horror gaming icons like Leon Kennedy. It’s refreshing to have a game which celebrates the expansive halls of horror fame, and that folks evidently love playing all these years later.
2. Monster Hunter
Monster Hunter games have sported crossovers for a long while now, but they seemed to really take off around the same time that the series became popular in the West with Monster Hunter: World. Since then, World has enjoyed a great deal of collaborations including ones with Horizon: Zero Dawn, Street Fighter, and the Final Fantasy games.
The fun part about crossovers in Monster Hunter games–and this seems poised to continue with the most recent entry, Wilds–is that they often produce quests for players to engage in rather than simply dropping microtransactions and new items in a virtual shop. Completion of these quests typically allows players the ability to craft gear reminiscent of the property that is crossing over, which keeps with the spirit of hunting monsters and crafting weapons and armor from them.
As we’ve already seen during this ranking, crossovers can sometimes muddy the waters and an overreliance on them (or a poor implementation) risks the identity and feeling of a game. Monster Hunter has fortunately stayed ahead of the curve in this regard, and has done so at little cost to its players, making it a sterling example of the proper way to handle a crossover.
Fighting games (honorable mention)
Fighting games have long been a fertile ground for crossovers and some of the very best in the genre (yes, I am looking at Marvel vs. Capcom 2 when I say this) have them baked into their very DNA. As other genres–mostly shooters–have evolved into live-service platforms, so too have fighting games, often offering seasonal content with guest characters that run the gamut. That’s why Soulcalibur 6 got 2B from Nier: Automata, Mortal Kombat 1 got Homelander from The Boys, Guilty Gear Strive players got Lucy from Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, and Super Smash Bros Ultimate features every other character that Fortnite doesn’t already feature. It’s hard to pin down exactly one fighting game with the best crossovers, so all of them are getting an exceptional honorable mention. We love you all for constantly keeping it weird and interesting.
1. Fortnite
With its most recent introduction of the literal Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, I think Fortnite is, for lack of a better word, complete. It has fully become the playground of my childhood, where Ninja Turtles do battle alongside Spider-Man while Goku zips through the sky with a pump shotgun. A screenshot of the current state of Fortnite would disintegrate a Victorian child, and I think there’s some beauty to that. I mean, where else can I play as Godzilla in Nike Air Force 1’s?
But in truth, each one of these collabs, and more, fit into Fortnite so well because Fortnite itself is kind of … nothing. Its lore is riddled with black holes and ripples in the fabric of the universe that explain away the constant shifting of its world, as well as the appearance of IP like Halo, God of War, John Wick, Marvel, and DC, to name just a few. It’s a perfect blank slate, and that’s why no one bats an eye at an in-game Travis Scott concert or Sabrina Carpenter in a bright yellow dress brandishing an assault rifle. Its cartoonish graphics make it an appropriate avenue for the introduction of characters from children’s media, but it also stylizes others who might not otherwise fit the tone. Unlike some other games on this list, most inclusions here feel legible and like a cohesive part of the whole.
Above all else, Fortnite is still a ridiculously good time. Sure, the sheer amount of crossovers here is too much, and buying into every single one would eat you of house and home, but Fortnite makes participating in its crossover events worthwhile most of the time. Often, it’ll add entirely new mechanics as part of an event or season, upending the structure of the game at the drop of a hat, for better or worse. You’ll even get emotes and skins just for participating in events, so despite the presence of premium passes to buy into, the free versions of these aren’t without goodies. At the end of the day, Fortnite may be the single biggest culprit of crossovers–so much so that the presence of them in other games has been dubbed “Fortnitification”–making it the biggest potential moneysink of the bunch. But it’s also a wondrous sandbox full of action figures and the closest we’ve got to a video game Disneyland, so that certainly softens the blow.
